Multiverse Set Review: Double Masters 2022
SEEING DOUBLE
July 08, 2022 - By Nicholas Fair
Here we are again, for the first time in a long time.
It feels like an eternity since my review of Modern Horizons 2, but it’s only been a calendar year. I hope you all have found yourself in a better place since June 2021, but if not, hopefully a little bit of Vorthos lore can soothe your nerdy soul. It’s funny, I had nearly resigned myself to not having another Multiverse set review after the second death of core sets, but Double Masters is here to set the record straight. Sure, it’s 100% reprints, but it’s positively loaded with new art thanks to the full-art treatment so many cards are getting, and if we know anything, it’s that new art means a new potential for lore and planar cards! And we have quite a few, excitingly.
In preparation for this review, I debated changing up the layout somewhat; doing a card-by-card analysis is fun, don’t get me wrong: but I did wonder if there wasn’t a better way? I initially considered just grouping cards by plane, but that felt almost less effective at telling card-by-card stories, so I’ve kept the layout as-is for now. If you have any suggestions on how you’d like to see future Multiverse Set Reviews, however, feel free to send me an email at mtgmultiverse.feedback@gmail.com.
For those who are new to the Multiverse Set Reviews, the goal of these are to discuss new cards from the latest Magic release and assign them to known planes in the Magic Multiverse. It starts with a card-by-card review, followed by some discussion of art trends and themes in the set, and will cap off with a final count of planes represented and hopes for the future.
As with the other set reviews, I am only one person, and quite often I miss a thing or two (despite my best efforts. I also owe an incredible amount to the community for crowdsourcing card origins and lore, so please feel free to send me your feedback or details on anything you think I may have missed.
Let’s get to it!
Double MAsters 2022
Not-Lorwyn
Although this horrifying moth-creature has the same basic anatomy of its Lorwyn counterpart, due to the human in the art, it can’t take place on Lorwyn. This is because Lorwyn is famously one of the few planes without humans.
UNKNOWN
This image, I believe, depicts a vampire kneeling in a beam of light, allowing themselves to become nothing but dust. The design of the figure is an odd one, though; with pinks and european-style ruffles along with an oddly horned helmet(?). The prostrate look first makes me think of Ixalan vampires, but there’s nothing Spanish-looking here. There’s a possibility of it being Dominarian, with the armor being vaguely Cabal-ish, but it’s far from a clear thread.
Ravnica
Slam. Dunk. This is one of the most obvious re-homings of a card I’ve ever seen. The attire of the central soldier here is that of the Boros Legion (note the red sunburst on his armor), and his mentee Garg is a new Boros Recruit. It looks like they’re standing under a Boros Guildgate.
Tarkir (Dragons Timeline)
The first Seeker of the Way was set during the Khans timeline. This art, in contrast, shows the alternate future that overrode that timeline. A traveler and the context of their journey has changed, but their calling has not.
Dominaria(?)
This art echos with Odyssey-era style. A new illustration for an Onslaught card, it’s hard to pinpont where this is meant to truly take place but he does feel like he could exist alongside Blessed Orator, Nomad Mythmaker, and Master Apothecary.
THEROS
A really fun re-working of flavour to give us a nod into the world of Theros, this card depicts the hero Elspeth, wielding the Shadowspear, as carved in a relief mural like the Therosian masterpieces. The flavour text refers to the nature of Theros itself: mortal belief shapes reality due to the sub-plane of Nyx, meaning what is believed to be true now exists as though it always has existed. This is how Gods are born, die, and are forgotten so quickly.
Land of Reindeer & Starlight
So this isn’t really a plane (yet!) but the Land of Reindeer & Starlight is the nickname I’ve given to cards that all seem to take place on this nebulous, snow-covered world with the aurora borealis in the background and no obvious links to any other plane. You can see other cards like it over on the Unknown Worlds page. Because we’ve never seen a sphinx like this: wooly and covered in thick fur, with a face like an owl and a bizarre halo crown.
ARCAVIOS (Strixhaven)
Greg Hilderbrandt has created a classic piece of fantasy art here, with a mage bowing and poetically dispelling the fire magic around her with a blue orb of protection. I’m not sure if it was initially intended, but the pose and palette of the art, joined with the reference to ‘critics’ in the flavour text, feels like it’s a direct reference to the Prismari of Strixhaven. They are known to use flourishing dance as a conduit for their magic, and the figure here would fit right in attending a class.
