Should WoTC bring back alternate card art?

[Bardo]

In today's 'Ask Wizards', Jeremy Cranford, MtG Art Director, explains why they stopped printing non-promotional alternate art for the same card in the new sets:

"The main reason we don't print two different images for the same card is that the art for a specific card becomes a symbol that you can recognize at a glance and know what that card's ability is in game play. We found that if you have two images representing one card that it creates confusion during game play. This is why we've stopped doing two pieces of art for the same card (with small exceptions like the Brothers Yamazaki in Champions of Kamigawa).

Do you buy this? I thought the alternate art on cards like Mishra's Factory, Order of the Ebon Hand, Strip Mine, etc. was an awesome idea for players and collectors alike. And I'm a little bummed that they stopped doing it.

Perhaps they went a little too far in Fallen Empires. I mean, who cares how many alternate art versions exist for Elvish Scout, Combat Medic, or Icatian Moneychanger? But I think the idea of alternate cart art is a great on cards that are likely to see play in constructed environments. Picture it, alternate art for Goblin Welder, Accumulated Knoweldge, Thirst for Knowledge, etc.

Using Cranford's logic, I can see how it might not be a good thing to do in the base set, but do you think Wizards should bring alternate card art back into expansion sets?

[combo_dude]

It seems quite cool, but I think that he's dead on with the picture being the main thing to tell someone about the card (hence "proxies" are annoying when they are a sheet of paper shoved into a sleeve) - I think a lot of players would get annoyed about that sort of thing, as they'd look at one Goblin Welder and it would look different to another card that's functionally identical.

[Machinus]

The arts on Mishra's Factory all look very similar to each other. Same with Brothers Yamakuzi. Same with Gorilla Shaman.

We live with 10 different versions of disenchant, counterspell, dark ritual, island, stone rain, etc. I think it would be fine to have alternate art for cards with two pieces of art which are similar to each other but together are unique and distunguishable.

[Eddie]

No need. As long as we have guys like Hi-Val.

[Matt]

I could see them using alternate art on cards that you'd always be running four of. Imagine four pictures for AK, or Kindle, or...Welkin Hawk.

[jpmeyer]

There's a difference between Brothers Yamazaki and something like the Fallen Empires cards.  I wouldn't mind something like the former and definitely don't want the latter.

[Kasuras]

Hold on..

1) You had to get used to 1 picture representing 1 card.. is it really that hard to memorize a second picture to that same card? Really, most people who do memorize are not your average John Doe playing at the diner table anyway: they're mostly the people who have been playing for some longer time at a little higher competition level.

2) As said, we also have infinite arts for things like Disenchant.. we have to memorize those as well.

Concluding: I don't buy it.

That said, I think it's really sad that they stop doing that: MTG is a collecting card game, and those extra arts actually bring a little more collecting than usual with them which isn't necessarily a bad thing and probably a good thing for a company like Wizards which wants to make money. And a good thing as well for lots of other players. Perhaps a little less good for a group of players who can't even memorize 1 extra picture..

[ProZachar]

I could see them using alternate art on cards that you'd always be running four of. Imagine four pictures for AK, or Kindle, or...Welkin Hawk.

For my 3 and 4 of's I like to have cards that are as similar to each other as possible.  That way, if I do something like Intuition or Mystical for them, and I have other(s) in my hand that don't get revealed, I don't have to keep track of which one(s) my opponent knows about and which one(s) he doesn't.

[MarkPharaoh]

With the changes to the Pro Ranking System, we'll probably have a lot more players flying to different countries for PTs and even GPs, with that in mind the language barrier gets worse, so card art get's more important, with different artwork there can be more confusion between players that cannot speak the same language.

[The M.E.T.H.O.D]

the brothers look SOOOO ALIKE.  Like the picture is like basically reversed.  Where as many of the other cards use different artwork altogether.  Like where do you draw the line? Like if artwork actualy affects gameplay then you know that something has to be done.  And its easier just to nix it in general and have some incident happen months from now.  Oh and it has happened before btw on the pro tour.

