Who Has Done Art for the Most Magic Cards
Welcome to a brand new cavalcade here on ChannelFireball, Riley Ranks ! Each calendar week, I'll be counting downward top v lists of all sorts of things to exercise with Magic. If you lot've got an idea for a list topic, I'd love to hear it – head over to Twitter and permit me know at @RLYKNGHT what you'd like to run into in future weeks!
This week, I'm counting downwards the top five well-nigh prolific artists in Magic. It'southward non often that yous can be definitive with Magic art, or indeed art in general. Any evaluation and ranking of art-related subjects is usually inherently subjective. Non today, even so – cold, difficult, numbers back this list up, and without wanting to sound too clickbaity, I legitimately was amazed by number one. Let's get to it!
Zoltan Boros comes in at number five, with a total of 286 cards. Boros's portfolio has a footling flake of everything – Commander classics like Avenger of Zendikar and Felidar Sovereign, Mod cards like Copperline Gorge and the updated Remand, and if you've ever been cheesed out on Magic Arena by Conspicuous Snoop or Improbable Alliance, you lot've got Boros to give thanks for the images that haunt your nightmares.
Appropriately enough, Boros's first Magic fine art appeared in Ravnica: City of Guilds, back in 2005, and he's contributed to sets all the fashion through to Time Spiral Remastered, updating cards like Angel'southward Grace. Nonetheless, Boros's connection to Ravnica is strong, and the x charms printed in Return to Ravnica are all his piece of work. For many like me, who joined the game effectually that time, these cards helped characterize the plane, along with evocative art like Grisly Spectacle and Massive Raid, all which helped the world come to life.
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— Riley Knight (@RLYKNGHT) September iii, 2020
With 286 cards in xvi years – almost xviii a year – Boros is an impressively prolific Magic artist. Plus, he illustrated Song-Mad Treachery , which in my book is enough to go him on whatsoever elevation 5 artist list.
Greg Staples has been around for a long time. His start Magic work was showcased in 1998, all the way back in Urza's Saga. Since then, he's illustrated 288 cards spanning over two decades, with some of his almost famous cards, like Living End, reappearing in Time Spiral Remastered. Throughout his entire career, however, in that location is no shortage of instantly-recognizable pieces.
2002 Invitational winner Jens Thoren was immortalized by Staples as Solemn Simulacrum and Merfolk all-star Merrow Reejerey and Modern hate piece Gaddock Teeg are both the work of Staples. Wizards also turned to Staples to update the art on some ancient cards, resulting in the updated Hypnotic Specter and Stone Pelting. Perhaps Staples' well-nigh recognizable work, however, is a card simply recently reprinted into Standard, Baneslayer Angel, which lives a relatively quiet life these days afterward defining Standard a decade ago.
Pipping Greg Staples at the post is Pete Venters, who has 289 cards to Staples' 288. These 2 are neck-and-cervix, although Venters isn't as active these days. Before concluding year, his nigh recent original piece was Goblin Fireslinger from M12. More than recently, however, Venters returned to Magic to illustrated Commander Legends' Sengir, the Dark Baron promo – only appropriate, given he illustrated the original Baron Sengir from 1995'south Homelands.
Plenty of other iconic cards were illustrated past Venters also. Cube staple Survival of the Fittest, the final best hope of Twin players, Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker and the original Ensnaring Bridge were all done by him. Interestingly likewise, two of the most famous storm finishers share Venters every bit their artist – both Legacy'southward Tendrils of Agony and Mod'south Grapeshot.
Despite only debuting his Magic art in 2010'due south Zendikar, Velinov has quickly become i of Magic'southward well-nigh productive artists, with a staggering 298 cards in merely over a decade. If y'all've played Magic actively within the concluding 10 years, there'southward only the tiniest chance you haven't bandage a card illustrated by Velinov – he's responsible for the art on powerful spells across a agglomeration of formats.
Legacy's Toxic Deluge, Modern's Abrupt Decay and even Standard staples Gemrazer and Phoenix of Ash are all the work of Velinov. In that location's even sometime powerhouses like Thundermaw Hellkite and Thought-Knot Seer, banned cards like Preordain and the list goes on. Velinov seems to really like painting Goblins, as he's done everything from Goblin Chainwhirler to Goblin Rabblemaster to the supremely masterful Brash Taunter.
Velinov's numbers are incredible – virtually 300 cards in ten years – just he's got a lot of work to practise to catch upwardly to number one on this list, allow me tell you…
In that location's a reason I said I was amazed by number ane – Kev Walker is the most prolific Magic creative person past a country mile, with over 50 percentage more than pieces than Velinov in second. Walker'southward Magic work first appeared in 1996, with the release of Delusion, and since and then he but hasn't stopped. His well-nigh contempo additions join usa are in Fourth dimension Spiral Remastered, and non all of them involve reprinted fine art – Logic Knot has a make new Kev Walker look!
Unsurprisingly, with a portfolio this large, there are plenty of famous cards that Walker has illustrated, both one-time and new. You lot tin can go all the fashion dorsum to City of Traitors and Deranged Hermit, or right up to the last couple of years with Field of the Dead and Lovestruck Beast.
In addition to these, some truly iconic Magic cards owe their look to Kev Walker. Lightning Helix, for example, or the card that was so powerful and complex that someone wrote a book virtually it : Gush, are simply 2 staples that Walker can exist attributed to. Finally, there'southward a pair of connected cards that are instantly recognizable to any diehard Magic fan, one reflecting the other, made all the more compelling by Walker's approach to their art: Damnation and Wrath of God.
It's nice to accept a bit of unambiguous certainty with a topic like fine art and today, we've achieved exactly that. Even if, like me, you're too much of a coward to get into a subjective argument almost who your favorite Magic artist is (Adam Paquette, don't @ me), you're at present at least armed with some common cold, hard, data!
Source: https://strategy.channelfireball.com/all-strategy/home/riley-ranks-top-five-most-prolific-mtg-artists/