List of card art descriptions

Card	Description
Vengeful Dreams (Torment)	[Angel's Purge] This card should show an angel in the center of a group of dark, evil beings. The beings were attacking the angel, but because of the her spell have now started to disappear or dissolve away. The main focus of the card is the huge size of the spell.
Fiery Temper (Torment)	[Sear] This card should show a red wizard casting a spell which causes its victim to burn. The main focus of this card is the fact that the wizard is a psychopath and that he is enjoying his work.
Braids, Cabal Minion (Odyssey)	[Diabolic Tutor] A dementia summoner having a devious idea.
Cabal Surgeon (Torment)	[Cabal Healer] This card should show a cabal healer who is patching together dead body parts to make one being. This is a serious piece but please do not get real gross with this one.
Questing Phelddagrif (Planeshift)	Location: A clear lake in a forest clearing. A massive, full-grown purple hippo with feathered wings aggressively launches itself out of the water, into the sky. The hippo should have huge tusks jutting out from her lower jaw. Make it as intimidating as possible (i.e., not silly or cartoonish)
Thornscape Battlemage (Planeshift)	Location: Keld battlefield. A female Skyshroud Elf rides a Colos beast over a Phyrexian. The Elf should have both the red coalition symbol and the white coalition symbol on her armor or clothing.
Dwarven Shrine (Odyssey)	This is a red card that should show a memorial or trophy case to the school of red magic. Lots of flames coming from different kinds and sizes of vessels, etc.
Petravark (Torment)	[Mini Dementia Firebeast] This is a dementia creature (See style guide for reference). It should be shown as red, not black, and as causing the land to shake.
Insidious Dreams (Torment)	[Dark Knowledge] This card should show a black wizard casting a spell which causes knowledge to erupt all around her. This could be shown by ghostly books and scrolls spinning about the wizard. The main focus of the card is the huge size of the spell. The main characters and elements can be shown smaller, but clearly visible.
Shade's Form (Torment)	This card should show a person in the process of changing into a shade or disembodied spirit. This spirit should look creepy and the change should be caused by a spell.
Skywing Aven (Torment)	This card should show a bird warrior charging into battle with arrows passing harmlessly through him. The bird warrior is becoming intangible.
Fact or Fiction (Invasion)	Location: Weatherlight, Below decks. Squee holds up two pieces of paper with a look of utter confusion on his face (he can’t read). Behind him, Hanna gestures impatiently.
Ernham Djinn (Judgment)	This is a green card and should show the Erhnam Djinn in a dramatic pose. See reference (Arabian Nights).
Chainer, Dementia Master (Torment)	This card should show the character Chainer in a very insane pose.
Guiltfeeder (Judgment)	[Jowser's Shadowcreeper] This card should show a monster that glides through shadows to reach you. If it touches you, it causes you intense guilt, feeding off your memories of the past, and the remorse causes you harm, thus the life loss. If you can depict this in some way that would be great, but the main focus of this card is the monster. He should probably be shown as a creepy shadow form.
Burning Wish (Judgment)	Show a literal wave of flame that travels down the exterior of Volrath’s mountain. The Vec soldiers advancing up the mountainside are being fried by the oncoming wave. They don’t have a chance to escape.
Flame Wave (Stronghold)	[Barbarian's Wish] This is a red card and should show a djinn handing a barbarian a fireball with which he accepts with awe.
Reya Dawnbringer (Invasion)	[Blinding Light] An angel hovers at the center of a intense supernova-type explosion, blinding all humans and Phyrexian ground troops nearby.
Urza's Rage (Invasion)	Location: Koilos Battlefield. Urza, in his Titan Suit, casts a major destructive fire spell; Urza should have the amalgamated coalition symbol.
Breaking Point (Judgment)	This is a red card and should show Kamahl slamming his sword, with the Mirari attached to the pommel, into the ground. This causes the ground to erupt and sends lava streaming towards a battlefield. See reference for Kamahl.
Genesis (Judgment)	This is a green card and should show a jedi in the shape of a centaur made of tree bark. See reference.
Waiting in the Weeds (Mirage)	[Unseen Wildlife] Dozens of small hungry critters scurry in the low undergrowth of the jungle. In this picture, we cannot tell what the critters are. We can only see the eyes.
Pyrotechnics (Seventh Edition)	A large lightning bolt from a stormy sky zaps two drakes in flight, then continues downward to zap one more. All three drakes are being electrocuted at exactly the same moment in time.
Life Burst (Odyssey)	[A New Balance] This is a white card and should be a non-representational piece about balance - the best way that you can convey the sense that things are being realigned to create a sense of balance.
Mirror Wall (Judgment)	This is a blue card and should show a wall of mirrors of various shapes and sizes. Light should be shown bouncing off several of the mirrors creating a concentrated searing beam of light. You can show some victims of this beam but no reflections need be shown in the mirrors.
Arcane Teachings (Judgment)	[Dwarven Cleric] A dwarven mage, perhaps a cleric, doing his thing (not fire-related). This card should show a dwarven mage in his study intently studying some object there. The focus should be on the mage.
Golden Wish (Judgment)	[Nomad's Wish] This is a white card and should show a djinn offering a female nomad a splendid looking glowing ring. The nomad should appear overjoyed to receive the gift.
Aven Fogbringer (Judgment)	This is a blue card and should show an aven wizard casting a spell with a staff that causes the land below him to be enshrouded in a very thick fog. The focus is the wizard so his clothes should reflect the point that he is a wizard.
Suntail Hawk (Judgment)	This is a white card and should show a fantasy hawk in flight on the hunt.
