I never followed magic when Atogs were around. In fact, I didn't know about them until my friend brought them up last month and just now remembered the conversation. He said that Atog decks were pretty prevailent(sp?). So, what's the deal with them? Where'd the Atogs come from and WTF are they? What's their story? Were Atog decks pretty competitive?
Chronatog combined with certain other cards results in a hard lock.
Basically, the atogs were a gimmick race that ate various things (enchantments, brains, time, other atogs... the original Atog ate artifacts) to get bigger. "Atog" is an anagram of "goat," although I don't know if that's where the name actually comes from. Anyway, Wizards decided to stop printing them after a while, probably for being a bit too silly and not in line with their Swanland-esque 15-year old boy "omg soooo sick" aesthetic, but for a while you could expect some new Atogs every once in a while. They usually weren't very competitive, except when they were (even Atog himself was used in tournament decks in the original Mirrodin block). There's no real story behind them or anything.
Dr. Teeth was the finisher of choice for quite a while. In vintage it saw a lot more play than standard, however, with GAT (Gro-A-Tog/Gush-A-Tog) being powerful decks for quite some time.
Basically, make it a one-swing kill.
Chronatog combined with certain other cards results in a hard lock.
Basically, the atogs were a gimmick race that ate various things (enchantments, brains, time, other atogs... the original Atog ate artifacts) to get bigger. "Atog" is an anagram of "goat," although I don't know if that's where the name actually comes from. Anyway, Wizards decided to stop printing them after a while, probably for being a bit too silly and not in line with their Swanland-esque 15-year old boy "omg soooo sick" aesthetic, but for a while you could expect some new Atogs every once in a while. They usually weren't very competitive, except when they were (even Atog himself was used in tournament decks in the original Mirrodin block). There's no real story behind them or anything.
thats one of the things I dislike most about the turn art has made in magic. Its all so stupidly homogenous and boring.
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thats one of the things I dislike most about the turn art has made in magic. Its all so stupidly homogenous and boring.
Swanland's art is many things to many people, but "homogenous" should not be the first word that springs to your mind. Please enlighten me as to the myriad other artists his work resembles.
Atogs were entertaining, in my opinion moreso than Slivers, but they were a gimmick, and outside of Chronatog and Psychatog, not often the darlings of the tournament scene. Perhaps someday a mythic rare one will emerge than can devour planeswalkers, but it's been years.
Swanland's art is many things to many people, but "homogenous" should not be the first word that springs to your mind. Please enlighten me as to the myriad other artists his work resembles.
Homogenous means his artwork all looks the same, not like other artists.
Homogenous means his artwork all looks the same, not like other artists.
Usually artists works all look similar. The other two posters were saying that all the current art is similar. Swanlands art isn't all similar. Does Fomori Nomad look anything like Vengevine?
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No, but Vengevine sure looks like Nyxathid. Banefire looks like Wurmcoil Engine breathing fire.
kind of like how you can tell if something was done by rebecca guay without thinking.
The difference is Guay's art is actually good, compared to how Swanland seems to be afraid of using more than 2-3 colours at a time, and relies too heavily on sharp contrasts.
The difference is Guay's art is actually good, compared to how Swanland seems to be afraid of using more than 2-3 colours at a time, and relies too heavily on sharp contrasts.
I disagree here, I love Swanland's art, whereas I find Guay's to be mediocre.
No, but Vengevine sure looks like Nyxathid. Banefire looks like Wurmcoil Engine breathing fire.
The difference is Guay's art is actually good, compared to how Swanland seems to be afraid of using more than 2-3 colours at a time, and relies too heavily on sharp contrasts.
rebecca guay seems to be afraid to leave impressionism and use bright colors. i see nothing wrong with swanland's work, his style focuses on dark colors and high contrast; just like how rebecca focuses on low-detail backgrounds with a pastel look.
Well, uh, yeah, style wise they are very similar. That is also what people were talking about. Art in magic currently has to be very epic all the time, which makes for great cards, but it does get boring.
Remember how much following the art for silverskin armor got when the art was spoiled? It is something different which made people love it. They should do stuff like that more often, especially more into the two-dimensional stuff for spells. Magic cards are still two dimensional, after all. They have to keep evolving the art styles or people will get bored with everything, period. That is also why I like the digitial-esque feel of the new Urabrask, the Hidden art. True 3 dimensional digital art should be added more in the mirrodin block, the perfect oppurtunity to try some of it.
Swanland is an extremely good artist which is why he gets to do such mythics, but they should dose it. Less is more, and his art will be more appreciated if there is some more differentiation to constrast it. Guay's art is a good way to do this, its very distinct, but more artists like that are needed.
I Agree, A lot of the newer cards look rather generic.