[Matt]

So what if they started doing the full-on Fallen Empires thing, with four radicially different artworks (see Basal Thrull)...but kept it constrained to non-tournament sets like Unglued or portal (I know they discontinued portal but bear with me)?

[Dr. Sylvan]

So what if they started doing the full-on Fallen Empires thing, with four radicially different artworks (see Basal Thrull)...but kept it constrained to non-tournament sets like Unglued or portal (I know they discontinued portal but bear with me)?

They can do whatever they want with the art in a silver-bordered set. I don't think there should be non-tournament sets besides the Un-type.

[Methuselahn]

Wizards are totally justified in their excuse.  I believe it is honest and that they probably believe that this is a good reason. (quick glance reasoning)  I also believe the reason is nonsensical.  The place where it really matters consists of high level players, right?  These people would surely be familiar with the art, having playtested extensively.

Being nearly a Vintage-only player, I would guess memorizing art is far less work compared to any other format.  Thank Goodness, as I am partial to the older art anyway.

We want Drew Tucker alternate art!!

[Dr. Sylvan]

Actually, now that I think about it, the place that it matters most isn't high-level play. At Premiere events, Judges can solve problems, and players are more likely to be aware of all the versions of a card. Where the information burden is excessive is at the low level, for beginners. I don't know if any of you have tried to teach a non-gamer Magic lately, but they are just baffled by all the things happening. As they progress through their first games, new players have a lot of trouble keeping track of what the cards do. If they see two cards that are supposed to be the same, but look different, that is only going to worsen the problem. Regardless of how much Type One players enjoy pimping their decks with all four Antiquities Factories, Wizards' top concern in this issue is to lower the barriers to entry for the game.

I'm not sure whether alternate art appearing on foils would be as bad, however, and that could be a way around it.

[Bardo]

I don't see the harm in bringing back the Fallen Empire-style alternate art personally. Sure, they went overboard there, esp, when considering all of the art that was commissioned for shitty, useless cards. But I like the especially like the idea of alternate art for cards whose design demand you play multiples, like AK, Aether Burst, or Flame Burst.

That said, I understand the logic of not imposing an additional learning 'hump' to new players by printing alternate art in the base set.

[Matt]

I don't think there should be non-tournament sets besides the Un-type.

I was under the impression that Wizards still makes a "starter" level set, that it's a subset of 8th edition.

[Komatteru]

I don't think there should be non-tournament sets besides the Un-type.

I was under the impression that Wizards still makes a "starter" level set, that it's a subset of 8th edition.

Yeah, they make that, but since the cards are all from 8th edition, they're all tournament legal.  One of the problems with Starter and Portal were that they weren't tournament legal, so when new players wanted to step up to FNM, they had to get entirely new cards (and couldn't use ANY of the ones they learned on, unless it was coincidentally printed in 8th, which meant they had to go look that info up), which rather upset them.

[Danzig]

I want to make love to the AQ Mishra's Factories, AQ Strip Mines, and FE Hymn to Tourachs.
If they did multiple art again it shouldn't count as a seperate card in the set. I like the promo alternate art idea for Rhox, though I think the art was goofy.

[Hi-Val]

No need. As long as we have guys like Hi-Val.

<3 Eddie : )

I'm ambivalent on the topic. In the past, alternate art has been very similar (Arcane Denial looked distinctive, in that it looked like every RKF piece...) but I don't know that we need it now. I think we need better artists instead of more of the same bleh junk. I enjoy seeing new art for the cards in base sets though.

[Raven Fire]

I find it interesting that WotC is stating this when they recently started printing Textless cards for the MPR program.  I love my Textless Oxidizes, but the picture (unlike those for Terror or Fireball) doesn't look anything like the one on the original version.  With multiple artwork, at least a new player can look at the text (if it's in a language they can read) if they don't know what the card does (and I've played against experienced people who forgot that Oxidized artifacts can't regenerate).  The DCI has now stated that they will be releasing six new textless MPR cards per block.  While I think this is great (I actually hope they make more AA cards like the DCI VMP), I'm not sure how this philosophically fits in line with not printing multiple artwork in expansion sets.