Ravnica has probablythe best overall art quality of any set so far. Putting together a top ten list is not an easy task. Still, it is a Rumor Mill tradition, so I thought I'd kick it off.
yeah - obviously I disagree with you, John. Spam Warning!.....Amazing - even in a forum where posts don't count, there's spam. That proves that getting rid of the post-count won't help getting rid of spam! Thans for this excellent example! - Craven
Nightmare Void has a lot of atmosphere.
Keening Banshee has a great layout.
And esp. the lands by Stephan Martiniere.
Telling Time.
So does Wizards pay more for better art? Like some sort of marketing expense? Spend money to make money. Not like the old days, when Time Walk just looked like a bad claymation still. To what can we attritbute the improvement in quality?
Funny, then, that there is no such girl in the original Regrowth.
And oh, my favorite art so far (that I can remember anyway) is Circu. By a respectable margin. So dark and brooding and... gothic. Second that I can remember is Watchwolf, for resons I will not care to explain here.
10-Viashino Slasher-I love the facial expresion on the viashino as well as the contrast of his skin tone with his blue surroundings.
9-Searing Meditation-I love the colored pencil look that some of this art has. I reminds me of some of the art for Shadowfist, which I love
8-Conclave Equenaught-I just like it. Rather beutiful art IMHO
7-Duskmantle, House of Shadow-I love the bizzar appearance of the fortress, particularly the pipes.
6-Primodial Sage-I love the transparency of the spirit sage. His jolly expression couple wonderfully to create the sence that he is a jolly, ancient, wise, and benevolent spirit.
5-Agrus Kos, Wojek Veteran-Donato Giancola is probably one of the best artists in modern mtg, alongside John Avon and a select few other including Guay. The composition is excellent as well
4-Blazing Archon-I love the realistic clasic medieval feel of the archon, particularly the bloody bandage around its eyes. It is reminiscent of portayals of justice as a blind person.
3-Boros Guildmage-I love the in your face comic book style of this art. It couples nicely with the very painted looking dimension of the art.
2-Savra, Queen of The Golgari-This art is godlike. The prerelease turney that I attended had giant posters with the full art. It is rather beutiful, pluss Savra looks exactly like I imagined her while reading the book.
1-Dimir House Guard-This is old school with new school artistic quality and tecnique. I just looovvveee this art soooo much.
1.0-THE ABSOLUTE BEST ART IS...
THE BASIC LAND ART!!! ALL of it is better than any of the other arts on my list. The best basic land art of all time by far IMHO.
Besides most of the lands (both non basic and basic) I like;
10. Farseek
9. Halcyon Glaze
8. Greater Forgeling
7. Skynight Legionnaire
6. Plague Boiler
5. Dark Heart of the Wood
4. Eye of the Storm
3. Tolsimir Wolfblood
2. Life from the Loam
1. Shadow of Doubt
My Top 30 (yes, 30!) Non-Land Cards (in no particular conscious order):
Dimir Guildmage
Savra, Queen of the Golgari
Conclave's Blessing
Dimir Cutpurse
Dimir House Guard
Dimir Machinations
Farseek
Firemane Angel
Followed Footsteps
Gaze of the Gorgon
Golgari Guildmage
Grayscaled Gharial
Greater Mossdog
Halcyon Gaze
Induce Paranoia
Life From the Loam
Lozodon Hierarch
Moldervine Cloak
Mortipede
Perilous Forays
Rain of Embers
Ribbons of Night
Seismic Spike
Shadow of Doubt
Skynight Legionnaire
Surveiling Sprite
Telling Time
Trophy Hunter
Vinelasher Kudzu
Vulturous Zombie
I'd pay good money to get any of these originals on my dorm-room wall.
-Bismarck.
Edit: does anyone agree that Ribbons of Night's art looks too similar to that of Expunge (from Urza's Saga)? Still, it does look cool.:p
Dear god you know the art for a set is good when there are very few repeats on people's lists.
--Lovin' It Spikey
I agree. Wizards has certainly raised the bar on the quality of the cards' art in Ravnica. THANK YOU, WoTC! Keep it up! (Especially the awesome basic land art!):p
You are right.
A lot of newcomer artists raised the quality level of Magic art greatly - I had some difficulty to actually find cards I don't like the art on.
I mean no offence but IMHO (and in comparison) the art by Greg Hildebrandt, Ron Spencer, Luca Zontini, Paolo Parente (save the sweet Moloch) and Dany Orizio seems to be a little subpar now.
And BTW, I'm pretty convinced that the art for Disebowel is actually by Robert Bliss, not the guy credited there. Unless he changed his name or someone plays copycat...