Ravnica
Is this a direct reference to Olena Richard’s Counterspell, or merely a case of “talk to the hand” being a fairly common visual for counter magic? Either way, this piece POPS and seems like a clear visual of an Izzet Mage from Ravnica. The glowing circles and wires are really only found on that plane as a costume accent related to the Izzet’s technological clothing. The fact that the mage is lit with blue lights and casting a red spell ties in even more with it referencing our favorite bombastic inventors.
UNKNOWN
I love this piece. Dermot Power is an old-school Magic illustrator who has gone on to do work for the best in the fantasy biz, including concept work for Star Wars. The sass and attitude here, along with colors we normally don’t get to see on Magic cards (pink, primarily) make the visual really pop. But where does it take place? It’s a cafe, with a snappily-dressed Vedalken. She’s got a butterfly motif going on, and there’s goblins and humans in the background. It’s unlikely to be Ravnica given her attire and the look of the Goblins, but Vedalken aren’t found commonly outside of Alara (where they’re robots), Mirrodin (where they have four arms), and Kaladesh (where they’re… spirally). For now, it’s a mystery!
The Blind Eternities
Although not an actual plane, the Blind Eternities have an entry here on MtG-Multiverse because cards that reference it are few and far-between. This art is clearly meant to be abstract in nature, but the background showing some kind of pallor storm and the triangle being a swirl of liquid or mist makes for quite the compelling visual. The flavour text is what kicks this into living on a planar page, along with the visual connection to Omniscience.
Eldraine
It’s about time this card got a more lighthearted incarnation! Visually, this is quite similar to the classic Thoughtseize as “fae stealing human dreams” is a common trope, but these are blue-skinned faeries, not the insectoid ones from Lorwyn. Although both Mercadia and Ravnica both have azure-skin faeries, everything from the wing pattern to the clothing to the hairstyle on these guys match the fae of Eldraine. Their attitude of mischief seals the deal.
Innistrad
I know that the first Blood Artist is from Innistrad, but this one is a fairly big visual shift, so I wanted to comment on it. Unlike our last piece, which is a more general ‘gothic vampire’, this Blood Artist looks to be a “wedding photographer” from the latest Crimson Vow expansion. Although the artist has done a great job with the piece, the comparison of the two pieces paints a very stark contrast of the art direction shift of Innistrad since its creation. Make of that what you will.
INNISTRAD
Despite my initial thoughts on the matter that this is absolutely nowhere near Innistrad, it absolutely is. Looking at the background, it looks quite similar to a cramped ship’s quarters, but even more so, the aforementioned artist is wearing clothing that is solidly found in the 16th-18th century in Italy, Spain, and other European countries. It’s also a classic costume style for “pirate” shirts in the modern day. This leads us towards Ixalan, but as reddit user EmptyStar12 mentioned, it appears that the vampire here is drawing something noodly- possibly Emrakul, and that Ixalan Vampires are defined by their exclusively pointed bat ears (Anointed Deacon is a fantastic example). Thus this lands us squarely back on Innistrad.
Fiora
Oh, how I do love Fiora and Queen Marchesa (long may she reign.) It’s really cool how the artist was able to make the wax seal on the letter her rose symbol.
Ixalan (?)
Now this is far from Fiora. We’ve got some kind of skeleton-lich with a skull seal. The room in the art has a classic Captain’s chest and some kind of potbellied stove or boiler, leading me to believe this art takes place on a boat or a in coastal city/port of some kind. Having the skull adds to the notion of a pirate vibe, though it’s not exactly a lock-in for Ixalan. We do know there are skeleton pirates, but this is on a whole different level.
Amonkhet
When I first saw this art, I was immediately reminded of Amonkhet’s demons in the Broken Lands. It’s a little odd that one would be summoned from a crypt and is possibly meant to be a more generic “monster”, but I’ve hunted and can’t find anything even closely resembling this guy anywhere else. Knowing that Amonkhet had a cycling theme, and that it has basically an endless wasteland of storms and zombies as seen in the background here, I’m fairly confident we can place it on our favorite Egyptian-themed plane. If nothing else, digging up the past and encountering a trap or curse is very thematically on-point!
