One of the most important things about a card is the art that goes with it. We usually recognize cards by art before text. Sometimes, when I think about it, that makes me sad—so much great art is locked away in these Portal cards that many have never really seen—or at least held in their hands.

Last week, I decided to count down half of the fun cards with really inspiring art that I thought you might want to see. We only made it through half of the list, though, because it really is that big! This week, we’ll finish off the list and look at some real gems.

Art matters. So let’s look at some!

Nature's Lore – If you played Duel Decks: Garruk vs. Liliana, you might have seen the reprinted copy of Terese Nielsen’s Portal art. Nature's Lore has a large amount of art out there considering the low number of reprints it’s had. Terese’s is the best of the lot, and I love how the gown flows into a water like thing over on the right.

Needle Storm – I love Charles Gillespie’s stuff, such as Living Death and the Tempest version of Rain of Tears. Needle Storm is also pretty keen. The lightning in the background makes the piece.

Noxious Toad – Note that this card forces all opponents to discard when it dies—the wording has been massaged a bit to make it very multiplayer-friendly. Besides, who doesn’t want a stinky toad on his or her side of the board? Artist Adrian Smith has a few really good pieces, such as Fallen Askari and Nekrataal. His Toad is pretty useful, too.

Path of Peace – Ever since Swords to Plowshares, we’ve had this undercurrent of white removing creatures via turning them into lovers of peace, not war (such as Pacifism or this card). This is my favorite of the three arts for Path of Peace, but everyone interprets these things differently. How do you show someone leaving war for love? Here, we have the idyllic countryside and house scene, full of harvested goods, with the sword hanging on the wall. We don’t even have a person in view, and I think that’s an interesting take on the concept—this is the effect that a Path of Peace had. I love it.

Personal Tutor – D. Alexander Gregory was one of the distinctive artists who treated us to their works early in the days of Magic. From Cursed Scroll to Persecute, his style was great. They’ve brought him back a few times for other stuff (such as Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker or Chandra, the Firebrand). Personal Tutor is yet another sample of why the early days of Magic art really married a sense of personal style with the subject in question. Enjoy it!

Piracy – The four pieces of Brad Williams are all in Portal Second Age, and the others have just as much of a consistent feel as this one does. (His other pieces are Just Fate, Town Sentry, and Armored Griffin.) He gives us a scene here in Piracy from a different vantage than might otherwise have been expected.

Prosperity – This is not just one of Phil Foglio’s best pieces in the Portal sets, but it’s among my favorites of his of all time! I love the luxurious folks laying back and being served by others, such as the faerie with the drink. I still run this version in my decks as much as possible. Taunt is also really, really strong, too.

Ravenous Rats – Like a few other cards in this list, one piece of art has tended to dominate virtually all of the printings of the card. So check out the Portal Second Age art! It’s a great version of a similar scene, and Edward P. Beard, Jr. really has a nice style in marrying the expected art with new colors and placement. I particularly like the background better.

Relentless Assault – There are two Relentless Assaults for you to look at. One of my favorite artists of all time is Tom Wanerstrand. I adore his use of watercolors, and some of my favorite lands of all time (I’m looking at you, Mirage Plains) were done by him. So, the Portal Second Age version of this iconic red sorcery tickles my fancy. As does the Portal Three Kingdoms art that He Jiancheng has for us. I loved the militaristic style and the dead person in the foreground. It’s another card I’d like to have in black border someday. Sigh.

Renewing Touch – Is Galadriel helping heal Frodo? With some random chick beside him? It seems like an obvious callback for Guay.

Rockslide Ambush – This is, by far, one of my favorite P3K arts. Sure, the card is just a Spitting Earth, so it’s no sass there. Inoue Junichi did the wonderful Yuan Shao, the Indecisive and Dong Zhou, the Tyrant as well. (And that’s it.) The Ambush fits because you see the people working together from far away, with the large rock about to attack. I love the sense of scale it has and the color around it. I want Inoue Junichi to draw some Mountains!

Salvage – Bonjour, Keith Parkinson. Welcome back from drawing a bunch of art for D&D. From Dragonlance to Forgotten Realms, this guy did a lot of iconic art, including covers of major books that I have read and enjoyed. I like the choice of changing color in the leaves to give the piece added depth and color. Thanks for hitting us up! (This guy even put a lot of work into cards like Volunteer Militia, which you know no one will ever remember.)

Scorching Winds – Herald the return of D. Alexander Gregory. This was the card that inspired this article duo. It’s an unknown piece on a bad variant of Sandstorm. But it’s a lot of fun—take a look at the people, the winds, and the colors. It all works really well. Thanks for inspiring me!

Serpent Assassin – This is the Nekrataal creature people often forget about (if they ever knew). The Snake Assassin strikes! I love how the Assassin is striking in the swamps (appropriate this time due to the concept of the card) and killing some random dork in front. I also love that little blue rose in the bottom-right corner. What is that doing there?

Spitting Earth – This is Portal Second Age, baby! Not just Rockslide Ambush this time, but the original card is here to rock things out, too. Do you know who David Horne is? I have no idea—he did a mighty four pieces of work, all for Portal Second Age—but we’ve already looked at Alaborn Zealot. Temple Elder is nice, too. Again, he’s one of these random artists who did really delightful, colorful, and wonderful interpretations of cards in Portal Second Age that helped make the set as good as it is. Do you know what makes me sad? This artwork was not the one chosen to be reprinted, so it’s a lonely Earth.

