A while ago, Mark Rosewater wrote about the three player demographics of Timmy, Johnny and Spike. A little while later he also explained who Melvin and Vorthos are. Often in Magic we get caught up in the Melvin-ness and Spike-yness of the cards so much, that we can ignore the way the cards look and feel, the art of them, as well as some of older, kookier mechanics and strategies.
Which is why today I’ve designed one of my trusty, heavily themed Commander decks with a strong identity. (Though not necessarily a strong playstyle. This deck, however, is able to include some of the most powerful effects possible in the format, albeit alongside some less powerful choices.) My choice today involved picking an artist and only including cards from that artist in the deck. Now, obviously there are only a handful of artists we can do this with, as only few have actually done the art for more than sixty cards, let alone narrowing it down to a few colours plus lands.
Nevertheless, it is possible. Just. So without any more ado I’ll leave you to enjoy the artwork of the great Mark Tedin. Thanks for reading.
- [card]Ertai, the Corrupted[/card], a Commander deck by Christopher Cooper
[deck]1 Abomination
1 Abyssal Gatekeeper
1 Aladdin’s Lamp
1 Angel of Mercy
1 Braingeyser
1 Cage of Hands
1 Celestial Ancient
1 Chimeric Idol
1 City of Brass
1 Corpse Harvester
1 Curse Artifact
1 Cyclopean Giant
1 Deathcurse Ogre
1 Deep Spawn
1 Dismantling Blow
1 Doubling Cube
1 Draining Whelk
1 Eater of Days
1 Eldrazi Monument
1 Endrek Sahr, Master Breeder
1 Feldon’s Cane
1 Flying Carpet
1 Force Void
1 Gallantry
1 Genesis Chamber
1 Glaciers
1 Grim Tutor
1 Grixis Illusionist
1 Guiltfeeder
1 Guul Draz Specter
1 Homarid
13 Island
1 Isleback Spawn
1 Jayemdae Tome
1 Kami of Ancient Law
1 Lord of the Pit
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mana Drain
1 Mana Matrix
1 Mana Vault[/deck]
[deck]1 Memory Lapse
1 Mind Control
1 Mind Ravel
1 Mindstab
1 Mindstab Thrull
1 Minion Reflector
1 Myr Matrix
1 Nevinyrral’s Disk
1 No Mercy
1 Phyrexian Rager
8 Plains
1 Planar Portal
1 Polar Kraken
1 Ponder
1 Predator, Flagship
1 Psychic Possession
1 Ring of Gix
1 Shelldock Isle
1 Sol Ring
1 Steam Catapult
13 Swamp
1 Telepathy
1 Temple Bell
1 Terashi’s Grasp
1 Timetwister
1 Torture
1 Urza’s Factory
1 Vengeful Dreams[/deck]
Here is the whole deck with original art works of Mark Tedin:
Community Question: Which artist, absent from the last few MTG sets, do you miss the most?
