Hello friends, and welcome to the Mirror Gallery here on Hipsters of the Coast! I hope this article finds you and yours well as this fall season begins. Today’s article will be a bit of a Frankenstein’s monster, as we’re on the precipice of another preview season for Magic: The Gathering, and after a fan of a stream on Tuesday morning. We won’t talk too much about the 30th anniversary just yet, only because I’m still catching up on last month!
The two most recent versions of Magic, infinity and Commander Warhammer 40,000 were both delayed products; Unfinity from April 1, 2022, and Warhammer 40K from late summer, and essentially shared back-to-back preview seasons throughout the month of September. Warhammer 40K took place from September 12 to 16 and infinity 20-26, which isn’t much room to manoeuvre, especially since Dominaria United was only in mid-August. If you add the most recent Alchemy: Dominaria reveals from September 29 to October 2, PLUS announcements from October 4, AND the first look at last week’s war of the brothers, that’s a lot of art in the space of just a of my regularly scheduled articles.
As such, today will serve as an art-laden, Grand Art Tour-style fast-forward to try and make sense of everything we’ve seen so far this fall. It’s a bit of this and a bit of that, so let’s get started.
Commander Warhammer 40,000
Abbadon the Spoliator by Johan Grenier. Digital.
A long time ago (I’m talking about 2011/12) I started building and playing Warhammer 40,000. Several years later, in 2015, my friends and I took a deep dive into the new Warhammer: Age of Sigmar, a game I thoroughly enjoyed until the first rules update, when we inevitably swapped time to build and paint figures for more magic. The lore of Games Workshop, Warhammer’s parent company, is deep and hugely interesting, from the Space Marines that have made their way into popular culture to some of the more obscure flavors and factions we see in the game’s distant setting.
These veins were mined for Magic: The Gathering as part of their Universes Beyond release, and this set in particular is one I’m very excited to play with. It’s not just because I know the property, but because the theme of these decks, and the artists called in for the artwork, have mixed together exactly what Warhammer 40K x MTG should look like. While many of the cards included have an artist credit that only reads Games Workshop (unfortunately something they’ve always done at GW), some artists really took this opportunity to show off their skills and shine.
The release focuses on four different armies: the Imperium, Necrons, Tyranids, and Ruining Powers, and each has its own set of must-see artwork.
Birth of the Imperium by Zezhou Chen. Digital.
The Imperium is the overarching political entity that governs the human race across the galaxy. They are the “good guys” so to speak, and often depicted as seen above. This work, Birth of the Imperium by Zezhou Chen, is totally unreal. Chen’s lighting capture and control has always been top-notch, but it’s next level. If this work does not appear in the discussions of the year-end awards, I will surely be shocked.
The powers of ruin, demons and forces of Chaos battle against the Imperium and rush from the Warp and spread through space in search of world domination. The four great demons: Khorne, Tzeentch (my personal army), Slaanesh and Nurgle make an appearance, but I have to say that the artwork depicting Helge C. Balzer’s legendary Great Unclean One is disgustingly beautiful.
Great Unclean One by Helge C. Balzer. Digital.
Whether a miniature model or a piece of Magic: The Gathering artwork, Papa Nurgle has always been known for his oozing detail and pitch-perfect pestilence, and Balzer has left no pore unexplored.
The other two armies, the Necrons and the Tyranids, fall somewhere between these two ends of the spectrum. The Necrons, an alien species of grave-bound, tech-laden skeleton warriors, are infamous for their vehicles and so come howling into battle.
Nocturnal Scythe by Calder Moore. Digital.
Cards like Night Scythe let you play the army in Magic like you would in 40K, and imagine your Necrons flying down a mountainside, a scenario we see artist Calder Moore capture so easily.
And last but not least is the Tyranid Swarm, a mass of insect-like aliens that consume everything in their path. A plethora of species are represented in the game, each a little different from the last; but various other depictions, like David Auden Nash’s Bone Sabers, really show the danger and fury found within this faction. I like this perspective; the last thing you see.
Bone Sabers by David Auden Nash. Digital.
The Commander decks feature almost 250 new pieces of art that firmly introduce Warhammer 40K into the Magic multiverse, and my only wish is for more luck studying it. There are still a handful of Warhammer-related Secret Lair Drops left, and I hope to be able to review the full release later this year.
infinity
Myra the Magnificent by Eric Wilkerson. Traditional.
