Thanks for responding Neuron.
You compared the misprint to the normal Drudge Skeletons and they had the same alignment, hadn't they!
Yes
To argue only with probabilities is fine as long there is no evidence that could prove a conjecture wrong. But if there *is* any I think it's better to value the evidence above speculation.
Agreed
If you look at the error Drudge Skeletons it's obvious on the very first sight it is a misprint while with Sedge Troll you really need to examine what's pictured on. If you would show the Sedge Troll misprint to someone unsuspecting I'm sure he would need quite a while to understand what's going on.
I have to agree here also. A Land with a casting cost is very obviously a mistake, while the Manabarbs/Sedge Troll is less obvious. I suppose it's possible one could have been corrected without the other, but it would seem that Wizards would have mentioned the Drudge Skeletons/Swamp on the spoiler list if they had been aware of it. Wizards did mention other misprints.
Did you know that El-Hajjâj itself is a misprint? All German white borderd versions have two different errors in the name that weren't found despite the Warp Artifact misprint was.
I had heard this elsewhere. Would you please point out the errors? The only name difference I can see is that the little mark above the lowercase "a" is different.
Of the 8 non-English text/art misprints, we can prove that 6 of them were printed in the position of the art on the sheet.
That's right, but we can also prove two cases where the art resp. art frame was shifted: Serendib Efreet Revised and the Blue Hurricane. Thus, it's neither impossible nor very improbable to have the art in the wrong position.
Of the 9 text/art misprints, Serendib Efreet is the only English one, and the only one proven to have the wrong art. 6 others are proven to have the wrong text. Drudge Skeletons/Swamp & Forest/Plains are unproven. (If anyone has info on the Forest/Plains, I'd like to discuss that one also.) The Serendib Efreet mistake was made when the art & frame were organized into sheets for the first printing of Revised which was in English. The blue Hurricane was an accident that happened while correcting the Serendib Efreet. I still don't think the card art or card position on the sheet changed between language printings of the same set, only the words changed. IF that's true, it would mean that wrong art errors are only possible in the first printing of a set when the art & frame are first organized into sheets. (In this instance, we happen to know that English Revised was printed before any other languages, and that's when the Serendib Efreet art mistake was made.) IF the card art & card position on the sheet do not change between language printings, then all subsequent text/art errors would be text errors. Just to make it clear, I will say that this is a Theory, it is Not proven.
Here is another example to consider... Japanese Mirage also had an art error. Instead of Flood Plain, Japanese Mirage had an extra Crystal Vein. (The card also has Crystal Vein text, so it looks just like a regular Crystal Vein.) This mistake must have happened when the cards were being organized into sheets. Maybe this is evidence that Japanese was the first language that Mirage was printed in? Does anyone know if Mirage had simultaneous release in all languages?
Since that Japanese Crystal Vein should have been a Flood Plain, I suppose you could say that it has the wrong art AND the wrong text. I wonder what Squt would think of that?
Counting the Serendib, Hurricane, & Crystal Vein, that's 3 art errors vs. 6 known text errors, and still 1 Drudge Skeleton vs 4 Swamps on the sheet. Probability still favors the Swamp. (I agree that doesn't prove anything.)
a. Swamp DU is not aligned the same as the Drudge Skeletons misprint.
That is true. (and I think it's strange)
b. Swamp 4th is not aligned the same as the Drudge Skeletons misprint.
I have no reason to think they would be the same because they are from different sets, but I'd like a closer look before claiming either way. mmgun, if you're still following along, would you please post a scan of all 4 cards (Unlimited Swamp, 4th Swamp, Misprint Skeletons, Regular Skeletons). Your scans don't get fuzzy when I enlarge them really big. Thanks!
c. Correct Drudge Skeletons DU *is* aligned the same as the Drudge Skeletons misprint. (This is as much more significant as the alignment varies between different DU cards [and so within 4th cards] so that you can only compare card X from DU and card X from 4th to be sure what set they are from.)
Yes, the regular print is aligned the same as the misprint.
and bringing to mind it's mandatory that, in the case of a text error, the alignment between misprint and correct version may not vary, I cannot come to another opinion than Drudge Skeletons misprint is a picture error.
I'm not sure I agree with this one, but it shouldn't be very hard to check it out because I have misprint & correct of some of the 6 proven text errors. The Warp Artifacts posted here are also a good example.
I would be insterested what you all following the discussion think about the two explanations. There are good arguments on both sides.
I agree, both sides have merit. More voices would be a good thing.
Tav