Snapping Thragg (Onslaught)	Location: Skirk Ridge Action: multi-headed mountain beast. Some of his bonespurs spit flames.
Grinning Demon (Onslaught)	[Lurker in the Shadows] Location: Aphetto Action: a demon (barbed wire, grossly exaggerated horns, etc.) emerges from the shadows of a dark alleyway.
Rorix Bladewing (Onslaught)	Location: Great Pit-Arena (The Coliseum) Action: Champion Red Pit-Fighter. Bad-ass red scaled dragon. It's serpentine in shape (though it must have legs), and has four wings. It flies very fast.
Read the Runes (Onslaught)	[Decipher] Location: Aphetto Action: Wizard in the foreground, his hands are glowing magically. The land around him is covered in blue glowing magical runes. He is drawing the runes out of the land.
Smother (Onslaught)	Location: Aphetto Action: Dwarf Pit-Fighter surrounded by a swarm of gnats. They are suffocating him by flying into his nose, mouth, etc.
Kamahl's Summons (Onslaught)	At Kamahl's command, forest matter (soil, roots, bark, etc) magically coalesces and takes the shape of two large bears.
Kamahl, Fist of Krosa (Onslaught)	Location: Krosan Forest. Action: Kamahl in action pose. Mood: Bad-ass. Smug (not comically). Powerful. Notes: Story card. Remember, this is Kamahl as a Green druid.
Severed Legion (Onslaught)	Location: Aphetto City. Action: a swarm of Zombie hands (some with arms or tendons trailing) crawling through the city.
Lord of the Pit (Alpha)	[Balrog]
Necropotence (Ice Age)	Necropotence.
Quicksilver Dragon (Onslaught)	[Mirrored Drake] Location: Breaker Bay, above the water. Action: Drake with mirrored or shiny reflective scales flying above the water.
Goblin Burrows (Onslaught)	[Mountain] Location: Skirk Ridge. Notes: Basic Land. These are the mountains where the Goblins live.
Krosan Colossus (Onslaught)	Location: Krosan Forest Action: giant bipedal Beast towering over the Krosan forest. It uses its bonespur claws to scoop up a handful of the forest to munch on.
Visara the Dreadful (Onslaught)	Location: Great Pit-Arena (The Coliseum) Action: Champion Black Pit-Fighter. This is a female Grgon [sic], like Matthew Wilson's creature from Judgment. Instead of the claw, she has weird wings made out of the same plated material. She is unmasked, and her eyes glow with dark energy. She is in mid-combat (opponent unnecessary).
Maro (Onslaught)	This earth spirit is a creature of the soil. It seems to be the epitome of the fertility of the fresh ground and it thrives on that still unseen. In many ways it is the avatar of the seedlings, maybe plants randomly sprout from Maro's body.
Symbiotic Beast (Onslaught)	Location: Wirewood Forest Action: large forest Beast that has four big centipedes as its 'hair.' Notes: Insect Token Cycle. Don't forget the bonespurs.
Forgotten Ancient (Scourge)	[Mr. Babycakes] A humanoid elemental of moss supports itself with a hand against a dead tree. From where the elemental touches, it spreads wild regrowth.
Nameless One (Onslaught)	Location: Breaker Bay Action: Floating head Avatar. The Avatar is made of energy and should resemble the ultimate Wizard, in this case a large, floating head (the face should look stern, wise, and powerful). Notes: Avatar Cycle. Not flying. For the floating head, we were thinking the great and powerful Oz, the mirror from Disney's Snow White, etc.,--not Gandalf.
Willbender (Legions)	Color: Blue Location: Riptide Project. Action: Show a refugee Wizard surrounded by a blue magical bubble that is repelling a magical spell coming from outside the picture. Focus: Refugee Wizard. Notes: Refugee Wizard can be male or female.
Havoc Demon (Legions)	Color: Black Action: Show a demon flying at night.
Seedborn Muse (Legions)	Color: Green Location: Krosan Forest. Action: Show a beautiful female Spirit, somewhat ghostlike, in the Krosan Forest surrounded by large and vicious looking Krosan plants. She is walking past the plants unconcerned.
Quick Sliver (Legions)	Color: Location: green forest setting Action: Show a Sliver that appears to be materializing, half visible, half transparent, in a green forest setting.
Aquamoeba (Torment)	This is a creature card and should show an amorphous creature that is made of water and can change form or appearance. Think of the creature from The Abyss.
Raging Kavu (Invasion)	Location: Yavimaya Upright dingo lizard, 15´, heavy back limbs and sharp, quick forelimbs, crushing and tearing apart a 10´ Phyrexian.
Blistering Firecat (Onslaught)	Color: Red Location: Skirk Ridge Action: Giant fierce looking charging firecat (see Pardic Firecat (Odyssey) for reference). Focus: Firecat Mood: Action Notes: Made of fire, not on fire
Bloodstoke Howler (Legions)	Color: Red Location: Skirk Ridge Action: Show a reptilian beast standing on a ridge with his head bent back letting out a war shriek.
Bane of the Living (Legions)	[Pain Elemental] Show a horrible black creature somewhat snake/insect-like rearing up out of the swamp with imprints of its victims faces in agony clearly visible in its underbelly.
Aurification (Onslaught)	[Petrification] Color: White Location: Daru Plains Action: A beast changing into a statue of gold. Perhaps, we see other creatures that have been turned into gold in the background.
