Guide to Identifying Non-English Magic Cards


Everyone knows that it's cool to play with foreign Magic cards. They're harder to get, they have a different look, and you get to show off how well you know every card by its art. However, although most serious players know what their cards do, they often don't know what language they are. For those who are interested in knowing the origin of your cards, this page is for you.

I've identified three main techniques for identifying the language of a card, and created a web page with illustrations for each:

Another reference you might check out is this list of which sets have been released in which languages.

Exception: The following five promotional cards are each printed in a language that no other cards are. From left to right, the languages are Hebrew, Arabic, Sanskrit, Classical Greek, and Latin.

Hopefully this is helpful to somebody. If you have any comments, send me an email.




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Last modified: Saturday, June 14, 2014
Brett Allen (brett@snazzorama.com)