I’ve always thought that Portal art really stood out. I don’t know why, but they used some of Magic’s iconic artists (Melissa Benson, Rebecca Guay, rk post, Brom, Phil Foglio, Ron Spencer, and others) alongside newer people with flavorful takes on typical cards and images. The result is a very tasteful, colorful, and interesting landscape.

Some of the lesser-known names, such as Charles Gillespie, Jeffrey R. Busch, and Ted Naifeh gave us some great works. Then, add in the delightful and unusual art from Portal Three Kingdoms, and you just have these sets littered with noteworthy piece after piece.

Because these have often been banished into the backwoods of Portal, many people haven’t encountered them. I try to run them when I can—I still think the best Earthquake art of all time was the Portal Second Age one—or the best Untamed Wilds the Portal Second Age version, and so forth.

In order to give these artists and their works some more attention, I figured I would bring some of them out to you today. In fact, there are so many fun pieces to highlight that this will be a two-parter. But I want you to feel these classic pieces that have languished in relative obscurity.

So, let’s get our Portal started!

Alabaster Dragon – This version's art is a huge improvement on the Weatherlight artwork. I love the stained window; the art is quite interesting. Plus, how many legs and claws does this Dragon have? It's not your normal picture of a Dragon!

Alaborn Musketeer – I think it's dumb that Magic generally has massively advanced artifice to the point of highly complex objects but that we can't get a simple gun to work. I approve of the guns in Portal Second Age artwork, and I would love to see more. See also: Alaborn Zealot, which is also a subtle card to run in your next deck.

Alluring Scent – Melissa Benson was one of the iconic artists in the early days of Magic. Some of my favorite art from that era (see Syphon Soul) came from her brush. Her Shivan Dragon was among the original combinations of great picture and great card. Alluring Scent is another of her works that looks really nice, but it's been banished to this sucktastic card.

Ancestral Memories – Each of the three arts for Ancestral Memories has a different take on the card, and I think each is interesting. This one is neat because it's your typical bibliophile scene in blue, but I think Dan Frazier does a really compelling job getting it across. From the hat to the colors, it my favorite image of the three.

Archangel – When WotC chose to put Archangel in the Commander set, I'm glad they mined older artwork with the first Portal’s Quinton Hoover version. His early Magic art was some of the most unique and definitive of the early Magic era. And yet, I'm a bit disappointed that they skipped the opportunity to put the rk post work from Portal Second Age on display. Despite the card being reprinted decently over the years, we have never seen this great work—and if you know rk post, you already know the art will be amazing.

Bargain – And now we have left the As behind—yay! Here's a solid Phil Foglio piece. It's not his best Portal work, but it has his playful take on all things Magic in style.

Blaze – This bad X spell was reprinted a lot, but two works were never seen again. I love the red Blaze from Portal Three Kingdoms because it shows red blowing up boats. Usually, when you see red burning blue's stuff, it’s a Drake. Here, it’s boats on the water—and the art is good (it's part of the story of the Red Cliffs Battle). Take a look at the Portal Second Age art while you are at it—it’s another great piece that was sadly not reprinted. Why they chose to use the first Portal’s art and Seventh Edition art again and again is beyond me when these two images were both better by far.

Brimstone Dragon – Are you surprised that this card has never been reprinted in anything? I know I am! The Dragon looks good, and the only change I’d want is to perhaps to go a little closer to the guy.

Charging Paladin – The Portal art for this card gives a different perspective to the normal knights-on-horseback image that we see on cards. That’s what makes photos work better, and I like it for this art, too. It’s not a sexy card, so instead, we see something with a different view.

Cloud Dragon – It’s a cloud and a Dragon. How to you represent that? It could be a Dragon swooping down from a high cloud or perhaps a Dragon that is on top of a cloud, drifting about. But no, let’s actually make it a cloud! (I loathe the Grand Creature Type update, which made it an Illusion when it doesn’t look at all like one—it would have made more sense to give it the Elemental type).

Cloud Pirates – Phil Foglio strikes again. (See also: Sleight of Hand here.)

Coercion – All ten of artist Jeffrey R. Busch’s Magic cards have been from Portal Second Age. You might not know these ten cards. But I have to tell you, they are all among some of the best work in the sets, and they’re really good takes. You might know Natural Spring because it was reprinted. Many of his cards are just works of art: Portal Second Age Untamed Wilds here, Portal Second Age Earthquake here, the original art for Cruel Edict here, and other cards, such as Festival of Trokin here and the Portal Second Age Coercion. He gives wonderful color, pop, and details in the work, and I just adore it. I don’t know what happened, but I just wish we would have seen more of his work. He is singlehandedly one of the reasons that Portal art is so good. I won’t hit him up each time a card would pop up—I’ll show you some of his best here.

Dark Offering – The angel gets snuffed out. And you gain some life, too! Sure, the card sucks compared to stuff like Sever Soul, but this is about the art, and the angel’s impending lightshow . . . er, death . . . is really fun to see.

Deathcoil Wurm – Here, we have another Rebecca Guay piece with the Wurm about to chomp down on some Nightstalkers. It’s lunch time, and these guys are on the menu. The menu of art that is! (That joke did not make any sense at all. But rather than edit it out, I thought I would leave it here so you could make fun of me—or ignore me and move on to the next Serpent–Wurm thing.)