Innistrad
The armor of this guy hits directly in-line with the armor of Grandaddy Markov on Innistrad, and the summoning of a shade weapon is somewhat similar to the Arterial Alchemy magic the vampires practice. I do have to admit that the shade-sword being conjured here reminded me a lot of Ixalan’s shade-magic, but if there was any doubt the flavour text seals the deal. I do wonder what holy ritual it’s referencing…
Amonkhet
This art may seem familiar; this is because we’ve seen it before! As part of Amonkhet: Remastered on Arena, it was entirely digital up until now. This is its first time in paper, so it’s getting added to the Amonkhet planar page. That’s the god Hazoret in the art there, apparently well before she recovered her memories and had a change heart after the Hour of Devastation.
Kaldheim
This is why I love re-imagining of cards. There are so many gods in Magic, and although the initial printing was on Theros, we’ve been gifted not only an Amonkhet version, but a Kaldheim one as well. The flavour text here is by Birgi, the god of storytelling, and we’re seeing a depiction of her tale of Torlaf and his iconic hammer. He’s definitely rocking the classic Thor-style helmet which we hadn’t seen before on Kaldheim, and I’m not sure what demons the plane has that look like little imps and not, you know, horrifying thorny brawlers, but I’ll let it slide.
Ixalan
Ah, I remember when we first got Dockside Extortionist. In my very first Multiverse Set Review, I discuss at length why the previous Dockside was not an Ixalani goblin, and the comparison between that art and this one should make it incredibly obvious. Goblins across the multiverse have the most varied visual look of any race in all of Magic, where being a goblin just means “being a small red creature that causes antics.” Here we have the classic monkey-looking goblin from Ixalan, just like his friend Fanatical Firebrand.
Ixalan
Two arts?! What a gift. Just like the last entry, this is clearly an Ixalan-native monkey-goblin, although he’s much fancier and more reserved than most we’ve seen.
KALDHEIM
Although this card took me a little while to puzzle out, I can absolutely say it takes place on Kaldheim. Aside from the mention of the gods in the flavour text, and the attitude of the card itself of embodying the berserker attitude of fighting until death, the final puzzle piece is the adornments of the dead warriors at the figure’s feet. Their outfits are taken directly from the Concept Art for Kaldheim’s World Guide, where black-aligned, demon-worshipping humans dress in furs and spikes inspired by Scandinavian black metal. Knowing that, we can piece together that the warrior is from a different “world” within the World-Tree, the tear behind him being an Omenpath. Given his armor, this could even be during the events of the Bloodsky Massacre.
Kaladesh
Oh yeah. Contender for one of my favorite new art pieces in the entire set is this Kaladeshi mage. Notoriously, magic, and pyromancy especially, is rare on the plane of Kaladesh. This is one of the reasons the planeswalker Chandra was a pariah as a child. But here we have a mage wearing some kind of apparatus similar to Chandra’s regulator gauntlet, summoning flame tigers. His blue silks and ornate spiraled scarf are absolutely indicative of the Indian-inspired aesthetic of Kaladesh, and beautifully rendered to boot. It makes sense that pyromancers of Chandra’s home plane would be inspired by her. It’s been suggested that this is the same character as Reckless Fireweaver, and although I believe they likely just referenced the same illustration in the world guide for Kaladesh, I love the idea.
Kaladesh
...And this is the main reason I don’t think Reckless Fireweaver is directly related to Seasoned Pyromancer. This little guy here was designed to be a matched pair with Seasoned Pyromancer by masterclass artist Steve Prescott. You can see the same Kaladeshi architecture and clothing choices, and he’s even summoning Chandra’s firecats!
New Capenna
This would have been a fantastic card to print in the 3-color New Capenna, but I guess it was reserved for Double Masters. I’m not complaining though; although this art is somewhat in an abstract location, and we don’t see many trees in the single-city New Capenna, the outfit and haircut of this druid is unmistakably a reference to the flapper aesthetic of the 1920’s. A master like artist Scott Fischer would only make that kind of decision if it had major precedence, such as on a number of New Capenna cards. Even if most of the plane’s druids are now party animals, it looks like one or two still do work, and grow Black Lotuses to boot!
Lorwyn-Shadowmoor
This is a great example of a card that can, technically, fit on a large number of planes. I’ve talked in the past about how I try to ‘home’ cards when I can, and this is a great example of that. The art shows a deer and a wolf; motifs from Lorwyn, but also has the otherworly knotted-grove look to the trees that the plane commonly has through all of its incarnations. There’s not obvious “visual signal” here like the antlered elves or the kithkin, but sometimes there doesn’t need to be.
