Hello all! I hope that you are having an amazing and awesome day today! Today I want to take another deep dive into some great art that is in Kaldheim. It's a deep set loaded with goods. This is my third such article:
1. The First Top Ten - Which has a Mythic Angel as its top card! You can check it out here.
2. The Second Top Ten - This features another great set of my favorite art including its top card as another piece of Angel art! You can check it out here!
Want to see some more of my favorite art from the set? Sure thing! Now please note that I am not a trained art critic nor an artist so I cannot come to these reviews from those angles. I am just a fan!
10. Smashing Success
Let's kick off my list with this Red common! This is my #10 card in this list and #31 overall favorite piece of art from the set. Didn't Slawomir Maniak do a great job here? I love how well the rock is breaking and the action seems to be captured quite nicely by our artist. I also really like the use of blue here that shows off the action and rock nicely and it seems like a strong choice of color by Slawomir Maniak. This is the 157th piece of work by Maniak! You can check out the entire 150+ catalog on Gatherer.
9. Old-Growth Troll
My favorite part of this beautiful piece is the sky. Just...look that sky. It's so affecting to me. I just can't get enough of it. Can you? Nope? Great! It's not just me! The details and skin of the Troll Warrior are strong in this piece as well. This is not Jesper Ejsing's first appearance on my countdown, nor will it be the last, I hope! Jesper is also in the 150+ pieces of art club at 167 and you can view them all on Gatherer. Enjoy the deep dive into Jesper's work!
8. Bretagard Stronghold
Take a looksee at this gorgeous land! Love it! I love the contrast of the Stronghold proper with the trees and grass and the nice browns and the deep greens. The sky is great, and the details are well crafted. The entire thing strikes me as gorgeous! I love it lots! Who crafted this gorgeous art? Jung Park did! Again, not Jung's first appearance in one of my countdowns! Park has 62 pieces of work in the MTG canon. You might know Bountiful Promenade, Chromatic Lantern, City of Brass, Comet Storm, Inkmoth Nexus, Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx, Skysovereign, Consul Flagship, or Thopter Spy Network. My favorite might be Fork in the Road. Maybe. What's yours?
7. Kolvori, God of Kinship // The Ringhart Crest
This is our only God on today's list. I built a Commander deck around Kolvori which I like a lot! You can find it here. I also really enjoy the art for this God and her Crest as well! Check it out! Look at the wolf and bear in her art. See how that are showing the magic through them? How much talent must Grzegorz Rutkowski have to create that light effect! I'm very impressed by it. Kolvori is well-crafted as well with a great work and look on her face and figure alike. Love it! Again, this is not Grzegorz Rutkowski's first appearance in my other countdowns either. 79 pieces of art have been crafted for the game. You can check them out here.
6. Kardur, Doomscourge
I know that this fun Rakdos uncommon really made a lot of Commander fans happy. As of right now Kardur already has 97 decks registered over at EDHREC.com. He was also in my top lists of the best cards in the set for kitchen table fun times! I enjoy the card a lot. As you can see from it hitting just outside of top 5, I enjoy the art for The Scourge of Doom as well. The energy arcing around is very ably done by Chris Rahn. The Demon-y parts of our good Kardur are fleshed out nicely with a good eye to detailing, coloring, and the body position. Everything here is just so well done. Great job Chris! How many other pieces has Chris done? 180! I know! That's a lot! You can check them out here.
Welcome to my Top 5!
5. Runed Crown
This is our only artifact on today's list. Randy Gallegos is MTG Royalty. 157 pieces of art (you can check them out here). that include a lot of big-name cards down through the years. He is an old school artist that was making art for the game in the old art. He has art so old that's it on cards on the Reserved List! You might know some of his hits like Earthcraft, Soul Warden and the first Shock. Now check out Runed Crown, his latest work for MTG. The detail level on this piece is just stunning. I love it so much! It's just another great example of what MTG Royalty can craft!
4. Blood on the Snow
Our highest Black card today is Blood on the Snow. It's a good example of how good a piece of art can be when the artist refrains from over working the points of emphasis. In this case, the key element is the wounded person and the blood on the snow. As you can see, the details and color are quite clear, but everything else is focused on that. There is no background other than mist, so you won't be pulled away from the snow and the blood thereon. It's very nicely done, good job Martina Fackova! She just got started for and she only has three pieces, but this one was nicely done! Her other two pieces are Liliana's Scrounger and Return Upon the Tide, all of which are Black. A theme or a coincidence? Welcome to my first shoutout, Martina!
3. Bind the Monster
Bind that Great Art, amIright? This is Tran Nguyen's second piece of art for the game, the other one is Valkyrie Harbinger from the same set. Both have nice art. Welcome! Bind the Monster is one of the best commons in the set as it has a very powerful effect for just 1 mana. I also really like the great art as well! The energy here is nicely done by Nguyen and you can see the monster's face and body and the pose thereof are all well done. Good job!
2. Battle Ravager
Our highest-charting Red card, uncommon and penultimate card overall is this fun Giant Wizard! The colors! The sky! The rocky Giant skin! The mouth! The small figure that gives the work it's sense of scale! I know! Andrey Kuzinskiy! Good stuff! 15 cards! You were in my article last week, now another! Great work!
1. Blessing of Frost
The top card in today's countdown and overall my 22nd favorite piece of art in the set. Which is pretty good, right? Right! The artist who penned this piece is Mila Pesic, and look at the grandeur of this thing. The snow on the piece feels lovely and well-done. The details of the God Jorn is nice as well. Even the trees in the background? Just nicely illustrated. Good job Pesic! We have 17 other pieces that have been done by Mila Pesic, and they include, Bell Borca, Spectral Sergeant; Faerie Guidemother; the Secret Lair version of Oona, Queen of the Fae; Syr Elenora, the Discerning; and Winter's Rest. This is my favorite Mila Pesic piece, and a shoutout to Demonic Lore. Great job!
And there we go! What did you think of my selections of more favorite art from the set? What did you like? Anything I missed? Just let me know!