And BTW, I'm pretty convinced that the art for Disebowel is actually by Robert Bliss, not the guy credited there. Unless he changed his name or someone plays copycat...
You are right, it is an old artwork from Bliss indeed, put aside years ago from Mirage.
Quote from Pete Venters, Wizards boards, replying to yours truly »
Yes, Chengo is Rob Bliss. The art is actually a very old piece that has been sitting in the graveyard since Mirage block. How do I know this? Because I remember it arriving during that cycle and the fuss it caused among the more PC marketing division of the time because of the exploding guts. Seems that WotC isn't as squeamish as it used to be. I assume the alias is because Rob didn't want to be asscoiated with a piece that was 8 years old. That last bit's just a guess.
When I first saw Disembowel I thought WotC had slipped up and had actually reprinted a piece of art until I remembered it'd never seen the light of day before.
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1.) Hex --- i dont know what it is about his art...its just really cool
2.)vulturous zombie --- reminds me of the wretched
3.)twisted justice
4.)dimir machinations
5.)razia, boros archangel ---oine of my favorite angel arts of all time
6.)watch wolf
7.)char ---hehe
8.)keening banshee
9.)circu, dimir lobotomist ---almost creepy...very dimir-like
10.)selesnya sagittars ---really cool elf art
My top ten: Glass Golem, Dimir Cutpurse, Dimir infiltrator, Glimpse the Unthinkable, Savra, Queen of the Golgari, Vinelasher Kudzu, Plague Boiler, Dimir Machinations, Helldozer, and my favorite Ursapine.
Here's my list, in no particular order:
Char
Master Warcraft
Hunted Lammasu
Dimir Cutpurse
Guardian of Vitu-Ghazi
Seismic Spike
Sacred Foundry
Hunted Dragon
Elvish Skysweeper
Skyknight Legionnaire
Honorable Mentions:
Vedalken Entrancer - So that's what they look like under the glass dome. Nice.
All the basic lands - The best basic lands in all of Magic.
WTF Awards:
Disembowel - Looks like it was drawn by a 6 year old.
Siege Wurm
in no particular order... I have not seen all the cards yet so there maybe a few others.. Oh and All the Foil Guild cards are postively Amazing...
"One Day Reason and Sanity will rule the World....."
"Unfortunately that day will be the day after all us Homo Sapiens explode in fiery balls of death from a Thermonuclear Hell..."
I need a new avvie and sig banner...
Honorable mention to Helldozer
Keening Banshee has a great layout.
And esp. the lands by Stephan Martiniere.
Telling Time.
So does Wizards pay more for better art? Like some sort of marketing expense? Spend money to make money. Not like the old days, when Time Walk just looked like a bad claymation still. To what can we attritbute the improvement in quality?
My favorites are the lands... and:
Glass Golem
Bloodletter Quill
Razia´s Purification
Lightning Helix
and I love all angels art, so: Razia, Boros Archangel, Pollenbright Wings, and Firemane Angel
Y mi cabeza caiga
Cuando mi sangre corra
Cuando a tu memoria llegue
Y domine en la penumbra
O el caos termine..."
—Sigma/Lambda
I was thinking that too about Disembowel, it is actually one of my favorites in the set, right under Recollect.
Top 10 is a little harder, but others that I liked which come to mind right away are..Ivy Dancer, Clinging Darkness and Seismic Spike.
Notice the difference?
I guess it's probably homage to an older artwork. Not that I'm complaining; Recollect looks sweet in itself.
Standard | [under construction]
Funny, then, that there is no such girl in the original Regrowth.
And oh, my favorite art so far (that I can remember anyway) is Circu. By a respectable margin. So dark and brooding and... gothic. Second that I can remember is Watchwolf, for resons I will not care to explain here.
Standard | [under construction]
master warcraft
golgari guildmage.
seismic spike is also very cool and so is circu
And of course all of Donato's work as well
2. Birds of Paradise
3. Centaur Safeguard
4. Loxodon Gatekeeper
5. Keening Banshee
6. Muddle the Mixture
7. Char
8. Trophy Hunter
9. Razia, Boros Archangel
10. Tolsimir Wolfblood
I struggled to get to ten. Most of the rest of it bores me to tears. I think it might be time to give Kev Walker a block or two on holiday...
9-Searing Meditation-I love the colored pencil look that some of this art has. I reminds me of some of the art for Shadowfist, which I love
8-Conclave Equenaught-I just like it. Rather beutiful art IMHO
7-Duskmantle, House of Shadow-I love the bizzar appearance of the fortress, particularly the pipes.
6-Primodial Sage-I love the transparency of the spirit sage. His jolly expression couple wonderfully to create the sence that he is a jolly, ancient, wise, and benevolent spirit.