Magma Sliver (Onslaught)	[Firecoat Sliver] Color: Red Location: Skirk Ridge Action: Show a large, powerful sliver with plating on its skin that appears to be made of magma & fire. These plates can have a red glow between them and be steaming. Notes: See style guide for sliver concept, but bring out the special skin and some other slight variations along the same line.
Planar Guide (Onslaught)	[Daru Flickerer] Color: White Location: Daru Plains Action: Show a refugee cleric standing in the Daru Plains as others around him in the background appear to be transparent.
Noxious Ghoul (Onslaught)	[Swarm Zombie] Color: Black Location: Swamp Action: Show a refugee zombie moving towards the viewer surrounded by insects or flies that spread disease. Several of these can be closer to the viewer so we can tell what they are. Make sure, however, that the focus is on the zombie.
Windswept Heath (Onslaught)	[Daru Encampment] Color: Land Location: Daru Plains, Order encampment Action: This is the coastal side of the Order encampment. The beach between the water and the encampment. Focus: all Mood: Notes: Populated Land Cycle
[Grasslands]	Color: Land Location: Between Wirewood Forest and Daru Plains Action: where the plains of grass and dunes turn into the birch forest Focus: elements of plains and elements of birch forest Mood: life Notes: Fetch Land Cycle. Reprint.
Rotlung Reanimator (Onslaught)	Color: Black Location: Aphetto Swamp Action: A ZOMBIE has found the corpse of a CABAL CLERIC. The ZOMBIE reanimates the CLERIC by emitting some weird, thick smoke from its mouth.
Shivan Dragon (Seventh Edition)	The savage Shivan Dragon in flight, breathing fire.
Patron Wizard (Odyssey)	[Wizard King] This is a blue card and should show the schoolmaster of wizardry. A wise, old human headmaster. The focus is the master, so place him in a surrounding that conveys this.
Infernal Caretaker (Legions)	[Mass Gravedigger] Color: Black Location: Interior Aphetto city Action: Show a Cabal Cleric peering into a magical portal which has formed in front of him. Through the opening evil images such as zombies or bat wing like creatures can be seen. Focus: Cabal Cleric
Kilnmouth Dragon (Legions)	[Crystal Dragon/Bashing Dragon] Color: Red Action: This is not your typical D&D dragon. Show a dragon (of the artist's imagination) on a rocky perch. He has fired a blast of hot sand at a couple of fleeing goblins. The superheated sand coats the goblins and when it cools off it turns to glass. So you end up with dead goblins covered in glass. Focus: The dragon Mood: intense
Caller of the Claw (Legions)	[Den Awakener] Color: Green Location: Wirewood Forest Action: Show an elf who is peering into a cavern as bear-like creatures peer out at him. These creatures should be represented by shapes or shadows and should be bear-like but not a typical Earth bear.
Elvish Soultiller (Legions)	[Elvish Reviver] Color: Green Location: Wirewood forest Action: Show an elf who is much larger and stronger than other elves of his kind. Other elves can be shown but it's not necessary. Mood: Strength
Daru Warchief (Scourge)	[Soldier Miniboss] Color: White Location: Daru plains Action: Show a refugee soldier. Around its neck is a pearl medallion on a chain which designates this creature as a leader among its own kind. Other soldiers can be shown rallying around their leader.
Skulltap (Scourge)	Color: Black Location: Aphetto city scene Action: Show Braids, grabbing the head of a dead victim, with the victim’s life force draining out of its head and into Braids.
Proteus Machine (Scourge)	[Transformer] An artifact creature whose head has different faces of different creature types; he can rotate his head to give himself whatever face he wants.
Decree of Annihilation (Scourge)	Location: Skirk Ridge Action: Show the goblin dwellings and their possessions, etc., burning and burning badly in the shadow of Karona. This is the fire that brings the 'END OF THE WORLD' and the end of all that is living to the goblins.
Trickery Charm (Onslaught)	[Whimsy Charm] Blue mist in a glass charm shaped like a shell.
Synapse Sliver (Legions)	Location: Riptide project Action: Show a very powerful sliver wrapped around a victim it has ensnared. Its prey is going limp as the sliver sucks the energy from the head of its victim through its specalized talon. Notes: See the style guide for the sliver concept, but feel free to give it some slight variations, especially in the talon which is equipped to leech mind energy.
Crucible of Worlds (Fifth Dawn)	[Gazarsgo’s Plow] An hourglass with a destroyed forest in the top chamber and a beautiful lush forest in the bottom chamber.
Totem Speaker (Legions)	Location: The Wirewood Forest Action: Show an elf emerging from the forest alongside a couple of mammal-like, fantasy forest beasts. They are clearly traveling together. Notes: the elf is a cleric and so should be carring a staff and no weapons.
Unburden (Scourge)	Location: Interior room, Aphetto City Action: Show a close-up of a victim's face with a blank stare as ooze and slime (representing the victim's knowledge) runs out of its eyes, ears and nose. The victim's head is starting to wither away. In the shadows of the background, a Cabal cleric can be watching with delight.
Trade Secrets (Onslaught)	Location: Breaker Bay city Action: A refugee wizard and a cephalid sitting across from each other at a table, haggling over various magic items, scrolls, etc.
Goblin Clearcutter (Onslaught)	[Lumberjack's Daddy] Color: Red Location: Skirk Ridge. Action: Show a goblin that has is hauling an armful of wood up to his cave entrance. Focus: The goblin.
Bottle Gnomes (Mirrodin)	Color: Artifact (neutral to colors) Location: Inside the 'Lumengrid' Action: Show three 'Bottle Gnomes' full of magical blue lymph liquid Notes: Refer to the previous Bottle Gnomes art (Tempest), but update them so they look like they're from this 'metal world.'