Steam Frigate – Portal Second Age is the land of steam and stuff. Well, go grab your best Steampunk glasses and don them, good madam and sir, because the Steam Frigate is here and ready to set sail on a new adventure. We could see a spot of choppy water, I say. Even the pirates have these sorts of vessels round ‘bout.

Sylvan Basilisk – A lot of people adored Ron Spencer’s work in the earlier era of Magic. Here, we have a nice, shiny, metallic-looking serpent, with all of the expected amounts of nastiness. And then, when we reprinted it for Tenth Edition, we used random new art that was none of those things. It looked like a baby lizard trying to find its mother. So get your Spencer on!

Symbol of Unsummoning – I have to admit it. I have two of Adam Rex’s books: Frankenstein Takes the Cake and Frankenstein Makes a Sandwich. I really enjoy them as lovely coffee-table books that impress folks. Here’s a chance to see some of his MTG work, too—and get a feel for his style.

Talas Researcher – Say hello to the other Foglio: Kaja. One of my favorite things about Kaja is how regularly she would illustrate people of non-European ancestry quite regularly, even outside of Mirage block (or Arabian Nights). From Spirit Link to Hydroblast, and from this card to Kismet, it was something I really respected about her art. She has some of the great early opportunities to shine, and cards like Magus of the Unseen and Bottle Gnomes were great. Talas Researcher is another situation when an iconic early artist was given a spot in the Portal artwork (see also Sylvan Tutor, Touch of Brilliance, or Summer Bloom).

Temporary Truce – I have no clue why one side is a well-dressed, Arabian-looking fella and the other side gets a lizard dude with his best Conan the Barbarian impersonation. But I like how they are proponing themselves up by sucking in their chests in order to get one over on the other. That’s a lovely, whimsical touch that makes the picture.

Thing from the Deep – I chomp boats. With each tooth the size of an entire boat, this Thing from the Deep is looking for a snack. Paolo Parente has long had a strong, unusual style in his Magic cards, and this one evinces that Parente quality without the need for creatures with comic-sized muscles.

Trokin High Guard – Here’s another Ron Spencer sighting! And it’s another gun sighting! And this time, they are on a simple 3/3 Hill Giant in white. These are the sorts of cards that Drafts are built on—but that people have little memory of later on. But Ron Spencer doesn’t care! He’ll make you like this picture with that crazy red banner/necktie thing.

Vengeance – A bullet renders all sizes equal. Welcome to Portal Second Age, a world with steam engines, guns, and air ships. Plus, there’s another Keith Parkinson appearance; we need more bullets please.

Wall of Swords – Wall of Swords has been in a lot of sets, and it’s had some decent art. I don’t like the Hannibal King stuff from Seventh Edition and Eighth Edition, and the Brian Snoddy work in Fifth Edition and Sixth Edition felt a bit by-the-numbers, but the Zoltan Boros and Gabor Szikszai one is pretty sexy. Douglas Shuler does another workmanlike one, and frankly, it’s my second-favorite Wall of Swords art out there. I think you either need to be really close up for this image to work or far away and see something good—which both of the ones I enjoy do very well.

Warrior's Oath – Another P3K card I enjoy is this guy swearing an oath to win the battle—or forfeit his life. What I would have loved to have seen in Theros was a Greek reprint called Warrior's Oath, but with the theme that you will either come back with your shield or on it. Nevertheless, I love the scene here and how it works to illustrate the concept perfectly.

Wicked Pact – Adam Rex arrives with another great card!

Wildfire – Here’s another variant of a card we already know. Every printed version of this card has the original artwork from Urza’s Saga—except for this one. Rob Alexander is a name known to many, and here, his work is very suitable to the card. In fact, you could just reframe this art as a Mountain, and that would work, too!

Winds of Change – How does one illustrate changing winds? Two of the three selections have used weather vanes. The original is odd—why is this spear-toting guy putting on or taking off a skull mask? I don’t get it. The later version is also weak. But the Portal take on it works, with a weathervane–ship construction, encircled by symbols of war. It even has pretty colors!

Wood Elves – This is the last entry of Rebecca Guay to consider. Since she did the original art for this card in Exodus, this is interesting to see a different take by the same person on the cards. They might even be the same elves. The road not taken . . . 

Wu Infantry – I haven’t touched on a lot of these generic Soldier cards for the three kingdoms of Shu, Wei, and Wu. They tend to be fairly decent with expected artwork in the style of Chinese art. To my mind, this one rises above the rest. I love the purple skies and the color of this art. Even the color of the clothes, the fun shield, and the Chinese lantern give this a nice feel to it. I’d proudly put this on my wall.

Zhang Fei, Fierce Warrior – Many of the legendary creatures from P3K are just sort of posing—or far in the distance. This one shows Zhang Fei in battle, with a decent close up, and it’s well-detailed. From the dust his horse is kicking up to the look of joy on his face as he goes to battle, he is coming for you!

Zhou Yu, Chief Commander – Another card by Xu Xiaoming, who also drew Wu Infantry, Lu Xun, Scholar General, and Sun Quan, Lord of Wu, we finish with a lovely bit of work. Again, it’s a bit too pose-y for my tastes (all made up words are my own), like he’s taking a selfie. But within that, you get a strong sense of the character, the art, the colors, and the ship. The result is a fun piece to end this series on. Thanks! (Again, Xu Xiaoming was a missed opportunity—all six of his pieces are rather good and interesting.)

Man, that was a metric tonne of art! Which cards were your favorites? What artists struck you? Were there any missing that you think I should have incorporated into these articles? Let me know what you think! And, as always, thanks for reading.

See you next week,

Abe Sargent