MTG’s Secret Lair Prismatic Bridge May Have Traced Existing Art
MagicCon Minneapolis has given us an extensive look at some of the exciting products coming to Magic: The Gathering in the near future, from the upcoming Wilds of Eldraine set to the long-awaited Doctor Who Universes Beyond crossover. There’s also a new Secret Lair Commander deck featuring dual-art foil cards from two separate artists.
From Cute to Brute is a five-color Commander deck featuring Kaldheim’s Esika, God of the Tree as your Commander. The front-facing portion of the card will feature artwork by Nana Qi, while the back-facing art for The Prismatic Bridge is done by the artist GodMachine.
However, fans noticed a striking resemblance between GodMachine’s depiction of Nicol Bolas in The Prismatic Bridge’s artwork and another Magic card: Nicol Bolas, the Arisen from the set M19 by Sventlin Velinov. Bolas’s head looks a little squished in GodMachine’s version, but there’s no denying the similarities are stark.
Looks Like GodMachine copy-pasted the head of Nicol Bolas the Arisen for their Prismatic Bridge art
by u/Saint_Alphonso in magicTCG
Several fans have noticed and have accused GodMachine of tracing Svetnlin’s art for their version of the famous elder dragon. It also has some fans remembering the last time an artist was accused of stealing work to put on a Magic card.
Roughly two years ago, Wizards of the Coast had to sever all ties with Jason Felix for plagiarizing their work on Crux of Fate from Magic’s Strixhaven: School of Mages set. The artwork Jason submitted for Crux of Fate appeared to be a slightly altered version of Nicol Bolas fan art by a DeviantArt user known as Scarypet. Wizards issued a statement of apology saying that the situation did “not reflect the values of Wizards.”
While it’s somewhat humorous that Nicol Bolas is once again the center of a plagiarism accusation, there is at least one large difference between the Crux of Fate and Prismatic Bridge controversies. With Crux of Fate, the artist plagiarized wasn’t associated with Wizards of the Coast, while GodMachine’s Prismatic Bridge appears to be taken from an existing Magic card. It’s possible that GodMachine received permission from Svetlin and Wizards of the Coast to lightly copy their previous work specifically for this Secret Lair card image. Wizards of the Coast has yet to comment one way or the other.
Besides this Commander Secret Lair, Magic’s Walking Dead Universes Beyond crossover will finally see its cards reprinted in the upcoming Wilds of Eldraine set. These mechanically unique cards” have been placed on The List, meaning there’s the potential to find one of these cards in Wilds of Eldraine booster packs.
As with previous reprints of Universes Beyond cards, The Walking Dead reprints will have different names and different artwork to fit into Eldraine’s fairytale aesthetic. Wilds of Eldraine launches on September 18, almost three years after Magic kicked off its Universes Beyond crossovers.
Source: www.thegamer.com