I miss the old old days where some commons had 4 sets of art
And when RKF had a lot more artwork on cards then he does now.
When I was younger my friend had an Atog deck that, since we were playing casual, was only 40 cards. It consisted of 4 Atog, 4 Fling, a ton of 0 CMC artifacts and well.. that's it.
When I was younger my friend had an Atog deck that, since we were playing casual, was only 40 cards. It consisted of 4 Atog, 4 Fling, a ton of 0 CMC artifacts and well.. that's it.
I traded my buddy who makes a lot of EDH decks a Atogatog today, and him saying "god I don't even know what I'll do with this". I then suggested an EDH atog deck. The mental image that followed was priceless. I told him to make an Atog EDH deck. Have all your atogs eat everything, than your Atogatog eat your atogs and have him swing in for general damage. Who cares if it's multiplayer and you have no board? You just ate the entire board and killed someone. I would just say "Om nom nom nom" The whole time I was doing it.
Swanland's art is many things to many people, but "homogenous" should not be the first word that springs to your mind. Please enlighten me as to the myriad other artists his work resembles.
Atogs were entertaining, in my opinion moreso than Slivers, but they were a gimmick, and outside of Chronatog and Psychatog, not often the darlings of the tournament scene. Perhaps someday a mythic rare one will emerge than can devour planeswalkers, but it's been years.
Well there is the fact that you will almost never see anything in modern magic even remotely close to Channel. They seem to only want a certian degree of realism in thier card art, and anything that falls below the threshold of "not realist enough" doesn't seem to make onto magic cards anymore.
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Well there is the fact that you will almost never see anything in modern magic even remotely close to Channel. They seem to only want a certian degree of realism in thier card art, and anything that falls below the threshold of "not realist enough" doesn't seem to make onto magic cards anymore.
Your view of realism must be very loose, taking Swanland into consideration.
Psychatog won games all on its lonesome.
Chronatog combined with certain other cards results in a hard lock.
Basically, the atogs were a gimmick race that ate various things (enchantments, brains, time, other atogs... the original Atog ate artifacts) to get bigger. "Atog" is an anagram of "goat," although I don't know if that's where the name actually comes from. Anyway, Wizards decided to stop printing them after a while, probably for being a bit too silly and not in line with their Swanland-esque 15-year old boy "omg soooo sick" aesthetic, but for a while you could expect some new Atogs every once in a while. They usually weren't very competitive, except when they were (even Atog himself was used in tournament decks in the original Mirrodin block). There's no real story behind them or anything.
Basically, make it a one-swing kill.
In addition to Dr. Teeth, Chronatog is also a part of the Stasis/Kismet lock, used to skip turns to avoid playing the upkeep on Stasis. Also, though nowhere near as popular, Auratog had a Tier 2 deck to go into during Time Spiral-era Standard/Block, with Mesa Enchantress, Spirit Loop, Temporal Isolation, Retether...
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Swanland's art is many things to many people, but "homogenous" should not be the first word that springs to your mind. Please enlighten me as to the myriad other artists his work resembles.
Atogs were entertaining, in my opinion moreso than Slivers, but they were a gimmick, and outside of Chronatog and Psychatog, not often the darlings of the tournament scene. Perhaps someday a mythic rare one will emerge than can devour planeswalkers, but it's been years.
Homogenous means his artwork all looks the same, not like other artists.
Usually artists works all look similar. The other two posters were saying that all the current art is similar. Swanlands art isn't all similar. Does Fomori Nomad look anything like Vengevine?
Modern - Green & Taxes:symw::symg:
Standard - Illusions:symu::symb:
kind of like how you can tell if something was done by rebecca guay without thinking.
No, but Vengevine sure looks like Nyxathid. Banefire looks like Wurmcoil Engine breathing fire.
The difference is Guay's art is actually good, compared to how Swanland seems to be afraid of using more than 2-3 colours at a time, and relies too heavily on sharp contrasts.
I disagree here, I love Swanland's art, whereas I find Guay's to be mediocre.
rebecca guay seems to be afraid to leave impressionism and use bright colors. i see nothing wrong with swanland's work, his style focuses on dark colors and high contrast; just like how rebecca focuses on low-detail backgrounds with a pastel look.
I Agree, A lot of the newer cards look rather generic.
I miss the old old days where some commons had 4 sets of art
And when RKF had a lot more artwork on cards then he does now.
Also
Dance of the Dead
still has the best art ever
If you were to look at that card with everything except it's set symbol, then I'd be inclined to think it was from an "Un" set.
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EDH Altered Cards by Galspanic (Seriously, this guy's awesome.)
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1/2
...right?
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Your view of realism must be very loose, taking Swanland into consideration.
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