Magic the Gathering To Release Cards with Pokemon’s Holofoil!

By: Water Pokémon Master · Posted Posted onSep 26, 2022 at 5:49 PM · 21 Comments

It’s said imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. Magic the Gathering‘s latest set will feature a new foil treatment named “galaxy.” Look familiar?

That’s right, it’s the same galaxy holofoil used on Pokemon cards! Wizards of the Coast even named it the same way.

Magic the Gathering will release the galaxy foils in “Collector Boosters” for its new Unfinity set on October 7th. The set is part of their “Unsanctioned sets,” or “Un-sets,” which are lighthearted spinoff sets intended for casual play. The Unfinity set is space-themed, so it makes sense Wizards of the Coast would want to use Pokemon’s starry holofoil.

Galaxy holofoil was used on Japanese Pokemon cards in 1996’s Base Set. When Wizards of the Coast first printed English cards in 1999, they instead used a “starry” holofoil. But they eventually switched over to the original galaxy holofoil starting in 2000’s Base Set 2. When Pokemon USA took over in 2003, they continued to use galaxy holofoil up until 2011’s Call of Legends. Since then, it’s only been used for promo cards.

You would think this type of holofoil would be exclusive to Pokemon cards, but that doesn’t appear to be the case. Perhaps Wizards of the Coast has access to it because of the company’s shared history with Pokemon? Maybe a third party company makes it and anyone can use it? Who knows?

View thread (21 replies)
Water Pokémon Master said:
As stated in the news story, this was used on Japanese Pokemon cards before Wizards was ever involved. And Wizards used a different holofoil when they first started printing Pokemon.
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Exactly! As mentioned in the article, it starts with Base Set 2 with WOTC – for anyone really not sure, compare JP Base Set holofoils to EN Base Set holofoils to EN Base Set 2 holofoils. EN Base Set is the odd duck out.
 
Hey, glad to see an article on this! I'm super pumped for Unfinity, and my wallet is already crying.

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Something that stands out to me is that Wizards' "galaxy foil" actually looks closer to Pokemon's traditional foil pattern than what Pokemon itself uses for its promo cards. This has the relatively chunky/"pixelated" look of the originals, whereas modern Pokemon promos use a recreated version of the foil pattern with much finer detail.
 
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I was literally just saying a couple days ago how I wished Pokémon would release full art cards with the cosmos/galaxy holo pattern. These would be so epic!!
 
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Well, it's been (almost precisely) 20 years since WotC made the last Pokémon set if I'm correct. Patents tend to grant exclusivity for 20 years, right?


Perhaps the exclusivity on the Galaxy foil just expired, and now WotC can use it on other products.
 
PSA: don't play magic if you can possibly avoid it. its a black hole.

Won't be getting any of these galaxy foils myself because the foiling process has always, ALWAYS led to a segregated box of pringles. doubt this is any different.
 
I know this is beside the point but that's Cosmos not Galaxy, Galaxy is the stars pattern from English Base/Jungle/Fossil
 
Glad to see them using the best foil Pokemon had ever had.
 
Obviiious said:
Well, it's been (almost precisely) 20 years since WotC made the last Pokémon set if I'm correct. Patents tend to grant exclusivity for 20 years, right?


Perhaps the exclusivity on the Galaxy foil just expired, and now WotC can use it on other products.
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How would WOTC have the patent on a type of foil they didn't create?

HolofoilStarmie said:
I know this is beside the point but that's Cosmos not Galaxy, Galaxy is the stars pattern from English Base/Jungle/Fossil
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I was actually wondering this but I honestly never really paid enough attention to who called what holofoil by what name..

Yaginku said:
I'm just sad they turned Un-sets from "funny sets focused on comedy and laughs" into "sets where we get to show off how clever we think we are".
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Pretty characteristic for WOTC, isn't it? It's amazing Un-sets were every funny at all. In fact, you probably solve this entire mystery by going to over a WOTC forum and asking them why they're "using the old Pokémon holofoil" – they'll stumble over themselves to "Um, actually" you and you'll get your answer.
 
Imitation is flattering, out of all the trading card games out there Pokémon have the coolest looking cards IMO, and a lot of friends of mine will agree with that, including magic players. It makes sense for Magic (the most popular TCG) is trying to jump on the band wagon to get hopefully gain some of the market. I'm calling it now, this will be a stepping stone for WOTC to get there foot in the door to be able to use etched printing in the future. Which would be pretty cool.
 
jacksonvolesco657 said:
that would be pretty cool! and have trainers as planes walkers.
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You are speaking my language! Imagine a Marnie planeswalker, 2 Swamp to cast, and use her as your Commander! I mean, MTG has exactly the same 5 categories of energies that match the Pokemon types. Metal is Artifact, Colorless and Fairy is Plains, Dark and Ghost is Swamp, Grass is Forest, Water is Island, and Fire is Mountain, and you can do Enemy Fetch Lands using the Pokemon theme! I would pass out from excitement.
 
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