Banshee's Blade (Mirrodin)	Color: Artifact (neutral to colors) Location: generic metal world Action: Show a magical blade with a gaping, screaming mouth on its hilt. When this sword deals damage, it magically hurts everyone nearby, perhaps with sound. Focus: The magical blade artifact.
Breakthrough (Torment)	This piece should show, in an illustrative way, a blue wizard's head that is overflowing with knowledge that is represented by water. This water should reflect this knowledge and cascade down over the content wizard's face. This is a non-representational piece.
Flayed Nim (Mirrodin)	Location: the Mephidross Swamp. Action: Show the metallic skeleton of a Nim Zombie. The flesh has rotted off of this zombie. Mood: Unnatural, ravenous.
Barbarian Outcast (Torment)	This card should show a barbarian with grafted-on body parts that work, but obviously came from other creatures. He is obviously corrupted and 'enhanced' by the Cabal, and should be shown in a pose that shows this and enhances the alien body parts.
Cloudpost (Mirrodin)	Location: In the sky Action: A strange force bubble affixed to the underside of a cloud. Although we see no one inside the bubble right now, it is used as an observatory to watch the land below. Focus: The magical force bubble on the underside of the cloud Mood: Mysterious
Tempest of Light (Mirrodin)	Location: Up to the artist (but somewhere on Mirrodin). The spell effect should look white. Action: A barely-visible figure, arms outstretched, casts a spell that brings a 'meteor shower' made of light down on the land, washing away magic. Focus: The falling spheres of light Mood: Cleansing, awesome
Goblin Charbelcher (Mirrodin)	Color: Red-aligned Artifact Location: Generic Action: Show a sort of magical mortar tube. The weapon fires spell energy that appears as multicolored balls of fire and spark. Focus: The spell-mortar weapon Mood: FOOM!
Annul (Mirrodin)	This spell disassembles an artifact before it's even fully "summoned."
Awe Strike (Mirrodin)	This spell brings an attacker to his knees, turning his aggression into supplication.
Dross Prowler (Mirrodin)	A sneaky Nim in the shadows.
Memnarch (Mirrodin)	Money shot of Memnarch (p. 13 of style guide). Remember that he's an artifact creature who's slowly developing flesh. Line between metal and flesh should be very blurry.
Panoptic Mirror (Darksteel)	An arcane mirror. Spells reflected in it can emerge from its surface. Suggestion: Show the mirror's surface bending outward, as if the spell being reflected (a lightning bolt, for example) were trying to push its way out.
Quicksilver Behemoth (Darksteel)	A water elemental charged with electricity. It dissipates on impact with an enemy creature, dousing and electrocuting it. (Creature type could change to beast.)
Chromescale Drake (Darksteel)	A metallized drake with chrome-like eyes, in flight.
Gemini Engine (Darksteel)	This artifact creature has four legs and four arms, and its head has a face on each side. The creature can split into two creatures when attacking, each with two arms and legs.
Nim Grotesque (Fifth Dawn)	Location: Mephidross metal swamp Action: Show a 20 foot tall badly warped Nim zombie. Its deformed hulk shambles (or maybe skitters) through the swamp. Focus: The immense beast. Mood: Corrupt and powerful.
Stand Firm (Fifth Dawn)	We are looking at a male Leonin warrior. He is readying his battle-scythe as he is about to be charged by Nim. The Leonin is "bracing for impact". Mood: It ends here!
Lose Hope (Fifth Dawn)	This is the scene following "brace for impact". This time the Leonin warrior is covered in filth from fighting Nim and is about to collapse from nausea and Necrogen gas. Mood: I feel sick. I'm gonna die here.
Celestial Ancient (Dissension)	Location: Ravnica “skyline” at night Action: Show a strange winged creature of your design, maybe 12' tall, that looks like it's “made of night.” Show it perched on the top of a spire, wings spread. It's darker than the night (or dusk) sky behind it, and its body contains many stars of varying brightness. Focus: the winged “starry night” elemental
Rekindled Flame (Eventide)	Color: Red spell Location: None Action: This is a fire spell that relies on the power of memory. Here is an allegory for it: imagine a kithkin or elf who is screaming with his hands to his ears. But he’s made all of wax, and there is a burning wick where each hand and his head would be. Wax drips as he burns (there is no head or hands left, just the 3 wicks). Focus: The flame-memory spell
Waste Not (Magic 2015)	[Revenge of Necromancy] Color: Black Spell Location: A nasty trash heap outside a small settlement Action: We see a RAG MAN, a hunched and withered humanoid figure who appears to be held together by frayed ropes and worn leather straps. The being is standing triumphantly atop a heap of bones, broken armor and weapons, and other less identifiable trash. It is holding up a skull in one hand; the other hand clutches a filthy sack that is bulging with "treasures." A glow of purplish power surrounds the Rag Man and the skull. Focus: The glowing figure. Mood: Creepy yet eco-friendly.
[Necromancy Ascendant]	Color: Black Spell Location: An ancient cemetery Action: We see an old cemetery, but there are ornate stone sarcophagi instead of dug graves. The lids of several sarcophagi have been moved, exposing the rotting corpses inside. A dark, purplish-black mist rises out the mouths and eyes of the corpses like dry ice. It billows out onto the ground, corrupting the cemetery grass. Focus: The necromantic mist Mood: There is no peace in this rest.
