General [SPM] Marvel's Spider-Man
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Yeah, even if these are like 50% slush art from Duskmourn and New Capenna, these are generally a big improvement in terms of flavor. Like with the Arena-only pieces, the quality of art is a little looser than what usually makes it into a psychical booster pack, but there are some inspired choices here like:
Tarantusk is silly, but I'm in. The Scouring Stormsoul having such good vibes helped push it above the "maybe" list for me. Cam and Farrik really could use some flavor text but is very silly and fun.
I like these spider-men versions. I've seen complaints about how many of them are just "person plus spider" but that's honestly a much better way to do it that's already been established in the card game, rather than figure out how to make UW-aligned spider-human-hybrids.
Lands are a big improvement. Much better than Peter Parker's bedroom and Manhattan Island.
Seeing Koth and Chandra together on a card like this makes me really happy, but also shows off the issue with UB. I'm OK with the art of the original version of this card, but this MOM slush art helps me really appreciate all the fun in-universe stuff Magic has done...and miss it! Again, I'm no anti-UB guy, but I do love the opportunity to add a new Koth card to my Cube in 2025 when he was one of the best Red cards in my list for its first few years of existence.
Yeah, I'm going to work to make nice-looking proxies of these. Only Lady Octopus, Inspired Inventor is a big downgrade. The camera is about as bad as Peter Parker's Camera. It's worth the effort, these make me much happier.
Tarantusk is silly, but I'm in. The Scouring Stormsoul having such good vibes helped push it above the "maybe" list for me. Cam and Farrik really could use some flavor text but is very silly and fun.
I like these spider-men versions. I've seen complaints about how many of them are just "person plus spider" but that's honestly a much better way to do it that's already been established in the card game, rather than figure out how to make UW-aligned spider-human-hybrids.
Lands are a big improvement. Much better than Peter Parker's bedroom and Manhattan Island.
Seeing Koth and Chandra together on a card like this makes me really happy, but also shows off the issue with UB. I'm OK with the art of the original version of this card, but this MOM slush art helps me really appreciate all the fun in-universe stuff Magic has done...and miss it! Again, I'm no anti-UB guy, but I do love the opportunity to add a new Koth card to my Cube in 2025 when he was one of the best Red cards in my list for its first few years of existence.
Yeah, I'm going to work to make nice-looking proxies of these. Only Lady Octopus, Inspired Inventor is a big downgrade. The camera is about as bad as Peter Parker's Camera. It's worth the effort, these make me much happier.
Exclusive Nightclub and Urban Retreat look like they are from The Maestros and The Brokers (Streets of New Capenna) which is cool.
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...honestly, I don't think the Arena version of this set has any consistent aesthetic at all and it turns out I want that more than I want "Magic flavor", even if I don't like the aesthetic (looking at you, Aetherdrift, and parts of Duskmourn although I loved other parts)
It's kind of weirding me out to feel this way, though.
It's kind of weirding me out to feel this way, though.
But ... cubes usually don't have a consistent aesthetic? And stuff like masters or MH sets or core sets don't have one either?
Chris Taylor
Contributor
I think of my cube aesthetic like a cluster. Some cubes are like mono innistrad, some are anything generally spooky, some are some magic more broadly but eschew say, silver boarder cards and ante, some are anything goes.
The set being top to tails spider man and New York, which is jarring to the rest of magic but at least internally consistent, as opposed to modern horizons which is an internal mishmash of different magic works differently to some people.
To put it another way: who cares about how well the album fits together if you like 4 songs off it.
If the album fits together really well, great. That's a good stand alone thing you can enjoy. The presence or absence of an album (that's I'm not presently listening to) doesn't change how a song sounds when it comes on shuffle.
But I've been a shuffle person ever since I could pick out my own music, and the idea of sitting down to ~30 mins of music that is only good in order, start to finish is alien to me. Obviously it would be best if the music was good both in and out of order, but I know which one is more important to me.