KALDHEIM
Oh hey there, Esika, God of the World-Tree and creator of the Cosmos Elixir. This is a really cool concept, with the world-tree of Kaldheim being more abstract than this visually, but the idea of it being a “world enchantment” is a flavour slam-dunk, as world enchantments were initially used to represent a mage’s duel being moved to a different plane (thus the mechanic of there only being able to be one in play at a time.)
Ixalan
This is a tough one. Initially I was drawn to the throne of ominous dinosaur bones the witness here was sitting on. Soon after I recognized not only the headdress and shoulder-fringes of her costume, but the Threefold-Sun symbol displayed prominently in her dress. This is clearly a shaman of the Sun Empire on Ixalan.
Theros
Therosian Hydras have a very iconic look, and as of late even more so. They have a narrow, beaked heads with plates of bone or chiton, and usually frills adorning their heads. In this art, they’re tearing apart a poor harpy. For a world that’s pitched as full of “monsters and heroes”, it makes sense that even monsters have other monsters to fear.
Ixalan
I do love Huatli. How can you not; she’s literally a Dinosaur Knight! Ixalan is not only the plane iconic for its Dinosaurs (although a few others have them), but it’s known for feathered dinosaurs with radiant, sunset-like displays. This ceratops is from Huatli’s home plane; it makes sense she’s giving advice on how to approach them.
Dominaria
What absolutely stellar artwork. There’s nothing in this piece that really ties it to one plane or another, but it feels very similar to the energy of Abundant Harvest, and like it’s making a callback to the power of the Black Lotus in the flavour text. The initial Summer Bloom takes place on Dominaria (as it’s part of Visions) so this won’t be added to a planar page, but I just wanted to highlight it.
SHANDALAR
If you showed me this Animar as a first-printing, I’d almost certainly put him on Zendikar. He’s a giant, walking elemental of earth and grass, and rising out of the earth like the many man-lands found on the plane. But nothing about this art actually looks like it’s on Zendikar… if not for Animar himself it’s all very tranquil and… normal, albeit vibrant. If anything, this reinforces his current home over on Shandalar.
DOMINARIA
Fun fact: Dominaria is one of only a few planes with “mermaid” merfolk. This is thanks to the fact that the majority (nearly all) sets in early Magic history took place on Dominaria, and that art direction shifted at about the same time as we left the plane to show merfolk with feet so “combat made sense” in a game of Magic. Of course this is no longer the attitude, but at the time it was a big, crazy thing to consider merfolk without their tails. In comparisons with other planes with tailed merfolk, like Lorwyn, it’s fairly easy to see how much more this classic design is reminiscent of Dominaria’s merfolk than Lorwyn’s merrow.
Lorwyn-Shadowmoor
Well this IS interesting. Double Masters printed the entire Liege cycle from the sets Shadowmoor & Eventide, but this was the only to get new art? I’d love to hear the story of why.
That said, this is a much more unique take on the horror, with a provocative elven figure in the foreground casting a shadow of a horror, evocative of the old “Possessed” cycle in Torment. Elves on Lorwyn and Shadowmoor have horns/antlers, and the human skulls here tell us this isn’t from Lorwyn, but as to where it is from, I can’t be sure. It still seems somewhat storybook-esque, so maybe Eldraine? I can’t make out what the figure is conjuring in their hand, but that might give us a clue.
Edit: As noted from reddit user EmptyStar12, “B/W is the color combination where we have inexplicably humanoid spirits/ ghosts, and the new Liege reminds me of Bloodied Ghost right down to the elvish ears. The humanoid skulls could belong to hags. The desolate landscape and the void-like sky is also Shadowmoor.”
So despite the wilted rose feeling very “Disney Beauty and the Beast”, I’ve gone ahead and edited my entry to locate this card on Shadowmoor, not Eldraine. Thanks, EmptyStar12!
DOMINARIA
Wow! What a fun and dynamic illustration. Waves o energy turning these giant battle animals to glass or ice is a really cool effect, but I’d expect nothing less from Ron Spears. We haven’t heard from the flavour text’s Seargeant Malsworth before, but as there is only one known plane that has (1) Elephants, (2) Rhinos, and (3) Dinosaurs (depicted behind the text box), this art lands squarely in Dominaria.
New Capenna
This one is a bit of a stretch, but what we’re looking at in this card has three main clues for us as to where it takes place. We haven’t seen anything by the flavour text speaker before, but we do have the foreground’s “giant lizard-bat thing”, the green-lit sky-high city wall in the background, and the context of the destruction being done by a “chief exterminator.” Although there’s no direct correlation, the conceit of New Capenna’s skyscraper city matches the background fairly perfectly, and the idea that this could be an old winged phyrexian that broke though is a really novel one.