[Season of the Lich]	Color: Black Spell Location: A misty clearing between withered trees Action: This is a mood piece, set at night. The background of the image is an enormous full moon which touches the horizon... very bright, but slightly ominous in its tint. Most of the image is in silhouette against the moon's light, but in the foreground we can see enough to know that we are in a dense pumpkin patch to give us a sense that this is a specific time of year. In the center of the image is a figure, very tall and impossibly thin, who is seen in hard silhouette against the moon. His posture is regal, his face slightly upturned to the night. As the pumpkin shapes become more back-lit we realize that some of the curved silhouettes aren't pumpkins at all, but are the hunched backs of several zombies who are starting to rise from among the patch. Focus: The scene Mood: "In the first hour of the third day of the seventh season, dim your lamps. Hush your infants. And lock your doors."
[Necromancer's Call]	Color: Black Spell Location: A field of corpses on a blasted wasteland. Action: A necromancer stands with her arms outstretched. Ghostly energy is coursing up from the bodies that are strewn about. The energy converges around her where it begins to turn purplish. Maybe in the background we can see silhouettes of zombies rising out of the ground. Focus: The energy rising out of the corpses and the ground. Mood: Supernatural, eerie
[Liliana's Wake]	Color: Black Spell Location: Outdoors, during a colorful dusk Action: Liliana wades toward camera through murky waist-deep water. Her body language is graceful and confidant, there is a smirk on her face. Her hands are outstretched just enough to agitate the surface of the water on both sides of her as she wades. Behind her two trails of zombies have just begun to rise from the water and follow her, as if awakened by the ripples caused by her hands. Focus: The scene Mood: Placid. Pretty. And frightening.
Insult (Amonkhet)	Aftermath Frame: First Half (Wide Aspect) Setting: Amonkhet Color: Red spell Location: Not important Action: We'd like this piece, together with "Injury," to form a single piece of art broken across two moments. This part, "Insult," shows a minotaur warrior bellowing. His roar emanates out as glowing hieroglyphics (see reference packet), and the hieroglyph runes continue into "Injury." Focus: The minotaur and his roared hieroglyphics Mood: A war bellow that can inflict real damage.
Injury (Amonkhet)	Aftermath Frame: Second Half Setting: Amonkhet Color: Red spell Location: Not important Action: This piece, together with "Insult," form a single piece of art broken across two moments. This part, "Injury," is when the magical hieroglyphics from "Insult" crash into another warrior, perhaps a Naga. The Naga puts up his arms to try to shield himself from the mystical attack. Focus: The hieroglyphics striking their target. Mood: These words have the power to harm.
Protection of the Hekma (Amonkhet)	Setting: Amonkhet Color: White spell Location: Just inside the Hekma, the forcefield barrier that encloses the entire city-state Action: Show a scene that illustrates what it's like to be just inside the Hekma forcefield. The forcefield shimmers with magic, but the barrier itself is otherwise invisible. Sand dunes from the desert wastes beyond are piled up against the barrier, and a horde of desiccated mummies bump against it, mindlessly drawn by hunger. On this side of the barrier, the city-state is lush and calm. Focus: The shimmering Hekma barrier is the most important element here. Mood: Contrast of danger outside and safety inside.
Lay Claim (Amonkhet)	Setting: Amonkhet Color: Blue spell Location: Any place in the city-state with monuments in the background Action: This spell represents the blue god Kefnet demonstrating his divine power by reaching down and grabbing a fearsome creature. Show a dragon that is being snatched up by the back of its neck, as if it were a puppy being grabbed by its scruff. Kefnet's hand looks huge, perfect, softly glowing in its divinity. Focus: The action of grabbing is the main focus here—the contact point between Kefnet's hand and the dragon he's laying claim to. Mood: What mortals think is huge is mere child's play to a god.
Divert (Amonkhet Invocations)	Setting: Amonkhet Color: Blue spell Location: Exterior city-state shot with waterfalls Action: In this shot, an ibis-headed vizier uses his magical power to divert the water of a waterfall. He hovers in the air where the water should be cascading down upon him, but instead the water continues onward in defiance of gravity. The vizier has his hands raised, and wisps of blue energy rise from his fingers to carry the water forward. Focus: The gravity-defying water. Mood: Awesome power that defies nature.
Mind Twist (Amonkhet Invocations)	Setting: Amonkhet Color: Black spell Location: An expanse of dunes in the desert Action: The intent of this piece is to display a person's sanity shattering from wandering in the desert. To accomplish this, show a human male at the foot of a steep dune. He is small in the frame and his shadow stretches up the side of the dune. Halfway up, the shadow peels off the dune to become corporeal. It has the appearance of the monster on p. 128A. With one of its spindly arms, it reaches toward the human to poke him in the forehead. The human grabs his head in agony. Focus: The shadow lifting off the of surface of the dune. Mood: Surreal and disturbing.
Bitterblossom (Ultimate Masters)	Setting: Lorwyn Color: Black spell Intent: Lorwyn faeries are devious tricksters who love to play pranks on their victims. This card represents a magical glen where these faeries emerge from their hiding places among the flowers. Location: An overgrown sea of wild purple, magenta, and blue flowers in a magical glen Action: Imagine entering a beautiful glen in the woods that's alive with blossoms in purples and blues. Now imagine that a wasp-like, dragonfly-winged little faerie has emerged from among the flowers, buzzing by your head with a barbed spear. And as you glance again, you notice that the flowers all around you are teeming with these malicious little faeries! Show that scene, with at least one prominent faerie in plain sight and more lurking among the blossoms. Focus: The foreground faerie Mood: You're in deeper trouble than you first realized.
