Why do some old Magic: The Gathering cards have white borders?
You've probably stumbled upon Magic cards that have white borders, whether it was a staple from an old core set you got for your Commander deck, some cards in an old collection you bought as a whole, or perhaps from a thrift store.
So what does the white border actually mean?
The first edition of Magic: The Gathering came out in 1993, and it had black borders in both of its variants, alpha and beta. Since the game became a huge success, another printing of the first core set came out a few months later in the same year, with some adjustments and minor changes. These changes involved replacing the black borders with white borders.
You can probably imagine that a lot of the people who were lucky enough to get the first printings didn't like the idea and were wondering if it was a permanent change. Was it to save up on print? Or did they just experiment with the border color to make it look better?
It's worth mentioning that Wizards would very often experiment with the border colors in the 90s. The Pro Tour Collector Sets were distinguished by a golden border as early as 1996, and the first un-set, released in 1998, had the well-known silver borders. There were even different variants of the black border in some early 90s sets. When you compare different printings of cards from for example Alliances or Ice Age, you can clearly see the distinction in color between the tar black version and a the slightly lighter greenish black version. The effect is a little bit like when you're comparing different variants of black card sleeves thinking that the difference is barely noticeable, until you compare them side by side and the difference is suddenly immense.
Regardless of the reason, the next two expansion sets were both black-bordered. The third edition of the core set following the black bordered Arabian Nights and Antiquities, though, was white bordered. White borders became a standard for many years, with the 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th and 9th editions all distinguished by having them.
From 1995, white borders also became the mark of a reprint set. Even though new core set editions would borrow some cards from newer sets (Mystic Tutor from Mirage to VI), other sets comprising 100% of reprints were being released. The infamous Chronicles would keep the set symbol of the card but become distinguished by a white border. This is what brought a lot of confusion to people who weren't aware of the white border's meaning, which apparently is still a thing, judging by the number of mislabelled Chronicles or Battle Royale cards people list as older sets. Interestingly, sets like Rinascimento and Rennaissance, released in Europe after Chronicles, had black borders even though they were reprint sets, although they were not English-language printings. There is even a black bordered version of a foreign language Fourth Edition.
1998 was when Exodus introduced the rarity distinction marked between common, uncommon and rare, on the set symbol. It was also when Wizards introduced player level. The products intended for players starting their adventure with Magic were marked as STARTER level, the core sets as ADVANCED level, and the regular sets became EXPERT level. From this point onward, the introduction products would also be marked by having white borders.
This way cards like Angel of Light or Grim Tutor got their first printings in white borders even though they were exclusive to the set called Starter released in 1999. Similarly, the set Portal Three Kingdoms was also white bordered, while consisting almost solely out of set-exclusive cards and even introducing its own mechanic called horsemanship.
Because of the stigma associated with being either a reprint or coming from sets described as having a lower level of complexity, white bordered cards were very often considered inferior by many Magic players in the olden days. It was one of the reasons why Tenth Edition came out black-bordered, and Wizards stopped using white borders for reprint sets. Nowadays though, it appears that the white borders became something appealing among newer players and an indication of a card's vintage. Some white bordered card variants also have alternate artwork exclusive to that set.
Magic: The Gathering is a collectible card game invented by Richard Garfield and first released in 1993, currently with over 100 different sets with new ones still being released.
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