Unknown
Artist Donato Giancola mentioned in a post about this fantastical artwork that he took inspiration from the storms of Jupiter, and it really shows. This storm is a roiling vortex of energy, lightning, wild, water, and magic, and it’s exceptional. Initially I thought the magical effect was akin to the quicksilver seas of Mirrodin, but I believe now it’s simply meant to be roiling, magical clouds. Until I discover something new, it’ll remain a mystery!
Eldraine
Very few planes in the multiverse have a sense of ever-lit whimsy. Lorwyn is one, being a faerie-tale world, but even moreso is the world of Eldraine. Part Arthurian legend, part folkstory, Eldraine is a world of castles, spires, knights, and gallantry. And what’s more storybook than a castle in the clouds atop a giant tree? It even calls back to the motif of Jack the Giant Slayer. The use of hybrid mana, which Eldraine used as part of the “mono-color matters” part of the set, adds extra credence to the concept.
Kaladesh
Although this technically isn’t a new inclusion for the plane of Kaladesh, I just had to mention this piece. Almost a perfect depiction of the Masterpiece Aether Vial from Kaladesh, this also shows the red-handed planeswalker Dack Fayden out to steal it. It makes sense; he was the greatest thief in the multiverse.
KALDHEIM
Artist Ron Spencer confirmed the location of this illustration on Facebook, but even if he didn’t, it’s a surefire inclusion on Kaldheim if ever I’ve seen one. Check out that norse-style knot work on the axe!
Serra’s Realm
Oh my little Vorthos heart. I’m so happy to see this illustration. This is the planeswalker Serra, creating her plane, Serra’s Realm, as a godlike pre-mending planeswalker. You can see artist Mark Zug stuck fairly closely to the design of Serra from Modern Horizons, and the visual design of her iconic floating islands coalescing from feathers is just *chef’s kiss*. Fun fact: the flavour text referencing the Song of All is found all across Serra’s plane cards, of which there are only 600 cantos.
New Capenna
What’s better than an artist confirming the location of their art? Artist Steve Prescott mentions how the piece was a great chance to do some art deco design work for a plane with an actual vault, and you can see the devil opening the door for an ogre: common members of the Riveteers and Maestros, respectively.
Lorwyn-Shadowmoor
A twisted tree with a magical instrument growing out of it, snarled and lit in a meadow? That sounds like something right out of a storybook, which means it’s likely from Eldraine or Lorwyn/Shadowmoor! The visual design of the tree here matches the Shadowmoor aesthetic much more closely, and although the lanterns seem subtly out of place, I think it’s a good fit.
New Phyrexia
How I love new Phyrexia. Here we can see the hands of some kind of splicer attempting to “name” Inkmoth Nexus, likely so they don’t die to infect damage on their next turn (har-har).
Side note, I really like how the artist Ron Spencer made a more “realistic” version of the Secret Lair tattoo design for the Inkmoths while including things like the phyrexian symbol on the wings.
Modern Kamigawa
This isn’t a new plane for what may easily be the world’s most annoying card, but it’s a modern aesthetic and re-invention of a classic design, and I love that. Greg Staples has taken the classic design and updated it with not only neon glow, but an obvious bisection in the art. Like Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty, the top exists at the meeting of the old (forest below) and new (city behind).
Kaladesh
Although I wouldn’t call this a Kaladesh design if I saw it on its own as it lacks the usual filigree and detailing of the plane’s masterpieces, this Vedalken Orrery depicts the Vedalken planeswalker Dovin Baan. Dovin, despite a small stint on Ravnica, is notorious for not leaving his home plane. And if he had any projects where he was recording his observations of the multiverse, it would be there.
Unknown
I’m going to be honest. I have no idea where this is supposed to take place. This is the third alternate art for the Cavern, and until we get a higher resolution image to look at by artist Drew Tucker, it’s impossible to draw any conclusions other than “plane with an underground.”
Kaladesh
Did you know that the original City of Brass from Arabian Nights was a top-down design? It’s true! There is a story called “City of Brass” from the collected poems A Thousand and one Nights that the set Arabian Nights was based on, about a city full of treasure and automatons, but that led to the deaths of all within its walls.
