Magic: The Gathering has long existed as the bridge between card games and fine art. Entrenched in fantasy and magic, Magic: The Gathering card art, on its own, can basically just be framed and hung up in any given gallery. With all that being said, you can generally expect some very high-quality art from Magic: The Gathering as a whole. So when Wizards of the Coast, the team behind Magic: The Gathering, announced they’d be bringing on board a handful of renowned Japanese artists for some incredible sick alternate art in their upcoming War of the Spark release, it only made all too much sense.
If you’re involved in the Magic: The Gathering community, it shouldn’t come as all too much of a surprise that the game has quite a following in Japan. There’s absolutely no shortage of card stores stocking both Japanese and English cards in Tokyo, and there’s a whole bunch of Friday Night Magic spots all over. It makes all too much sense for Wizards of the Coast to be showing a little attention love to Japanese audiences, and this alternate art drop is the absolute perfect way.
Set to appear randomly in Japanese-edition War of the Spark booster packs, a set 50% of all planeswalker drops will contain the alternative art. This is especially big given that, in the War of the Spark collection, there are some 36 planeswalkers available — which means 36 unique alternate art pieces from Japanese artists. Within these artists, we’re seeing Yoshitaka Amano, Tada, and Kaida Yuji. These Japanese-edition booster packs are being made available worldwide to keep things fair-game for international players.
Regardless of whether or not you play Magic: The Gathering, this is definitely a very cool move on Wizard of the Coast’s part. All of the featured alternate art is incredible, and I’ll definitely be picking up a box to see how my luck plays out. Set to release in Japan on May 8, those interested in checking out further information on War of the Spark’s release and alternate planeswalker art can head over to Magic: The Gathering’s official website.