The fine folks at MTG Manager have one of the favorite apps for fans of the game. Now they are toying around with an AR option that could display information about each card and possibly animate the images. This concept video of what it might look like live is pretty neat! Read the rest
See sample pages from this book at Wink.
It was right before Christmas and I was desperate for a present for a Magic: The Gathering player. When I asked knowledgable friends if there was such a thing as a Pokédex-style guide to all the MTG cards available, I was directed towards The Art of Magic: The Gathering: Zendikar.
This coffee-table book is limited to art from the Zendikar set, the most recent card collection published by Wizards of the Coast. There is no reference book showing all MTG cards from its 20-plus year history, and this book will not scratch that itch; there are too many cards out there, thousands and thousands, for that to be a reasonable project in 2016. But if you’re someone who would like a MTG-dex to exist, then you’re going to want this on your coffee table.
The text isn’t an analysis of the artwork, but instead is closer to a nature guide to Zendikar — the plane (or planet) of this set — and a retelling of the plot behind the collection. Parts are amusingly reminiscent of Lonely Planet travel guides: “In one spot on Murasa’s towering cliffs, the Tajuru elves created a passable route over the wall. The route, consisting of steep, winding switchbacks and a few rickety wooden lifts, ins now maintained by humans and guarded by ogres, all in the service of an ogre named Kazuul. Upon reaching the top, travelers must pay tribute to Kazuul, and if the Tyrant of the Cliffs is not satisfied, he hurls them right back down the way they came as punishment for their impudence.”
A six-page appendix is the only place where the book breaks character, as Mark Rosewater — the designer of the Zendikar and Battle for Zendikar card sets — describes the years-long process by which the writers, artists, and art directors create a new world. Read the rest
YouTube user OpenBooster uses his aptly-named account to open booster packs of Magic: The Gathering cards.
Witness his palpable delight when he pulls one of the Power Nine cards from an unopened 20-year-old Alpha set, a mint-condition Black Lotus. Last year a similar card sold for over $27,000.
The excitement starts at about 8 minutes in.
