Big fan of Universes Within. I think that there are some of the Exclusive Beyond cards (like the Doctor Who secret lair) which present unique challenges (who wants to play their Doctor Typal deck with Kellan PhD at the head of the deck instead of Fourteenth), but I loooooove Zethi and the Spearsage. Their art is amazing and suggests so much fascinating story possibility.
I'm a huge Vorthos and have been following the story for over a decade now, but the cracks it leaves behind might be what sing to me the most.
I really loved your analysis of this art! I'm totally with you about universes within, I think it's brought about some really cool flavor. I think it's very interesting to see the game of telephone that happens in taking a character, making a card that captures that character, and then making a *different* character to match that card that feels distinct from the original character.
I'm hopeful that we haven't seen the last of universes within. The reason it exists is that it's necessary in order to reprint the cards without the licensing contract, and with universes beyond about to become such a big part of the magic ecosystem, there's no way they can avoid that
I'm so glad you liked it! Totally agree on the funny game of telephone. Given that, as I found, at least two of the UW cards started out with different names, I wonder whether the various UW art directors may have drawn on unused concepts from a past set worldbuilding process for the UWs--so perhaps it only turned out after the fact that Immard would sub in for Street Fighter's Guile, for example.
Echo your feeling on Universes Within hanging in there. You make a good point about reprints. It seems like Commander decks might be the Universes Within lifeline--I'm thinking of how one of the Stranger Things/Innistrad Universes Within cards was just reprinted in a Duskmourn commander deck.
Big fan of Universes Within. I think that there are some of the Exclusive Beyond cards (like the Doctor Who secret lair) which present unique challenges (who wants to play their Doctor Typal deck with Kellan PhD at the head of the deck instead of Fourteenth), but I loooooove Zethi and the Spearsage. Their art is amazing and suggests so much fascinating story possibility.
I'm a huge Vorthos and have been following the story for over a decade now, but the cracks it leaves behind might be what sing to me the most.
I really loved your analysis of this art! I'm totally with you about universes within, I think it's brought about some really cool flavor. I think it's very interesting to see the game of telephone that happens in taking a character, making a card that captures that character, and then making a *different* character to match that card that feels distinct from the original character.
I'm hopeful that we haven't seen the last of universes within. The reason it exists is that it's necessary in order to reprint the cards without the licensing contract, and with universes beyond about to become such a big part of the magic ecosystem, there's no way they can avoid that
I'm so glad you liked it! Totally agree on the funny game of telephone. Given that, as I found, at least two of the UW cards started out with different names, I wonder whether the various UW art directors may have drawn on unused concepts from a past set worldbuilding process for the UWs--so perhaps it only turned out after the fact that Immard would sub in for Street Fighter's Guile, for example.
Echo your feeling on Universes Within hanging in there. You make a good point about reprints. It seems like Commander decks might be the Universes Within lifeline--I'm thinking of how one of the Stranger Things/Innistrad Universes Within cards was just reprinted in a Duskmourn commander deck.