Deep-Sea Serpent – Apparently, I like color in my art. Here, we have the obligatory underwater-serpent, destroyed-boat scene, with a lot of color to it. Would this have been better art than some similar styles in Theros block?

Extinguish – This Counterspell variant has great art from the Portal Three Kingdoms set. I love the fire being dispelled in the background, making it more of a literal extinguishing than the previous art from the card, which looked at it more as a mystic extinguishing of a wizard’s eldritch power.

False Mourning – I love how a lot of the cards that were made in Portal Three Kingdoms reflect existing Magic concepts, but instead have a real-world feel (such as Deception instead of Mind Rot). False Mourning makes perfect sense tactically, and the art with the banner flown and the gate is nice. I wish we might have seen a different scene (such as a funeral scene), but this image has a grim feel to it that I like.

Fire Dragon – Do you like Spitting Earth but you always wanted it on a Dragon? Did you love it in Spawn of Thraxes? Well, here’s another go around the bidet for you! I’m not sure if the Dragon is dancing or something—it’s an odd pose. But the tail igniting up a nice ol’ fire in the back, probably getting ready for the next Shivan barbeque.

Fire Imp – DiTerlizzi does one of the iconic Portal creatures a great service with this mischievous-looking Imp. It’s among the more commonly-played guys in casual circles, so many of you might be more familiar with it.

Fruition – Steve Luke was among the reasons Mirage block was so much fun. His Mind Rot art from Portal was so powerful that despite being reprinted in nine subsequent core sets, they always used his art. He does Abyssal Hunter, Coral Fighters, and Scalebane's Elite. He has several Portal works of note, such as Bog Raiders and Devastation, but it is this janky Fruition that is among the best of his twenty-nine pieces in Magic. You have great colors and the monk–shaman guy in the middle all meditating and such. This art deserves a better home than this card.

Hand of Death – Do you like cute bear cubs? Don’t look at this card! Heather Hudson is the anti-bear! Her spooky Portal Second Age Hand of Death is a huge improvement on the Portal art, and it has the spectral hand ending the life of our poor bear. Sad bear.

Ingenious Thief – Much like Ancestral Memories, Dan Frazier does a suitably solid job here with our good Thief friend. We’ve gotten away from this early Arabian–Middle Eastern subtheme that the early game had due to cards like this, Mahamoti Djinn, and the Arabian Nights expansion.

King's Assassin – First of all, this is one of my favorite arts on the Assassin cards of all time. The others typically look like some guy hanging out in a dark room or swamp. But here, we have a character about to kill some random guy walking past the curtain. The scene is suitably in a palace or a keep or some sort. The Assassin blends in perfectly, so it feels much more realistic, and the art has a bit of color to it as well. Also, I think this is Zina Saunders’s best piece of art for Magic as well.

Kiss of Death – Hello again, Melissa Benson! I still love your colors and style so much! (See also: Norwood Priestess here or Rain of Daggers here.)

Lady Sun – She’s not exactly a major character from Portal Three Kingdoms, and the ability isn’t exactly the super-best match to her character in the books. But the art is really well done, and I would covet owning it in a black-bordered cardboard edition.

Lava Axe – The original art for this card from Urza’s Legacy is great at doing its job. Virtually every reprint since has been that art, even through Magic 2014. The Portal art is not really that good, but I do like the Portal Second Age interpretation of the card. I wonder if it could have been the path taken and reprinted heavily.

Lu Meng, Wu General – This is another of the legendary characters from P3K that I think has really strong art. Sometimes, the lesser characters are the ones that have the best art, such as Diaochan, Artful Beauty, Lu Meng, and Lady Sun. But hold onto your seat—someone else might make this cut, too! Maybe next week . . .

Lynx – I think Rebecca Guay turns in a very good interpretation of the Lynx in this majestic art that suits the card style, flavor text, and ability. Frankly, I would prefer reprint of the Lynx over stuff like Zodiac Monkey.

Marshaling the Troops – Love the art, the concept, and the detail that Liu Shangying brings out in this piece. Plus, this is a card that could be reprinted someday (with the generic name), and perhaps it could even keep the original art! While I didn’t list them, Liu Shangying’s other two pieces from P3K Council of Advisors and Heavy Fog are both pretty solid, too. I would have loved to have seen Magic pieces outside of the Chinese outré by this talented brush.

Moaning Spirit – Hello again, Rebecca Guay. I really enjoy the card’s feel, but I wish the main character was zoomed in on a bit.

Monstrous Growth – This is not really the best card ever; both the Portal and Portal Second Age art are better than the Ron Spencer one that was reprinted again and again in core sets. Do you want a giant cat or squirrel? Then check out these pieces!

Mountain Goat – All right: You vote. Which is better, the original Ice Age art that was reprinted twice or this fun Una Fricker piece from Portal that few of you have seen? Grab your Goatnappers!

Well, I hope you enjoyed this trek through the first half of cards. Despite us counting down a virtual passel of cards, we still have a bunch more to get to next week. This is a fun time for all! Which pieces of these were your favorite? Do you disagree with my assessment of them? Let me know!

See you next week,

Abe Sargent