Come one, come all, and witness what is Magic’s fourth Un-set! infinity was originally slated for April 1, 2022, which would have been more than fitting, but ongoing global pandemic-related delays have otherwise pushed it into the fall (oddly enough, where Unglued and Unhinged came out ago years). It’s really Magic’s first foray into space, and at the same time brings carnival and circus subthemes with a lot of Magic-adjacent puns mixed in. Brilliant new characters come to life, like Eric Wilkerson’s Myra the Magnificent seen above for the punny Planeswalker Space Beleren
Beleren Space by Tyler Jacobson. Traditional.
On a riff on Gary, the Gray Merchant of Asphodel, now the Gray Merchant of the Alphabet (look at the letters on the coins) by Yangtian Li
Gray Alphabet Merchant by Yangtian Li. Digital.
This set is home to some seriously stellar works, strange as they are. These artists are some of the best in the business, whether they’ve been with Magic for years or just starting out, and regardless of topic and genre, if this set doesn’t prove I don’t know what will.
infinity also has its own 30-card showcase, exploding in retro-pop style from three different artists. While exploring this new set, I discovered the work of Stephanie Buscema and was blown away.
Vorthos, Steward of Myth by Stephanie Buscema. Traditional.
Buscema traditionally works in gouache and watercolor on paper, infusing a bit of pop art and a touch of Mary Blair into this set through paint and brush. You can see more of her work here, and with five cards in the deck, I really hope this isn’t the last we see of her.
Before closing this section, infinity also welcomes the return of the Un-Master, Ralph Horsley, who has fourteen unmatched and insurmountable pieces in the set. Perhaps best known for his 9-Piece Contraption in Unstable, he’s brought all the whimsy and wonder back into his portfolio for a crescendo of madness in this new iteration.
A sampling of some of Ralph Horsley’s Unfinity work. All traditional.
Ralph’s style and imagination really make these Un-sets sing, and they wouldn’t be the same without his additions. If there ever will be a fifth Un-set, I think we know who will be a focal point again.
And for the curious, yes, infinity performs an automatic infinity correction. All. Only. Time.
The Brothers War
While we’ll have to wait for the Magic 30 The Brother’s War preview panel to find out more, there have already been quite a few BRO previews over the past few weeks. Before concluding, I want to show two groups of artworks. The first is this pseudo-triptych of Urza by Ryan Pancoast
Pancoast tells Urza’s story in three parts as only his artistic talents could. He’s one of the best working in the game today, and these three works are simply a stellar showcase of those storytelling skills. We see this gaming legend transform before our eyes.
The other early preview we’ve seen is the full art showcase of the ‘mech’ baselands, showcasing the massive weapons of war from the Brother Conflict.
Image from Reddit.
Robin Olausson’s Island. Digital.
So far, the only complete artwork released by the artist is this island by Robin Olausson. I love big robots, so I can’t wait to see them all marching into battle over the next few weeks. These few cards are just the tip of the proverbial iceberg, so stay tuned for more as this story unfolds.
Wrap
I’m glad I took this opportunity to try and catch up on this past month, and all the new art we’ve seen. After what was a nice break over the summer, it looks like the preview pacing took double the time to try and make up for it. I’m always excited about everything Magic has to offer both now and in the future, but it’s hard to keep up with the current and consistent degree of writing even every two weeks.
Looking ahead, I’ll be at the Magic 30 in Las Vegas from Thursday night through Monday covering the event for Hipsters, so stay tuned here for all the exciting things happening over these few days. If you’re going too, be sure to give me a shout, and we’ll block a Commander game or grab a coffee.
Don’t forget, to see the original #mtgart and other #vorthos related stuff, follow me on Twitter. Feel free to ask questions or retweet to continue the conversation. Thanks and see you next time !
Donny Caltrider has been playing Magic since 2002 and collecting original Magic art since 2017. He has a Masters in Museum Studies from Johns Hopkins University and enjoys telling stories about art, objects, and intersection fantasy with real life. You can find it on Twitter talk about #mtgart, museums and other assets related to #vorthos. Follow us and continue the conversation!