Last week we saw a small announcement on next year’s Unfinity set. It looks really rather cool, which is no big surprise for an Unset set in space. There’s a lot of information in there that’s worth talking about, but we want to talk about one specific bit of info that’s tucked away in it.
We’re not talking about the new acorn stamp thing, nor the loss of our beloved silver borders. We are, instead, talking about something that’s been on our minds ever since alternate arts started coming out for MTG.
It’s so pretty, so why limit it?
Just take a second to look at the artwork on this version of The Space Family Goblinson. This is the legendary they showed off that’ll be legal in eternal formats. It’s a red and green 1/1 that gets trample as long as you’re rolling dice, and also gets a +1/+1 counter on it every time you do so. It’s a cool card in cool colors, and it should help boost the dice-rolling stuff we saw thanks to Adventures in the Forgotten Realms.
The main thing though, and we’re pretty sure that’s clear, is that this version of the artwork is absurdly cool. The retro-pop style fits the themes of the set perfectly, and while it’s obviously nice that there will be thirty legendary creatures in this style from the set, why isn’t it more? What reason is there for sticking to the traditional MTG style for this set when we could have had a full set filled to the brim with this.
Magic has been consistently pushing what is allowable in the game for years now, and that’s obvious when you look at the Secret Lairs and Universe Beyond stuff that’s happening. Why then, do we get normal MTG artwork in these sets? It’s not bad, of course, but having a different art direction for the entire set would really help it stand apart. Imagine a new style with each one, not just in terms of flavor, but the art style itself. Maybe that’d hurt the chance to buy alternate versions of cards too much, but we think it’d be a fun way to make sets feel even more unique.
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