Magic the Gathering

[edgarfigaro]

I lost all my cards sometime during my college days. I think they were thrown out... sadly. Started when Set 6 just dropped, when all those hip commercials came out. Made it through the block after Mercadian Masques. Loved the game just losing all those cards was too devastating to start buying again.

[Eladin]

I lost all my cards sometime during my college days. I think they were thrown out... sadly. Started when Set 6 just dropped, when all those hip commercials came out. Made it through the block after Mercadian Masques. Loved the game just losing all those cards was too devastating to start buying again.

i know the feeling.

i made the mistake of trusting some guy who i thought was my friend with my cards, because he wanted to buy some of them (supposedly) i let him look over my cards for like a day, and apparently he thought it was funny to take out pretty much everything and replace it with land...and then never see me again.
that was cool.

[Jonathan]

I stopped playing MTG seriously (still play a bit casually with friends) a while ago, but I'm still watching the newest sets, meta game, and also loving the newer artworks. Things like:

http://foresthowl.files.wordpress.com/2 ... serart.jpg
http://www.wizards.com/mtg/images/daily ... Splash.jpg
http://www.wizards.com/mtg/images/daily ... _rafiq.jpg
http://casualmagic.files.wordpress.com/ ... alara5.jpg
http://casualmagic.files.wordpress.com/ ... 7x1022.jpg
http://www.wizards.com/mtg/images/daily ... Splash.jpg
http://casualmagic.files.wordpress.com/ ... poiler.jpg

Are just fantastic stuff. Alteil may have great art, but it just can't compare to the newer MTG artwork.

[Eladin]

it doesn't need to compare, since the styles were never meant to be similar. MtGs art has always been somewhat varied, but it was never on the anime end of the spectrum...so it'd be silly to think one better when they're just flat out different styles. though i do certainly agree that the new art is some pretty darn marvelous stuff.

[Jonathan]

Well ya, I guess I just like the style more. I do like anime and most of the anime styles, but the artwork in Alteil just never gave me a "Wow............." speechless kind of feeling like some of the Magic artwork did.

[Eladin]

i hear ya on that i suppose. at least with art like what you showed, not that some of it in the earlier editions wasn't ok...but definitely of different quality. though i am still very much impressed by some of the art in alteil, and in a related way, maybe as more sets are released, the art will progressively just get more and more tasty (don't know why i chose that phrase...and also, i don't look at the japanese site, so i don't know whether the progression is true or not)

[Logress]

I believe one of the Magic Artists who is Japanese also does Alteil stuff... name escapes me but I'm sure someone else will jump in.

[animefreak99]

Old school magic the gathering is it?

my deck was goblins... play 1 goblin first turn next, next turn play 2 goblin.. after that play another goblin and play goblin grenade... then games overs...

[kitsunekit]

The art is Alteil is expected to be better as its much easier to produce.

First and foremost, the canvas is MUCH larger than around 1"x1".

Second of all, there are much less strict guidelines in place as they are not physical cards. In magic, card art is done to help people sort and recognize cards from a distance. There's a reason modern cards look so distinct. Its also to help collectors sort their cards faster. Furthermore, the colors usable are extremely limited, as they are placed so close to the colored borders. Having lots of orange and blue on a red card would look extremely unattractive and ... well wouldn't be used.

Finally, they have a LOT more restrictions on what they can and can't show for marketing purposes. They can't have females as nude or provocative as Alteil can, as its a printed product by a "family friendly company" (Hasbro). Finally, they avoid mostly-naked-men as the target audience is males 15-25.

However, there are some aesthetic advantages to magic cards. The resolution is higher since its printed and not your moniter. You can get cards signed. And you can get cards customized or customize them yourself if your a good enough artist or go to conventions where you can meet them. Painted cards are legal so long as you can still tell what the card originally was.

The biggest advantage to magic cards over virtual cards is the simple fact that Wizards can't tell you what you can and can't do with your cardboard. As a result, you can do a lot more with magic cards than you can with alteil cards: Trade, Sell, Buy, play custom variant games, draft, etc...

An Alteil Draft would be REALLY fun...

[Jonathan]

They can't have females as nude or provocative as Alteil can, as its a printed product by a "family friendly company" (Hasbro).

Well, there's still some suggestive art here and there:

http://gatherer.wizards.com/Handlers/Im ... &type=card
http://gatherer.wizards.com/Handlers/Im ... &type=card

But ya, there's probably less of that in Magic than there is in Alteil.

Also, wow, Manga Magic:

http://i716.photobucket.com/albums/ww16 ... 40x720.jpg
http://i716.photobucket.com/albums/ww16 ... 40x720.jpg

Those are images of Chandra Nalaar:

http://www.wizards.com/magic/images/car ... ar_640.jpg
http://fc01.deviantart.com/fs48/f/2009/ ... Argyle.jpg