|
4 weeks ago ::
Apr 29, 2013 - 1:18PM
#21
|
Date Joined:
Aug 30, 2011
|
I have always been fascinated and inspired by these cards with partly abstract art Descendants' Path  , Silverskin Armor  , Lifelink  , Visions of Beyond  by Terese Nielsen.
|
|
2 weeks ago ::
May 14, 2013 - 11:27AM
#22
|
|
|
I'm always facinated by Terese Nielsen's art. She's so good at mixing mediums and making them look so natural together while including that sense of 'abstract-ness' too. I love to look at the Silverskin Armor and Sealed Fate  together because of the pseudo mirror effect and how well they just flow from one card to the other. I also wanna jump on the RKF bandwagon, always loved his work for being so unique and instantly recognizable.
|
|
1 week ago ::
May 15, 2013 - 7:39AM
#23
|
|
|
On the other side of the spectrum, I gotta mention Unbreathing Horde  . Being a father is probably what does it, but that zombie in the front left of the frame kinda looks like a kid and unsettles me a little, though not enough to not use the card. My zombie tribal loves these guys.
|
|
1 week ago ::
May 15, 2013 - 1:36PM
#24
|
|
|
If there's an entire subject of card art that tends to really get me, it's black pulled-under-the-surface art. Tendrils of Corruption  , Corrupt  , Grasp of Darkness  , Maw of the Mire  , Sink Into Takenuma  ... it's kind of a recurring thing. There's sort of a creeping, silent dread that goes with spooky dark places. The unlit hallway, the cave mouth, the stairs into the basement. Not just because of all the horrible things your imagination can fit into the dark spaces. The place ITSELF holds a sort of weight, like a will you can almost convince yourself that you can feel. A malice in the darkness itself, a tension. Like if you get to close, walk too far in, all the dark and the narrow and the quiet will reach out and swallow you up. In Magic: the Gathering, it does. So this art has always been deeply evocative for me. One of my favorite decks is a monoblack Archenemy deck consisting largely of spells featuring this art. Make of that what you will. I also have quite a lot of specific art that just really stirs something in me. Unmake  catches the breath in my throat. So do John Avon's lands,  but  that's  hardly  a  unique  opinion.  Oh, and the Duel Decks art for Lord of the Pit  . I can't look at it without hearing Night on Bald Mountain.
"The truth resists simplicity." Some memorable quotes
Show
I know, as a good liberal scholar, that I'm supposed to respect every other belief and culture and what have you that comes along but... at the end of the day, when all is said and done, some things are just plain wrong.
Venser "Ah, Hello Myr. This is the King. Long Time no see. We thought today would be a good day for rolling. The Myr Battlesphere. The Myr. Where the first rolls and the second follows. Roll, roll, roll. For that purpose we went to the bother, the bother of fixing up Mirrodin. The King of the Multiverse going to the bother just for rolling a Myr Battlephere, just for that, we went to the bother."
Heard a joke once: Mare goes to doctor. Says she's depressed. Says life seems harsh and cruel. Says she feels all alone in a threatening world where even ponies you thought were your friends can't be trusted. Doctor says "Treatment is simple. Go to one of Pinkie Pie's great parties tonight. Party hard. That should pick you up." Mare bursts into tears. Says "But, doctor...I am Pinkie Pie." Good joke. Everypony laughs. Roll on snare drum. Curtains. Fade to black.
Sure, "the average person" might go see Transformers 3 if s/he wants a good story, but that doesn't stop people from making decent movies. Hell, they even managed to make Batman into a respectable movie. "The average" person might like American Idol or Jersey Shore, but people still made The Wire.
I think the people who would sit down and listen to a minstrel reciting Homer, or thought that novels were art, or read poetry were always a minority. It's a common viewpoint that art was better in the past because everyone's forgotten the bad stuff, while we haven't had time to forget the awful stuff that is current.
For almost all Magic fans, the "story" of Ravnica, for example, is that it's a city world with ten guilds -- yes, for most, that's a "story." All but a tiny fraction of the fan base are entirely unaware of an elaborate plot perpetrated by Augustin IV to trick Agrus Kos and Szadek into breaking the Guildpact, thereby enabling the Azorius to take control. Likewise, the vast majority of Magic players don't know who Harbin is, or Nivea, or Al-Hayat, or Feather, or Jared Carthalion, or Rebbec, or Zagorka ... the list goes on and on.
I'm pulling this out of nowhere and it has nothing like fact attached to it, but it cannot be disproven without breaking the fourth wall, and this is going to be my headcanon because it makes perfect sense.
I posit [Tamiyo, the Moon Sage] writes the Planeswalker's Guides to planes.
CANON is the collected events and details of a fictional work that come directly from its author or someone with equal authority to the author.
CANNON is a weapon that fires metal balls at a target, usually a structure or a crowd of enemy combatants.
Every time you confuse the two, I'm forced to break one of my own fingers.
|