Dark Depths (Ultimate Masters)	Setting: Dominaria Color: Land associated with black mana Location: The dim water under an ice shelf Action: We'd like you to create a scene of the same icy location shown in the reference, but reversed, so that we're underwater with the eldritch entity, looking up through the ice at the tiny figure. Imagine floating near that dark tentacled thing, its unnatural mass rising toward the ice-crust, and the figure walking across the ice above hasn't yet noticed what is just below them. Mood: The evil that lurks just under people's feet
Frantic Search (Ultimate Masters)	Setting: Dominaria Color: Blue spell Location: Tolarian Academy interior Action: This scene shows a desperate search underway in the workshop of a Tolarian wizard. The wizard is digging through books, papers, and doodads, clearly looking for something important. Perhaps a trained bird watches quizzically or assists. Focus: The search Mood: It's 5 minutes before class and you can't find your term paper.
Life From the Loam (Ultimate Masters)	Setting: Ravnica Color: Green spell Location: An underground/undercity space Action: This spell represents nature rapidly reclaiming an urban area. Show brash new plant life that has burst forth from the husks of abandoned undercity buildings. Oversized woody trunks bend out of broken windows. Cascades of bright ferns tumble down staircases. Pillars have been broken by climbing vines and carried up with their reckless growth. Whatever you can think of! Focus: The scene Mood: Exhilarating. A dead, forgotten place has transformed into a new living realm.
Slippery Bogle (Ultimate Masters)	Color: Green and blue creature Location: Damp, spooky forest Action: Here's a chance to do a little creature design. This is a small BOGLE, which basically means "weird beastie." It's about half a meter tall and appears SLIPPERY, with slick or slimy skin. It's skittering among gnarled roots, or maybe crossing a small stream. We've sent this card's original art for reference, but you can deviate from it significantly. We're inclined to keep the basic anatomy of a big head with two legs, and those weird, hand-like feet. But even that is up for negotiation if you've got a different weird beastie design—just make sure it isn't humanoid and doesn't look too much like any particular real-world animal or myth creature. Focus: The slippery bogle Mood: Creepy yet cute, but also kind of gross
Through the Breach (Ultimate Masters)	Setting: Innistrad Color: Red spell Location: Drownyard Temple Intent: This piece shows a moment that was illustrated for the Shadows over Innistrad story guide but that we never quite got to see on cards: the moment when Emrakul emerges from the space between worlds and rises out of the ocean. Action: We'd like to stay pretty close to the story guide illustration here, with a couple key differences to account for this specific context: Maybe a little more of the lightning effect, since this is now a red spell. A sense of coming through from somewhere else, not just rising up. (This can be subtle.) The addition of Nahiri very small in the foreground, her glowing sword upraised, facing away from us. Focus: Emrakul's emergence Mood: Eldritch
Bankrupt in Blood (Ravnica Allegiance)	Setting: Ravnica Guild: Orzhov Color: Black spell Location: Unimportant/abstract Intention: This spell sacrifices two creatures so its caster can gain knowledge. We'd like to show this as an abstract take on a lethal Orzhov religious ritual. Action: Two humans, one male and one female, sit back to back. Their mouths are open, screaming. (They're tied up, if we can see that far down). The tops of their heads are dissolving into a mixture of coins and blood mist that drifts upward and out of frame from the dissolving heads. The coins and blood mist coming from the two heads should mix. Focus: The magical transformation of their bodies into coins Mood: Unsettling, powerless Notes: Although this calls for blood and for bodies coming apart, we don't want gore or body horror here—we're looking for a sense of being literally transformed.
Captive Audience (Ravnica Allegiance)	Setting: Ravnica Guild: Rakdos Color: Black-red spell Location: The audience at a Rakdos performance Action: This is a crowd shot of the audience of a Rakdos show reacting to something particularly gruesome on stage. Show us a variety of guilded and unguilded audience members with a variety of genders, ethnicities, creature races, and ages. Have fun with what each person thinks of the show—most are disgusted, some are terrified, maybe one is retching, maybe only one person is having a good time. Rakdos performances are horrifying, violent, and disturbing. How can we get that across by just showing the audience reaction? We do want to get an important gag in here: make sure one of the audiences is Fblthp. Fblthp is a small homunculus with a bad habit of getting lost, and we want to imply that he accidentally wandered into this performance. Fblthp is definitely shocked by what he's seeing—maybe he's covering his mouth in surprise. Focus: The disgust/shock/terror of the audience Mood: An amusing glimpse at what a Rakdos performer sees during their shows
Clear the Mind (Ravnica Allegiance)	Setting: Ravnica Guild: None Color: Blue spell Location: Abstract; perhaps set in a street scene Intention: This is an abstract representation of a spell that erases your past but gives you insight into the future. The description below gives some ideas for how to do that, but none of the details in it are as important as getting across that big idea. Action: Show an unguilded human mage walking through a street scene. Behind them, the scene is fading out or disappearing—perhaps looking like a DaVinci sketch, or an unfinished watercolor, or like it's being literally erased. The scene in front of them, if we can see it, might look supernaturally vibrant, or outlined in shimmering blue, like a vision. Focus: The abstract magical effect Mood: Leave the past behind, and look to a beautiful future.
Cult Guildmage (Ravnica Allegiance)	Setting: Ravnica Guild: Rakdos Color: Black-red creature Location: Performing in any Ravnica street scene or at a Rakdos environment of your choice Action: Each guild has its own specialized spellcasters to practice their style of guild magic. This is a guildmage of the Rakdos: a male human who looks like a mad jester and puppeteer. Give him a marionette that's a mocking caricature of the Planeswalker Jace Beleren. Maybe the puppeteer-mage grins unsettlingly as he makes the wooden Jace puppet dance a ridiculous dance. Focus: The jester Mood: "Jace the wooden, Jace the blind, Jace got termites and lost his mind! Doot-dooty-dooo, HA-haha-HA!"