That said, this is quite a stunning piece of art. The zeppelins in the sky are a very unique visual detail, and the overall look of Mark Poole’s work here feels like it could be very much at home alongside the other south-eastern-styled structures we see of the capital city. There’s also very few planes with skyships aplenty like these here, so it feels like a great place to put City of Brass.
New capenna
Unlike the previous design, this City of Brass is decidedly not on Kaladesh. I wanted to discuss it simply because they shouldn’t be lumped together. This art depicts a sprawling metropolis with highways full of cars and geometric designs that feel like they could be from New Capenna, but this is an open-sky city, and nothing like the enclosed skyscraper of the world we know. As there’s no other world with cars and interstates, this one is unknown for now.
EDIT: As reddit user axmurderer pointed out, “I do think the second version of City of Brass is definitely Capenna though, there’s even an angel statue in the background. Plus, the top levels of the city like Park Heights do have open-air outdoor areas, as seen in some of the lands.”
Nowhere
This card is technically “unknown”, although I’m certain that Sam Burley was given direction to depict an abstract place for this artwork. Crumbling spires of black stone filled with the five colors of mana are a great way to show what the card is and does, but less so at expanding the lore behind it. As the card is designed to go in every deck in draft and nothing else, that makes a good amount of sense.
Purposeful Omissions
You may note that not every card with full art was mentioned. This is because many of the cards, such Gifts Ungiven are clearly homages to their older counterparts, and take place on the same plane. I didn’t want to clog up the article with more content than needed, so if you see a card omitted, check out the art & flavour: odds are high it’s from the same place the previous printing was.
The other possibility is that the card is abstract or clearly takes place in no location in particular. Master illustrator Richard Kane Ferguson’s work falls squarely into this category: everything he makes takes place in the bounteous chaos of his mind’s eye. Just look at his Dragonlord Dromoka or his Elenda, the Dusk Rose. The same is true for the beautifully abstract work of Ian Miller, who was deftly given the full-art illustration for the ineffable eldrazi titan Kozilek.
Final Plane Count
Surprising no-one, we got a lot of fan favorites this year for our plane revisits. I love to see these metrics for what planes got more and less art briefs specifically because I think we can see what Wizards is thinking in regards to fan-favorite planes. Of course Innistrad, basically the most popular plane in Magic, will have a card or two. And, naturally, Wizards will print a card or two related to the most recent plane we’ve visited. But many of these can be seeds of ‘reminders’ for fans; helping us remember places like Ixalan that we loved, but haven’t been to in a while. Does this mean a revisist? I couldn’t say. But I hope so.
Here’s the planes with the most card inclusions in Double Masters 2022:
Ixalan: 6 (5 if you count Dockside’s as one)
Kaladesh: 4
Kaldheim: 4
New Capenna: 4
Planes with 2 new cards included Amonkhet, Dominaria, Eldraine, Innistrad, Lorwyn-Shadowmoor, Ravnica, and Theros.
Planes with 1 new card included Arcavios, Fiora, New Phyrexia, Serra’s Realm, and (technically) the Blind Eternities.
In Summary
Looking through Double Masters 2022 over and over, there’s a very obvious trend that stands out to me. Despite Wizards taking the chance to get some much-needed reprints into the world, and to flesh out the story of our beloved planes with some new inclusions, a vast majority of the new artwork is not even remotely plane-bound. Unlike years ago, when many hardcore Magic fans decried the loss of much of the old-school original artwork to “homogenized digital art”, it seems that Wizards of the Coast has gotten the memo that different players like different genres of artwork and has re-expanded their horizons. Beauty, after all, is in the eye of the beholder.
Double Masters 2022 is a masterstroke by this metric, as Wizards has brought back many fan-favorite old school artists and given them what appears to be mostly free reign to make “cool art”. With high-profile fan favorites like Richard Kane Ferguson, Ian Miller, Mark Zug, Ron Spencer, Steve Prescott, and Scott M Fischer, I think that Wizards has learned how to lean into certain artist’s strengths in the best way. Some artists love a lot of direction and a solidified world to depict. Others feel that gets in the way. And although standard products are made to depict a cohesive world and story to fans, products like Double Masters 2022 is made for the heavily invested players, and although it means less “planar easter eggs” for me and fellow lore-lovers, I have to say it’s well worth it.
UNTIL NEXT TIME
That’s all, folks! Double Masters 2022 is a wrap; what did you think? Anything I missed? In the meantime I’ll have the main galleries opened up later this week, but until next time: stay lore hungry, friends.
-Nick