The wonderful difference between core sets and expansions is that the core set gets to cherry pick art from all the past printings of its cards. In a case where appropriate art cannot be found in a pool of previous printings, new art can be assigned (and usually gets tossed to one of Magic's current buttkicking artists.) Tenth Edition has, in my opinion, really taken advantage of this system and put together a set with both amazing quality and amazing diversity. Not only does it sport some dandy scratchings from new kids on the block, but it also reprints, as it well should, some of the artistic doozies of the old days.
I just had a thought. A few weeks back, in my article Where Numbers and Colors Collide, I set up a pointing system to try and quantify and compare the quality of art in an older Magic set (Mirage) and a newer one (Future Sight). Tenth Edition gives us the best of both worlds. Just for fun, I am going to jump into pointing Tenth and we'll see what happens.
In case you have not read When Numbers and Colors Collide, here's what the rating scale looks like:
5. Wow! This is good in so many ways that I don't care to point out any flaws.
4. I like this a lot. (Fill in your favorite artist's name here) could have done it better, but it's still really good.
3. Pretty cool. Solid piece. I don't feel too strongly one way or the other.
2. There are some problems here that make it hard to enjoy the parts that are working.
1. Um... How did that make it past the art director's desk?
Just for a little refresher, here's how Mirage and Future Sight shook out. (Note, the Future Sight score was misrepresented as a 3 in When Numbers and Colors Collide.)
| Mirage White – 2.6 Blue - 3.0 Black – 3.1 Red – 2.9 Green – 2.9 Gold – 2.8 Artifacts – 3.1 Lands – 2.5 Total – 2.9 |
Future Sight White – 3.1 Blue – 3.5 Black – 3.3 Red – 3.2 Green – 3.2 Gold – 2.7 Artifacts – 3.1 Lands – 3.8 Total – 3.3 |
Tenth Edition White – 3.4 Blue - 3.2 Black – 3.3 Red – 3.1 Green – 3.2 Artifacts – 3.3 Lands – 3.5 Total – 3.3 |
I was a bit surprised to see that this all-star team came out with the same score as Future Sight. I thought it might have nudged the bar up a little higher. It does say a lot that a set with 383 cards in it can maintain the same quality level as a set with 200 fewer cards. It also says a lot about the consistency of quality across Tenth Edition to have all five colors, artifacts, and lands keep an average of 3 or higher. Not a lot of 2s in Tenth, folks—and not a 0 in the bunch. 383 cards and no 0s, that's a feat to be acknowledged. Kudos to Jarvis for doing a little weeding and letting this garden bloom.
And what fun would an article about Magic art be without looking at any? Prepare your peepers, slavering art goobs, I am going to show you all the pieces that I scored as 5s. I am sure that I left out art to which you might give a 5. Everybody likes different stuff. But, I am also pretty darn sure that the ones I am going to show you are big-time winners.
I really wanted to show you more. There are a boatload of 4s that really deserve some time in the spotlight. But that boat is so loaded that it's nearly tipping over, and at risk of falling into the sea where I am thrashing about in a never-ending swell—drowning, drowning in art! Blame it all on Jarvis. His red-hot artists are melting the polar ice caps. There is too much water. Only Kevin Costner, with his perforated ears and fourth-grader's acting skills, can save us all.