Gruul Guildgate (Ravnica Allegiance)	Setting: Ravnica Guild: Gruul Color: Land associated with red and green Intent: In the city-world of Ravnica, every guild has two "guildgates"—entrances to that guild's territory. One of them is big and spectacular, and the other that is small and secretive. This one is the small and secretive version. Action: Imagine a part of the city that has been reduced to rubble, and the only thing left standing is a modest archway with a wooden door that remains intact. For this shot, focus on the door, which has the Gruul symbol painted on it in red paint. The gag here is that you can just walk around the door because everything around it is wrecked. Focus: The small door Mood: A savage place; also a bit absurd
Kaya's Wrath (Ravnica Allegiance)	Setting: Ravnica Guild: Orzhov Color: White-black spell Location: Inside a luxurious Orzhov treasure room Intent: This spell shows a key story moment when the Planeswalker Kaya murders the Ghost Council, a group of old dead dudes who run the Orzhov guild. In the game, the card destroys all creatures, so we're going to see some mayhem. Kaya uses a signature purple-white magic to physically interact with ghosts, so anywhere we see her touching one, her body or weapons should turn into that glowing purple-white energy. Action: This is a cinematic, slow-motion shot during an epic, many-against-one fight scene. Kaya is in the middle of the shot dealing out death to the ghosts who surround her. She might have her knife in one's chest, while another flails backward, his throat slit, spilling smoky "ghost blood" as he falls. Kaya throws small knives of purple-white magic that impale more ghosts, all of them spilling smoky "ghost blood" as their undead life slips away. Really emphasize the action here—every single ghost in this room is dead, dying, or about to die. And through it all, Kaya smiles wide, loving every minute. Focus: The epic multiple murder Mood: They had her outnumbered and surrounded. They never stood a chance.
Felidar Retreat (Zendikar Rising)	Setting: Zendikar Color: White enchantment Location: A felidar lair Action: Show a rocky lair belonging to a family of felidars. There are bones littered by a cave entrance and a precarious rocky peak where an adult felidar lounges at the very top watching over the others below. Maybe there's a kitten or two playing.
Canyon Jerboa (Zendikar Rising)	Setting: Zendikar Color: White creature Location: The ground of a rocky valley Intent: This card shows a stampede from a mouse's perspective. Action: Show a cute, fantastical mouse based on a jerboa (see reference, it's a small rodent with big back legs for jumping). It stands at the bottom of the ravine and sniffs the air for danger. The pebbles on the ground around it bounce into the air, and dirt billows in the background as if there's an earthquake. A stampede of creatures is coming, but we're too small to see them. Focus: The mouse
Charix, the Raging Isle (Zendikar Rising)	Setting: Zendikar Color: Blue legendary creature Location: The sea Action: Introduce us to Charix, a massive crab the size of a small continent. He bursts out of the sea, and water cascades off his shell. His shell has elements of the surrounding land, maybe a couple shrubs grow on it and bits of Skyclave ruin stick to it, giving it a distinctive pattern. He has multiple sets of pincers, but one should be much larger than the others (see fiddler crab reference). Include some elements for scale such as floating ruins or birds—it's important this creature be huge. Focus: Charix Mood: An absolute unit of a crab
Confounding Conundrum (Zendikar Rising)	Setting: Zendikar Color: Blue enchantment Location: A ruin interior. Light pouring in illuminates the puzzle at its center. Action: Show a ruin interior with a huge "water puzzle" levitating at the center of the room. The "water puzzle" consists of streams of water weaving in and out of each other to create a complicated knot (or some other intertwined shape). A female explorer looks up at the puzzle and contemplates it. Focus: The water puzzle Mood: Mind-boggling; an obstacle to overcome
Skyclave Shade (Zendikar Rising, #298)	Setting: Zendikar Color: Black creature Location: A dark corner of a ruin Action: Show a terrifying shade emerging from a ruin wall. Black smoke trails from its eyes and claws. Skyclave patterning should be integrated into its wispy body. Focus: The shade Mood: An evil menace
Soul Shatter (Zendikar Rising)	Setting: Zendikar Color: Black sorcery Location: Flying past the Skyclaves Action: Show a shadowy blast smiting a dragon through the chest. The blast of darkness has an angular shape. The dragon roars in anger as the magic slams into it, shattering its scales and killing it. Focus: The dark magic hitting the dragon Mood: The fall of a mighty creature
Akoum Hellhound	Setting: Zendikar Color: Red creature Location: The top of a cliff edge Action: Show a canine-inspired take on a red-aligned Zendikar elemental standing at the very top of a precarious cliff. An elemental-meets-animal. It should have clawed paws made for climbing steep cliffs and a molten-red glow to its stone body. Focus: The dog elemental Mood: Agile, fierce
Spitfire Lagac	Setting: Zendikar Color: Red creature Location: A rocky Akoum region Action: Show a massive red-scaled lizard monster with a chubby pouch-like throat. It resembles a Komodo dragon with tusks, spines, and little beady eyes. See the attached reference for how its neck looks. There's a hot glow coming from its throat pouch as it burps up a fireball. Focus: The spitting lizard Mood: A little goofy, a lot of danger