But I've talked with Arlo long enough to know they think the exact opposite way about magic sets. (More about sets than cards).
WotC makes albums, we make playlists.
I think maybe this idea got away from me. Couldn't write a short post, so I wrote a long one
The set being top to tails spider man and New York, which is jarring to the rest of magic but at least internally consistent, as opposed to modern horizons which is an internal mishmash of different magic works differently to some people.
To put it another way: who cares about how well the album fits together if you like 4 songs off it.
If the album fits together really well, great. That's a good stand alone thing you can enjoy. The presence or absence of an album (that's I'm not presently listening to) doesn't change how a song sounds when it comes on shuffle.
But I've been a shuffle person ever since I could pick out my own music, and the idea of sitting down to ~30 mins of music that is only good in order, start to finish is alien to me. Obviously it would be best if the music was good both in and out of order, but I know which one is more important to me.
But I've talked with Arlo long enough to know they think the exact opposite way about magic sets. (More about sets than cards).
WotC makes albums, we make playlists.
I think maybe this idea got away from me. Couldn't write a short post, so I wrote a long one
I think it might be a lot of little things, that make the Omenpaths version weird to some (me included).
- they probably didn't have as much time for commissioning all the art than usual
- they probably had a much lower budget for the art than in other sets
- the omenpathization comes with big constraints, everything is a spider, a villain, a hero(?), performer (??) or a citizen and they relied heavily on fitting planes like Duskmourn, Aetherdrift or New Capenna where modern stuff like humans in modern cities would feel better placed
- the heroic spiders don't look very much like heroes (and other types are also invisible on the art)
- this also leads to a pot pourri of things à la March of the Machines (though there it story you could follow through card art)
The arena frame/font is not helping either but that at least can be solved with proxies.
And the green spiders look great!
- they probably didn't have as much time for commissioning all the art than usual
- they probably had a much lower budget for the art than in other sets
- the omenpathization comes with big constraints, everything is a spider, a villain, a hero(?), performer (??) or a citizen and they relied heavily on fitting planes like Duskmourn, Aetherdrift or New Capenna where modern stuff like humans in modern cities would feel better placed
- the heroic spiders don't look very much like heroes (and other types are also invisible on the art)
- this also leads to a pot pourri of things à la March of the Machines (though there it story you could follow through card art)
The arena frame/font is not helping either but that at least can be solved with proxies.
And the green spiders look great!
they do though - like, a Magic style guide, even when it changes through the ages
but anyway enough about my dumb opinion let's talk about the new Incite:
Homelands-ass art - mostly derogatory, partially laudatory - this does look like Fanatical Fever or whatever from back then, in a negative but also in an endearing way. does have a Magic: the Gathering card vibe to me, unlike, say, Makdee and Itla, Skysnarers (whenever this card tag works...)
Emoji whenthey do though - like, a Magic style guide, even when it changes through the ages
but anyway enough about my dumb opinion let's talk about the new Incite:
Homelands-ass art - mostly derogatory, partially laudatory - this does look like Fanatical Fever or whatever from back then, in a negative but also in an endearing way. does have a Magic: the Gathering card vibe to me, unlike, say, Makdee and Itla, Skysnarers (whenever this card tag works...)
I actually spent at least a full minute trying to figure this out!
There's implied scale clues:
the weapons embedded in the helmet are intended to be normal-sized
there's two archers on the ground over his shoulder on the right side, likely intended to be normal humans and not really really far away
therefore, the arrow breaking off his helmet on the right side probably came from one of them, as did the two arrows embedded in it just above them
if those are normal-sized arrows he is a giant
(alternatively, normal guy under attack by Segovian Archers, which honestly? who the heck knows! that would be cool! maybe it's Dreamspoiler Witches all over again)
edit: oh my god, is the front half of the helmet a repurposed boat? is that why it has the pointy thing in the very front?