Magic Arcana: Sketches of Memnarch

[Matt]

http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=mtgcom/arcana/508

Wouldn't the rough draft version of Memnarch have been fucking awesome? I would have liked that one so much better BECAUSE it's all blurry. It would have provided a very welcome change of pace in the art; I'm tired of watching Magic artists try to paint as realisticly as humanly possible. Fuck that, I want to see black creatures that are scarcely more than a shape in the darknåss, I want to see a green beast that's hidden by all the underbrush and foliage (the way forest creatures really are!), not skipping about under the full noon sun for all to see.

LESS is MORE.

[Magi]

The blurry art style is good

but overall I feel the design of Memnarch, from the name to the art is actually pretty stupid. Looks like something out of battletech, or a really bad anime show.

[Dr. Sylvan]

Yeah, I would've preferred the blurry one. I think it's okay for this block to have a more mechanical flavor, as long as they get more fantasy flavor soon.

[CopperLeaf]

Maybe its just conditioning from D&D but I expect to see knights, ghosts, angels, dragons, zombies, etc.

I think the game looses something when theres futuristic type stuff in it.

[Dr. Sylvan]

I think the [card]Power Armor[/card] art was the low point on that issue. In all honesty, at first I wasn't sure if I was having BattleTech TCG flashbacks or seeing an actual Magic card. They've done a pretty good job keeping Mirrodin relatively fantasy-oriented.

[Magi]

Got it


Memnarch = weird War of the Worlds/Mars Attacks hybrid thingie


I was looking for the words last night/morning, but I couldn't get them.


Yes, Power Armor is dumb too. The overall "Fantasy" feel is what attracted me to Magic in the first place, and if it were to lose that I would lose a lot of fun in the game as well.

[jpmeyer]

I think the [card]Power Armor[/card] art was the low point on that issue. In all honesty, at first I wasn't sure if I was having BattleTech TCG flashbacks or seeing an actual Magic card. They've done a pretty good job keeping Mirrodin relatively fantasy-oriented.

I think they've finally come around and admitted that stuff like Powered Armor went too far over the edge.

[Bram]

Looks like something out of battletech

Memnarch looks like nothing thew battletech universe has ever spawned. Urza's Rage is more Battletech stylee.

[Redman]

I would have liked that one so much better BECAUSE it's all blurry. It would have provided a very welcome change of pace in the art; I'm tired of watching Magic artists try to paint as realisticly as humanly possible. Fuck that, I want to see black creatures that are scarcely more than a shape in the darkness, I want to see a green beast that's hidden by all the underbrush and foliage

Amen to that.  I like my card art just definite enough to give the imagination some seed and so you can get the feel, but that can leave me to fill in the details.

The 5th edition Abyssal Specter art is pretty nice along these lines, and much better than the 8th, (and, I think, better than that from IA).

And while the quality of the art has arguably improved from an outside standard, I think a lot of the charm of the old cards is that the art wasn't as polished or of as high "quality."

And Drew Tucker remains one of my favorite Magic Artists.