The popular card game Magic: The Gathering has been an important part of board games for over 25 years, since its debut in 1993. Over the years, the Wizards of the Coast game has released more than 100 sets between expansions and central sets, totaling thousands and thousands of cards.
With the upcoming MTG set, Double Masters, Wizards of the Coast is reprinting fan-favorite cards with brand new art. There will be 332 cards in the next set, which will hit stores on August 7, 2020. Wizards of the Coast gave GameSpot an early look at some of the cards you can see below.
All display cards, those without borders, were drawn by artist Mark Tedin. And one thing you may notice are the beautiful panoramic portraits. “It was demanding that the four compositions work together both individually and as a narrative panoramic ensemble,” Tedin explained. “Art direction allowed me to organize the four themes in a way that would present Karn’s revival at Dominaria, renewed and freed from the influence of Phyrexia. Having little sunlight unifying the lands to the left, and then focusing on Karn at the Right hand provided a more dramatic revelation of this legendary character. I felt that Power Plant, Mine and Tower had a working relationship with each other in the past. I figured the mines had mined resources, the Power Plant had been powering everything, and the Tower managed the entire operation. The colorful lines connect all three, suggesting they could re-energize once again. “
The Urza trio is really important to the game if you are trying to build a mana pool. Sure, it’s all colorless mana, but if you have all three cards up for grabs, you can add seven colorless cards to your pool per turn by tapping these cards. And that mana can come in handy if you’re casting something like Fireball or any other spell that requires X colorless mana to strengthen it.
However, this was not the first time that Tedin had worked on a panoramic piece. In 2010, he created a beautiful piece of woods for Scars of Mirrordin. “Mirrodin’s piece was different because the art was limited only to the art area for the cards,” said Tedin. “Because of that, the composition was very elongated and looked like a horizontal panoramic photo. The thick forest of Mirrodin had the potential to become visually disordered, and so it was important to switch between density and aperture. I had to alternate composition. Balance in each card as well as for the overall set. In the case of the Urza Lands, there was a lot of space in the sky and in the foreground, which dramatically opened up my composition opportunities. I knew I had to do these areas are kind of interesting to support the main focal area. Placing Karn and the mines as dominant features on either side created a strong framework around the Power Station, the Tower and the view of the landscape they share. “
For Double Masters, booster packs will consist of 15 cards, with two rare and two foil in each pack. Two paperless display cards will be included in each booster box, consisting of 24 booster packs. Double Masters will arrive one day before Magic Online’s physical release date, and the envelopes will be $ 7 each.
