General The Card Art Thread

ahadabans

ahadabans

MTGS was a good resource early on for me. But the problem is it suffers from myopic group think. And while you can certainly get a really solid and fun-to-play cube list by following the dogma over there, it's a very stifling environment if you want to explore other design space or express opinions that differ from the ruling body.

With that said, I still use it as a resource even today because it's a useful power barometer check if nothing else. If a theme or certain cards are pushed there, I know they stand up to all manner of degenerate game play. That's valuable information even if my meta is much lower power. I've made many card choices (both include and especially exclude) based on information from that site.
 
Onderzeeboot

Onderzeeboot

Ecstatic Orb
Chris Taylor said:
OOooooo please post some of the fails! That thread had me in stitches but I don't have the setup to make my own card joke generator
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Well, my first training set was a failure, and the network itself wasn't configured right either, so even after a lot of runs it produced some hilariously non-Magic cards.

Skullane Justaius {2}{G}
Instant
Prevent all combat damage to each creature your opponents control until end of turn.
1/1

Sarpacive Lold {B}{R}{G}{R}{G}
Legendary Creature - Centaur Warrior
Bloodthirst 1
Sarpacive Lold can't be blocked by Sarpacive Lold.
2/2

Nethon Untaller {4}{B}
Creature - Horror
Trample, until end of turn. It's still a land.
1/1

Sorry Savaceration {U}
Instant
Return target card from your graveyard to the battlefield.

The second run was much better

Paragon of the Pain {5}{R}
Sorcery
Paragon of the Pain deals 2 damage to target creature or player.

Shell Seet {1}
Artifact Creature - Construct
When Shell Seet enters the battlefield, draw a card.
2/2

Sage-Tinger Spirit {3}{U}
Creature - Dryad Shaman
{3}{G}, {T}: Target creature gets +2/+2 until end of turn.
2/2

Bane Boar Invoker {4}{W}
Creature - Human Shaman
When Bane Boar Invoker enters the battlefield, draw a card.
2/2

Not that it didn't produce some absurd cards...


Chronaster Mage {1}{R}
Creature - Human Wizard
Flash
If a source would deal damage to you, that player exiles the top card of his or her library. If it's a creature card, put it onto the battlefield. Then shuffle your library.
1/1
#This is actually a pretty sick idea for a card, apart from the wonky templating!

Blood Brink {2}{W}{W}
Instant
Look at the top three cards of your library. Put all cards in your graveyard onto the battlefield. Then shuffle your library.
#I actually like the harmless "look at the top X cards of your library" rider, except that it is prone to cheating in a tournament setting of course.

Sage's Reflexer {2}
Artifact
{2}, {T}: Draw a card for each creature you control.
#What could go wrong?

Scale of Untaid {1}{U}{U}
Instant
Put a +1/+1 counter on each creature you control.
#Interesting card at the right converted mana cost probably, but definitely in the wrong color :)

Talisman of Warding {2}{G}{G}
Enchantment
At the beginning of your upkeep, you may return target creature to its owner's hand.
#Ooooh... That's where the green mana went for Scale of the Untaid!

And then there's always near complete gibberish like this:

Death Wild {3}
Artifact
{T}: Add {1} to your mana pool.
{1}, {T}, Sacrifice Battle of Statue enters the battlefield tapped.
{T}: Add {U} or {U} to your mana pool.
{R}, {T}: You may play the exiled card to the battlefield.
#Yeah. It starts out decent enough, and then trails off into oblivion.

And now for some wild cards!

Chillring Many {1}{W}
Enchantment - Aura
Enchant creature
{2}{W}: Put Chillring Many and target creature and untap all draft cards at random.
#Woooooo! All draft cards!

Blood Cantor {1}{B}{B}
Legendary Creature - Orc Warrior
{T}: Add one mana of any color to your mana pool.
6/6
#It's legendary, it'll be fiiiiine!

Predator's Shadows {2}{G}
Sorcery
Buyback {U}
Flying
Constelsaty target Shave controller of the chosen player.
Equip {2}
#Ehm... Right.

Slizd-Shifper Mampervit {1}{G}
Creature - Horror
Painswing
When Slizd-Shifper Mampervit enters the battlefield, exile all cards from his or her graveyard.
2/2
#Oh shit, that name sure sounds like it's a horror. And what the heck is "Painswing"? The inverse of lifelink?

