It’s easy to gloss over the lands in 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Magic: The Gathering, and treat them as the mere resources that they (fun𝐆ctionally) are, but to do so💞 would be to miss out on some of the best artwork that the game has to offer. Unbound by the usual rules text requirements of cards due to their simple nature, Magic’s artists are free to create art for lands that spans the entire card.
While these full-art lands used to be a very rare phenomenon, reserved for Un-sets and land-focused expansions like Zendikar, the modern Booster Fun era has led to almost every set from 2021 onwards boasting its own unique full-art treatmen﷽t. We’ve gathered the best of them here; the ten most vivid vistas in the Multiverse.
10 ✅ Zig-Zag Island, By Daren Bader
Part of the first wave of full-art lands released 🗹in Unglued, Magic’s first Un-set, this unique Island from Daren Bader was highly experimental for the time. The composition remains interesting to this day, with the gold detailing round the art and the placement of the mana and tap symbols not being replicated on any full-art lands since.
Beyond this, the art itself is sublime. The Island shown is unusual but not unreasonable, keeping things grounded in reality while also keeping them interesting. The fine details, like the flock of seagulls and the trees nestled between the folds in the rocks, give the piece a sense of authentic seaside calm that makes it a jo♑y to pore over.
9 ꧟ Zendikar Forest, By Veronique Me🎀ignaud
It wasn’t until 2009, a full 11 years after full-art lands debuted in Unglued, that they would make their way to a Standard set with the release of Zendikar. As 🐼a Plane themed around exploration and lands-matter effects, there was no better time to reintroduc𝄹e them, and no better example to use than Veronique Meignaud’s take on a Forest.
This piece hammers home the alien 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:natꦉure of Zendikar’s environments perfectly, from the oddly-shaped levitating trees, to the otherworldly colours shimmering in the canopy above. The curved indent in the ground, and the tin💫y f🍸igure next to it, serve as brilliant reminders of the scale and natural cycles of the world, leveraging our curiosity to draw us further in.
8 Nyx Forest, By Sam Burley ༒
Theros: Beyond D📖eath brought an interesting new full-art cycle to the game with its Nyx lands, basic lands that reimagined Magic’s iconic mana symbols as constellations in the night sky. All of these, each created by artist Sam Burley, are stunning in their own way, but his take on a Forest may just be the best of the lot.
There’s a light element of humour here, the green mana symbol hanging in space like some kind of cosmic broccoli, but the pervading feeling is one of wonder. The twinkli💧ng lights, soaring cloud columns and impeccable use of lighting all come together to create a Forest variant that’s as simple as they come, yet still grand and mysterious enough to catch your eye.
7 𝄹 Eternal Night Swamp, By Dan Mumford
The retro, B-movie horror vibes of Innistrad: Midnight Hunt and Crimson Vow were most clearly seen in the subsequent Double Feature expansion, but they also manifested in the full-art lands in each set, which employed☂ a monochromatic palette to great effect. Dan Mumford’s contributions to this lineup are all excellent, but thiᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚs particular Swamp may be the best of the lot.
The most striking thing about it is the clever use of blurred white to simulate fog, in order to mask much of the background and create that 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:trademark sense of Innistrad unease. The way that everything in the piece, fro🎃m the buildings to the trees, seems to slan൲t slightly reinforces this idea; something’s not right here, and the two unfortunate figures in the centre will learn that soon enough.
6 Ukiyo-e 🌸Mountain, By Ayami Nakashima 𓄧
Featuring Japanese text and traditional Japanese woodblock-style art, the Ukiyo-e full-art land cycle from Ka🧸migawa: Neon Dynasty was a nꦐice nod to the past in such a futuristic set. Ayami Nakashima’s Mountain is a highlight here, impressing through its union of the real and the fantastical.
The snow-capped volcanoes, wreathed in clouds, accurately reflect the geography of Japan (and Kamigawa, the Plane based on it), while the distant Dragon, and it’s lingering flames in the foreground, add an expected element of myth while still respecting the traditions 🍌of Japanese ar♍t and culture.
5 Metropolis ๊🐈Mountain, By Ann-Sophie De Steur
As a Plane entirely composed of one isolated city, New Capenna was always going to have some unique basic lands on offer. The Metropolis full-art lands take this a step further, however, making use of a 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:strong art deco style to reflect not only the setting, bu๊t 💞the era that inspired the Plane as well.
By taking a step back, Ann-Sophie De Steur presents the entire city as a single Mountain, a towering structure of glitz and glass illuminated by spotlights from below. The reds and ye♏llows used to loosely define the piece match the usual Mountain colour scheme, while also providing a strong contrast with the dark, empty background.
4 💮 Stained-Glass Plains, By Magali Villeneuve
Stained-glass was a running theme in Dominaria United, apt for a set focused on history and legendary characters above all else. This style was used for Showcase creatures, 𓂃but it shone the brightest when🥃 used for the full-art lands in the set, of which this Plains from Magali Villeneuve is the clear highlight.
With its swords, floating castles and drifting feathers, this piece captures Dominaria’s signature brand of heroic fantasy brilliantly. The central Plains symbol being cast as the sun rising over the land, a symbol of hope in the face of the set’s creeping dread,ꦑ is a final, wonderful touch.
3 Orbital 🍬S꧅pace-ic Plains, By Adam Paquette
While168澳洲幸运5开奖网: the set&r🐬squo;s borderless Shock landꦑs drew the most attention, Unfinity’s full-art basic lands are something to behold as well. Nearly removing the art bo🦋rders entirely, perhaps to reflect the boundless nature of the expansion’s space setting, these lands recast mana sources as alien planets to dazzling effect.
Adam Paquette’s Plains st🅘ands out among these for its oddly immersive quality. Looking over this art, you feel as though the waves of light spreading out from this unnamed planet are about to wash over you, or that you could reach out and send one of the foreground asteroids spinning with just a touch of your finger. It’s oddly hypnotic, making it a dangerous deck choice for the easily-distracted.
2 Mech Island, By Robin Olausson 𒀰
The full-art Mech lands introduced in The Brother🎃s’ War break a fundamental rule of basic lands by featuring mechanical characters prominently rather than just landscapes. It’s a fitting subversion for a set that focuses on a huge, Plane-engulfing war, reminding the viewer that nowhere is safe from the Broth♔ers’ fearsome creations.
Robin Olausson’s Island may just be the best of this cycle, showing a huge golem 𒅌emerging from the sea like an extra in Pacific Rim, the water dripping from its frame illuminated by its headlamps and flashes of lightning in the background. Meanwhile, a huge wave rises in the foreground, a natural force that balances out the man-made force that doꦫminates the scene.
1 Phyrexianizedཧ Swamp, By Mark Riddick ♒
Neatly conveying 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:the horrific beauty of New Phyrexia, Mark Riddick’s Phyrexianized full-art lands are some of the most striking we&rs🦋quo;ve seen yet. The use of Phyrexian text is a great start, making it clear just how different these are to normal lands, while the brilliantly twisted imagery used in the main art hammers this home even further.
The Swamp is the best of the cycle, showing the black mana symbol being slowly drenched in ichor, as two avatars of death look on from the sides. The background details, spindly bones and close-packed fl♍esh, ensure the piece is speaking the visual language of Phyrexia as well as the written one.