5-Agrus Kos, Wojek Veteran-Donato Giancola is probably one of the best artists in modern mtg, alongside John Avon and a select few other including Guay. The composition is excellent as well
4-Blazing Archon-I love the realistic clasic medieval feel of the archon, particularly the bloody bandage around its eyes. It is reminiscent of portayals of justice as a blind person.
3-Boros Guildmage-I love the in your face comic book style of this art. It couples nicely with the very painted looking dimension of the art.
2-Savra, Queen of The Golgari-This art is godlike. The prerelease turney that I attended had giant posters with the full art. It is rather beutiful, pluss Savra looks exactly like I imagined her while reading the book.
1-Dimir House Guard-This is old school with new school artistic quality and tecnique. I just looovvveee this art soooo much.
1.0-THE ABSOLUTE BEST ART IS...
THE BASIC LAND ART!!! ALL of it is better than any of the other arts on my list. The best basic land art of all time by far IMHO.
"That is not dead which can eternal lie, And with strange aeons even death may die."
- H.P. Lovecraft
10. Farseek
9. Halcyon Glaze
8. Greater Forgeling
7. Skynight Legionnaire
6. Plague Boiler
5. Dark Heart of the Wood
4. Eye of the Storm
3. Tolsimir Wolfblood
2. Life from the Loam
1. Shadow of Doubt
Dimir Guildmage
Savra, Queen of the Golgari
Conclave's Blessing
Dimir Cutpurse
Dimir House Guard
Dimir Machinations
Farseek
Firemane Angel
Followed Footsteps
Gaze of the Gorgon
Golgari Guildmage
Grayscaled Gharial
Greater Mossdog
Halcyon Gaze
Induce Paranoia
Life From the Loam
Lozodon Hierarch
Moldervine Cloak
Mortipede
Perilous Forays
Rain of Embers
Ribbons of Night
Seismic Spike
Shadow of Doubt
Skynight Legionnaire
Surveiling Sprite
Telling Time
Trophy Hunter
Vinelasher Kudzu
Vulturous Zombie
I'd pay good money to get any of these originals on my dorm-room wall.
-Bismarck.
Edit: does anyone agree that Ribbons of Night's art looks too similar to that of Expunge (from Urza's Saga)? Still, it does look cool.:p
--Lovin' It Spikey
I agree. Wizards has certainly raised the bar on the quality of the cards' art in Ravnica. THANK YOU, WoTC! Keep it up! (Especially the awesome basic land art!):p
A lot of newcomer artists raised the quality level of Magic art greatly - I had some difficulty to actually find cards I don't like the art on.
I mean no offence but IMHO (and in comparison) the art by Greg Hildebrandt, Ron Spencer, Luca Zontini, Paolo Parente (save the sweet Moloch) and Dany Orizio seems to be a little subpar now.
And BTW, I'm pretty convinced that the art for Disebowel is actually by Robert Bliss, not the guy credited there. Unless he changed his name or someone plays copycat...
My personal favorites (no particular order):
basic lands by Richard Wright and Stephen Martiniere
Followed Footsteps
Divebomber Griffin
Telling Time
Netherborn Phalanx
Hunted Dragon
Dimir Doppelganger
Razia's Purification
Phytohydra
Sisters of Stone Death
Boros Guildmage
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You are right, it is an old artwork from Bliss indeed, put aside years ago from Mirage.
From the Artwork Forum, RAV Artwork Discussion:
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Let this great clan rest in peace (2001-2011)
2.)vulturous zombie --- reminds me of the wretched
3.)twisted justice
4.)dimir machinations
5.)razia, boros archangel ---oine of my favorite angel arts of all time
6.)watch wolf
7.)char ---hehe
8.)keening banshee
9.)circu, dimir lobotomist ---almost creepy...very dimir-like
10.)selesnya sagittars ---really cool elf art
Banner by Alex.
MEGAMATT
Razia, Boros Archangel
Temple Garden
Watery Grave
Hunted Lammasu
Selesnya Guildmage
Several times, actually. The pair, Zoltan Boros and Gabor Szikzsai has illustrated six cards in RAV:
Blazing Archon
Glare of Subdual
Golgari Guildmage
Helldozer
Master Warcraft
Wojek Siren
Let this great clan rest in peace (2001-2011)
9. Gleancrawler (Real art, not Prerelease one.)
8. Dimir Machinations
7. Dimir Cutpurse
6. Hunted Dragon
5. Hunted Lammasu
4. Firemane Angel
3. Savra, Queen of the Golgari
2. Razia, Boros Archangel
1. Telling time
I'm surprised not as many people like Telling Time.