Noma Weist {1}{U}
Enchantment
At the beginning of your end step, Noma Weist gets +1/+3 until end of turn. It's still a land and lose the game.
Enchanted creature gets -2/-2.
#Giggles.

Savage Cleruster {5}
Artifact Creature - Dragon
Flying
Whenever another creature you control dies, it deals 5 damage to that player.
3/3
#Wait. What player? My opponent? That's savage indeed! Me!?! That's... Also pretty savage I guess...

Skelgand Megron {1}{R}
Creature - Sphinx
Morph {2}{B}{R}
2/2
#Always curve out beautifully with this mediocre sphinx!

Necropone {G}
Creature - Elemental Scarecrow
Whenever an opponent discards a creature spell, remove a -1/-1 counter from Necropone.
1/1
#A lot has to go right for that triggered ability to matter :)

Gubling Lightnar {3}{R}
Creature - Human Shaman
Whenever you cast you sacrifice permanents.
2/1
#YOU UNDERSTAND! YOU DO THAT NOW!

Mirror {3}{G}{G}
Creature - Elemental
Defline
Mirror attacks each turn if able.
Whenever a creature dies, you may have more spells.
#I want more spells yes please! I also want power and toughness :(
 
Grillo_Parlante

Grillo_Parlante

Contributor
Beautiful piece by Jim Nelson

tumblr_n0geql8wmc1qj1cg2o1_500.jpg
 
Onderzeeboot

Onderzeeboot

Ecstatic Orb
Bwahahaha!

Ethershore Snapeshitter {2}{B}
Creature - Vampire Rogue
Flying
Whenever Ethershore Snapeshitter attacks, each other creature you control gets +1/+1 until end of turn.
1/1

It's not even half bad! But poor Snape! Now we know where he came from :p
 
Goldenpineapple

Goldenpineapple

en_oHjbbmlXNt.png
EN_dz3z2nzt4c.png


I really like a ton of Baga's art, but the knightly guy here seems too pristine, and the sword too perfect. The promo feels very 'dungeon crawl' and 'loot found!' in comparison.
 
Jason Waddell

Jason Waddell

Administrator
Staff member
Okay, I never knew randomly generated cards could be so entertaining. Some of those are relentlessly terrible.
 
Grillo_Parlante

Grillo_Parlante

Contributor
zombie-cyclopeangiant.jpg


Has such a spooky Lovecraftian feel to it. Makes me think of At the Mountains of Madness.

zombie-bonedancer.jpg


"He said 'Dance for me,' and he said,
'You are too beautiful for the wind
To pick at, or the sun to burn.' He said
'I'm a poor tattered thing, but not unkind
To the sad dancer and the dancing dead."

-Sidney Keyes, from Four Postures of Death

This is the type of old style magic art I miss. You can see that the artist is really being an artist here. Who knows what inspired this, but I am sure it wasn't a style guide.

zombie-shamblingremains.jpg


You can just imagine the creature waiting tamely for its masters' commands, while its arms grasp wildly, perhaps confused at their condition.
 
Onderzeeboot

Onderzeeboot

Ecstatic Orb
The Nekrataal art (and creature type) is actually a pretty big flavor fail.

Source: MTG Salvation Wiki said:
The Nekrataal are the second oldest of the djinn tribes, and have the greatest lifespans. Living in swampy and magmatic regions, the Nekrataal are devoted to bringing plague and despair to the land. They are known to ride or become black camels, although they are more famous for appearing as beautiful men and women. As they are physically weaker than most other djinn, the Nekrataal use trickery and manipulation to accomplish their goals.

Originally Wizards of the Coast were going to name this type of Djinn "Sheitan", but none of them were printed in Arabian Nights. When several years later Visions was printed, there was a Sheitan in the set, but since WotC had by now discovered that the word "Satan" is derived from "Sheitan" they decided to rename it to Nekrataal.

When 9th Edition came out, the creature type of Nekrataal was changed to Human Assassin. This implies that the Ninth Edition Nekrataal is the human in the picture and that he calls himself Nekrataal. Originally the neon-bug by his neck was the manifestation of the Nekrataal. This interpretation was furthererd by the Tenth Edition art.
Click to expand...
 
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