Top 10: The Art of Dominaria United

This set went a little too hard. No way to do a top 10. More like a top 100

Top 10: the Art of Wilds of Eldraine

10. Totentanz, Swarm Piper

Matthew Stewart

Matthew is one of the undeniable greats of the game, and this piece is just packed with personality, love, and detail. The legibility suffers a bit at card size, which is why I have it lower on the list overall, but looking at the full illustration full-screen is inspiring and humbling to say the least.

9. Rowan's Grim Search

Aurore Folny

I am simply addicted to Aurore's bold use of contrast at card size and buttery brushstrokes up close. The drama is tangible, the pops of red are rich, and the shapes are delicious, a real winner!

8. Devouring Sugarmaw

Kev Walker

Something I am always paying close attention to is how to pull off more stylized cards like this, especially the ones Kev and Jesper regularly get away with. The answer seems to be a combination of appropriate subject matter (a candy horror or a rat king) with grounded elements such as the adventurer's highly practical backpack and muted colors to contrast the pink. I'm not entirely sure, but images like this, much like the candy it is depicting, are so so sweet in moderation.

7. Songbirds' Blessing

Eelis Kyttanen

A poetic painting and beautifully executed, from the magnetic composition to the gesture of the hand. I'm always delighted to see it played across the table and can never resist picking it up to have a closer look, surely the sign of a great illustration!

6. Beluna Grandsquall

Victor Adame Minguez

Aside from the usual technical mastery I have come to expect from Victor (just how???), there's some really fun stuff happening in this piece, like the sense of scale, the indication of materials like the jame on the gingerbread house, the stylization of the cloud hair, and the truly impressive treatment of the marble architecture.

5. Warehouse Tabby

Steve Prescott

There's a little bit of overlap with this piece and the Piper from earlier in the list, especially in how both capture the feeling of an endless swarm of rats, but Tabby does not suffer from legibility in the slightest. On the contrary, Steve expertly delivers a striking read, with a table leg being all that's necessary to efficiently establish a sense of space in what could have been too abstract of a vignette had he not included it. A master at work!

4. Throne of Eldraine

Kieran Yanner

I have an immeasurable admiration for the kinds of illustrations Kieran is consistently able to pull off on Magic deadlines. His pieces feel so defined and observed, yet closer examination reveals an economy of painting that is never over-rendered or tedious. In another life, I would have loved to be a student of his, because to me the line between craft and witchcraft certainly starts to blur.

3. Archon of the Wild Rose

Chris Rahn

This is just unadulterated Chris Rahn excellence. Subtle yet striking, poetic and bold, heartwrenchingly beautiful.

2. Neva, Stalked by Nightmares

Tyler Jacobson

For lack of a better term, this card to me had the "Teysa effect", which is to say the feeling I had when I first saw Karla Ortiz's Teysa, Envoy of Ghosts and thought it was too beautiful to be a Magic card. I am devastated that Tyler either decided never to post the high res, or simply forgot in the wake of his epic Lord of the Rings work.

1. Moonshaker Cavalry
Aldo Dominguez

Fast becoming one of my favorite new Magic artists, Dominguez did not disappoint with this depiction of this set's white Craterhoof. You can just hear the chilling gallop of phantom hooves in this spectral procession. I couldn't help but to create a fullart version for my Darien, King of Kjeldor deck.

Top 10: The Art of Outlaws of Thunder Junction

  About the Top 10 series:

In a world where we mindlessly scroll past inexhaustible quantities of "content", consuming works of art that took days to create in mere seconds, this series is an invitation to investigate, appreciate, and celebrate standout works from my favorite card game, Magic the Gathering. It is a meditation on my own tastes and fancies, an opportunity for me to analyze what "works" at a gut level. This usually involves readability at card size, creative storytelling, technical prowess, and the intangible X factor of true greatness!

-Vic 

10. Steer Clear & Archmage's Newt

We're on number 10 and I'm already cheating by including two illustrations from Edgar Sanchez Hidalgo...surely not a sign of things to come. Anyway, it's pretty clear where my allegiances lie when it comes to Magic art: give me fun, colorful, legible, and preferably traditionally painted any day! Edgar checks almost all of these boxes and serves them up with a Dutch tilt!

 

9. Vraska Joins Up

Always a treat when we get not one, not two, but a whole set of five Wylie Beckert illustrations, as we did in the "Joins Up" cycle featuring Oko's Heist Gang.

8. Lazav, Familiar Stranger

Tyler Jacobson only painted one card for Thunder Junction, but luckily for us, he made it count. I love the elegant simplicity of the image and the composition, perfectly communicating both the mechanic of the card and Tyler's love of the genre <3

7. Loan Shark

I mean, come on. Do I even need to explain this one? Wayne Reynolds, ladies and gentlemen.

6. Tinybones, the Pickpocket

Credit must be given when a piece so singlehandedly sells the entire spirit and idea of a set as Tinybones did for Thunder Junction. If this doesn't put a smile on your face, I don't know what will. As always, I am eternally saddened not to have access to the high-res of this piece yet so I can gorge on the generous detail and masterful technique of Ekaterina Burmak.

5. Gisa & Geralf

Love to see these Zombie-loving siblings painted so expertly by Chris Rahn. Continuing a trend from the last few sets, his use of (relatively) exaggerated empasto for light or FX, especially near the portraits, leads to an unmistakable traditional feel and serves its intended purpose of creating visual depth when layered on top of thinner darks, which in turn recede. The fact that the two have essentially inverted relationships of warm and cool purples and blues ties them together perfectly. Yummy!

4. The Gitrog, Ravenous Ride & Baron Bertram Graywater

Johan blowin my mind this set with these delicious paintings that I initially had no idea were done in oils! The saturated maw of the Gitrog Monster absolutely jumps off the card in the most satisfying way, and I cannot get over the pitch-perfect homage to Sargent in Baron Bertram, lending the character all the haughty aristocratic airs that a wealthy patron commissioning a self-portrait would have. Bravo!

3. Obeka, Splitter of Seconds

Ryan Pancoast's latest grand slam features the rather unique Obeka, with a masterfully executed background time shatter effect (in oils!!) that we are not likely to forget for years to come. It's a detail, but I also commend Ryan on the distinct design of the stools which help set it apart from any other Western bar. An iconic piece for an already wildly popular and offbeat commander.

2. Pillage the Bog

Forrest absolutely dominating the set with five knockout pieces that capture all the fun, vibrancy, and rootin-tootin antics of Thunder Junction. Perhaps even more fascinating to me is the fact that Forrest shares my interest in taking the frame into account when painting a Magic illustration, leveraging the card's colors, (including gold for multicolored cards, or the red of a mythic set symbol) to, well, make sure the picture harmonizes with the frame! He goes into much more detail about this in the following video which I can heartily recommend you check out: Click Me!

1. Kambal, Profiteering Mayor

This piece wins out against some tight competition for its sheer je-ne-sais-quoiness. The gesture, the composition, the materials, the lighting. It's captivating but it's also kind of weird, and I love that. The Silver Company was, in my opinion, one of the cooler design ideas in Thunder Junction but regrettably did not get too many cards to show it off. Luckily, this card does a lot of heavy lifting in selling the concept of these white-suit-clad caballeros. Desperately wish Andreas Zafiratos would post the high res somewhere or sell prints...