Card art in Magic: The Gathering needs to tell the story of a character or moment while also being cool enough for players to be proud to display in their collections. Reality Fracture is easily one of the better sets for art in recent memory, and this is in part due to the extremely strong story, but the artists still needed to deliver some awesome materials to do it justice, and they absolutely nailed the assignment.
We’re going to look at some of our favorite cards from the set, covering everything from base cards to variants of the rarest cards, and we’ll also throw in a few that disappointed us. We’ll pick at most one card per variant type, excluding base cards, so we don’t fill the list with countless shattered mirror or Japan showcase cards.
Way Of The Mind Sculptor – Josh Hass
Part of the Empower Jace cycle of cards, Way of the Mind Sculptor comes in with stunning symbolic artwork that captures the side of Jace we’ve come to know since things started going pear-shaped at the beginning of this story arc.
Jace seems composed and stern, but the scattered portals to the left of the card come across like a representation of how he’s lost and doesn’t quite know his way back, which ultimately comes to be true when his plan ends with him dead and the Echoverse consumed by Emrakul.
Overwrite The Multiverse – Pedro Correa
We almost selected a different version of this card for this list, but ultimately, the Secret Lair Bundle version of Overwrite the Multiverse won us over that little bit more, and lands itself a spot on our list.
This is exactly the kind of art we would love to have a blown-up copy of to hang on our wall, but it still works so well shrunk down onto a Magic card.
It perfectly captures Jace’s loneliness, but also the narcissistic, power-hungry side that drove him to create the Echoverse and try to destroy the Multiverse in the first place.
Liliana The Faultless – Marta Nael
It’s not too often that the base variant of a card is the best version artistically, but we feel this way about Liliana the Faultless.
There’s a regality to this artwork that really hammers home that this isn’t the Liliana that we’ve come to know in the Multiverse. It also perfectly captures Liliana’s move to being a white Cleric rather than the black Warlock we’ve been so used to.
Proft, Sinister Mastermind – Lindsey Look
Some of the best card art comes when you can predict the card name from the image, and with Proft, Sinister Mastermind, this couldn’t be truer. This card is up there with its counterpart as one of the best-designed Echoed Pairs in terms of artwork, because both ooze style while staying simple and nailing the brief.
Surveillance Phantasm – Randy Vargas
Bird Jace.
Return To The Light Realms – Magali Villeneuve
There’s a good reason why the facet foil or shattered mirror cards have been pushed so hard in the marketing for Reality Fracture, because just look at this card! Not every facet foil is a win, but the majority are, and Return to the Light Realms is head and shoulders above them all, perfectly showcasing the story of two realities colliding.
We get to see both the white and black versions of Liliana on the same card, and the way they intertwine is perfection.
Face Yourself – Jack Hughes
Our pick from the Braintwister cards has to be Face Yourself. There are some brilliant designs to choose from, but this is on another level. Everything about this card’s composition is perfect, and the longer you look, the more you appreciate every little detail.
When we first laid eyes on this card, we only saw the skull, but that facade quickly breaks down as you look more closely, and our eyes start to drift toward the almost mirrored characters. Each time we look at the card, our eyes are drawn to a different aspect of the artwork, and sometimes we still see the skull first, and other times it’s the other perspective.
Gardenize – Toru Terada
From the Japan showcase cards, our pick is Gardenize. A classic green ramp enchantment, the card toes a very fine line between doing too much and doing just enough.
The art is busy, vibrant, and beautiful, and like many other cards in this set, the longer you stare at it, the more you’ll appreciate it as you discover extra little details.
Vraska’s Final Mercy – Darius Zablockis
Our pick from the Sculptor’s Stronghold cards is Vraska’s Final Mercy. This one hits you right in the feels, especially if you followed the Reality Fracture lore as it dropped.
This card tells an entire story through its gorgeous design, and it’s surprisingly emotional. Staring at Vraska and Jace caught in this embrace tells us everything we need to know about how they feel for each other, and while the base card art also captures the moment that Vraska delivers the fatal blow, that isn’t necessary here; instead, it’s painted as the two of them finding a memory they can both share from a much better time, right before Vraska does what she needs to do to save the Multiverse.
- Franchise
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Magic: The Gathering
- Original Release Date
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August 5, 1993
- Designer(s)
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Richard Garfield
