It’s only Tuesday, and we’re already drowning in new MTG spoiler content for the week. We’ve seen a ton of Foundations main set spoilers, and the entirety of the Starter Collection too. On top of that, Wizards casually dropped all of Foundations Jumpstart on the card image gallery yesterday. This is all very exciting of course, but there are problems here too. Now that we’ve seen the full set, we know that the new anime art legends in Foundations Jumpstart won’t be getting regular art treatments. While this sounds minor, the implications of the change are far from positive.
What’s The Problem?
We’ve known Foundations Jumpstart would be bringing a new suite of anime legends to the table since last Friday’s announcement. That’s not a lot of time to digest, but at first, no digestion was needed. Jumpstart 2022 featured anime art reprints, and a lot of players seemed to love them. They were a nice way to make Jumpstart packs worth opening in the long run, especially for collectors.
So what’s the problem with Foundations Jumpstart including anime art cards too? Well, in this case, the cards getting anime art aren’t reprints but brand-new legendary creatures. There are 27 of these in total, many of which represent exciting new Commander options for underused archetypes. That’s 27 cards players have no choice but to run the anime art version of. This is a marked change from how anime art cards have been utilized in Magic up ’till now.
We’ve seen anime art cards multiple times in the past. Heck, Bloomburrow and Duskmourn both had plenty, albeit in ultra-rare Collector Booster slots only. In every previous case, however, these cards were fun extras. Anime obviously isn’t the default Magic art style, so it makes sense that players should only need to engage with it if they want to. Printing cards that only come in anime art feels like a step too far for that reason.
Alongside the ramping up of anime art in general Magic products, there’s a feeling that this style is slowly becoming a bigger part of the game. Just like Universes Beyond, anime art appears to be slowly creeping into prominence for MTG. Even as someone who enjoys a lot of these cards, this has me worried.
Too Much Of A Good Thing
These cards are part of a fairly transparent Japanese marketing push by Wizards in recent years. You can see this in everything from Japanese-exclusive events and rewards, to the choice to use Kaito as the blue planeswalker in Foundations rather than Jace. Wizards are pushing for a bigger slice of the Japanese market, and anime art is a great way to do that.
This made perfect sense in Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty, or as part of a niche side-set like Jumpstart 2022. As a new norm in all Magic sets going forward? Not so much. Anime-only cards aside, plenty of players are taking issue with this increased quantity of anime art.
“You know what, I’m gonna say it. The thing that is turning me off Magic isn’t Universes Beyond, it’s the fact that half the damn cards have Japanese art versions for no reason and often the tonal difference between the set’s art style and the Manga art cards takes me out of it.”
TheChowderhead, via Twitter
This is an issue of identity, similar to the tonal dissonance some players experience when mixing MTG cards with Universes Beyond ones. No matter how good the art is (and it is often very good), anime art is still going to clash with traditional Magic art. Some players are fine with that, and some aren’t. Just like Universes Beyond, this is an issue that divides the player base.
Also like Universes Beyond, we’re now being given no choice but to engage with it. If you want to run one of the new Foundations Jumpstart legends, anime art is your only option. This creates the same immersion vs. optimal card choice problem as Universes Beyond, albeit on a much smaller scale.
“So the legends in foundations jumpstart are available only in anime styles? kind of weird for the new printings.”
AnMagicCard, via Twitter
The way things are going, we could see even more of this as more sets are released. How long is it until mainline sets include anime art-only cards too? I think Magic’s anime art cards look great and are a solid way to pursue larger business goals. I also think Wizards needs to dial them back, and definitely not present them as a player’s only option.