Nahiri's Lithoforming (Zendikar Rising)	Setting: Zendikar Color: Red sorcery Location: A mountaintop Story info: Nahiri is "lithoforming" the landscape, reshaping the world according to her will and stilling the chaotic effects of the Roil. Action: Show Nahiri attempting to calm the Roil using her enhanced lithomancy powers. She stands on a mountain peak, arms outstretched. Giant chunks of rock and ancient hedrons tear out of the land and swirl around her. It looks as if she is about to recreate the hedron network. Focus: Nahiri's lithomancy Mood: Stronger and more determined than ever
Ashaya, Soul of the Wild (Zendikar Rising)	Setting: Zendikar Color: Green legendary creature Location: A forest landscape. Bits of ruin and hedrons are scattered about. Action: This is Ashaya, Nissa's elemental familiar. See the attached reference for how Ashaya has looked previously. Ashaya is a bipedal elemental with a distinctive curved head shape, composed of thick vines and living plants. Ashaya is taller and more powerful than before (about 30 feet tall). Maybe some explorers can be seen admiring it from below for scale. Focus: Ashaya Mood: A loyal guardian
Lotus Cobra (Zendikar Rising, #307)	Setting: Zendikar Color: Green creature Location: Hanging above a lotus field Action: Show us an updated take on the Lotus Cobra, a snake with prismatic scales. The lotus flower should be integrated into its design in some way—maybe the inside of its hood is patterned like lotus petals. Its body drapes and coils around a tree branch. Focus: The colorful cobra Mood: Mesmerizing
Phylath, World Sculptor (Zendikar Rising, #313)	Setting: Zendikar Color: Red green creature Location: Murasa Action: Show a towering elemental based on the body shape of a troll. Its body is made from brambles, vines, and leaves, and where its heart would be glows red with flame. It scoops up a sapling, dirt and everything, and holds it up to its chest in a careful manner. Green energy surrounds the pair and flows into the sapling. Focus: The elemental Mood: Watching out for even the tiniest of plants
Omnath, Locus of Creation (Zendikar Rising, #312)	Setting: Zendikar Color: Red-green-white-blue legendary creature Location: Towering over the watery landscape of Tazeem Action: This is Omnath, an elemental being made of four colors of mana (red, green, white, and blue). See the attached reference for a sketch of the new four-color Omnath design. He has two legs, four arms, and an intense white light shining from the center of his "head." Omnath looks powerful and recharged—his body glows brighter than before and looks slightly more defined and muscular. Each one of his arms manipulates a different type of mana around him. Focus: Omnath Mood: Mana manifested
Forsaken Monument (Zendikar Rising)	Setting: Zendikar Color: Colorless artifact Location: Fallen into the Guul Draz swamp Action: Show the floating monument from the attached reference having fallen to the earth. Only a portion of the Eldrazi statue remains, alongside several toppled cubes. Foliage, vines, and moss have grown over parts of the lost monument. A faint glowing energy glows from the cracks in the cubes—they still hold some magical power. An explorer or two could stand next to the monument for scale. Focus: The ruined monument Mood: Eerie, long dormant
Cavern of Souls (Zendikar Rising Expeditions)	Setting: Zendikar Color: Land associated with mana of any color Location: A Skyclave interior Action: Show a vast Skyclave ruin interior. At the center is some kind of prominent basin. Ghostly energy pours out of the basin and fills the room with a white fog. Within this fog are several humanoid figures made out of negative space. The figures aren't well defined, only given form by the fog that flows around them. Focus: The ghostly room Mood: Spooky
Blossoming Calm (Modern Horizons 2)	Mood: A spell that protects her from her enemies.
Esper Sentinel (Modern Horizons 2)	Action: Using the reference as inspiration, we’d like you to design a soldier who is a similar mix of flesh and etherium (a magical metal found only on Esper)
Late to Dinner (Modern Horizons 2)	Mood: A friendship that can outlast death.
Lens Flare (Modern Horizons 2)	Intent: The spell shows a creature being damaged by powerful rays of light.
Nykthos Paragon (Modern Horizons 2)	Action: Start with 190C and design a spirit known as an Eidolon that resembles a human soldier carrying a large shield.
Search the Premises (Modern Horizons 2)	Mood: Determined to find evidence of wrongdoing.
Floodhound (Modern Horizons 2)	Action: This creature is a BLOODHOUND formed entirely of WATER.
Fractured Sanity (Modern Horizons 2)	Action: We’d like an epic, abstract illustration of a fantastical moon (not the real-life earth-moon), which has cracked open.
Mystic Redaction (Modern Horizons 2)	Action: Show GLOWING BLUE GLYPHS being TORN out of a GRIMOIRE, leaving BLANK PAGES behind.
Phantasmal Dreadmaw (Modern Horizons 2)	Action: Using the original art of Colossal Dreadmaw as inspiration, design an illusionary version of the dinosaur.
Rise and Shine (Modern Horizons 2)	Mood: "You can’t keep us locked away anymore. To battle!"
Thought Monitor (Modern Horizons 2)	Mood: An efficient, well-designed machine.
Kitchen Imp (Modern Horizons 2)	Action: Show an imp that’s a kitchen helper for Asmor, the Underworld Cook.
Persist (Modern Horizons 2)	Action: Show a kithkin (see pg. 28) emerging from under the ground where he was buried.
Sudden Edict (Modern Horizons 2)	Intent: This illustration uses an existing visual gag that shows the moments before and after a spell was cast. We’d like you to use this visual gag for a spell that destroys a creature.
Underworld Hermit (Modern Horizons 2)	Mood: He's the Pied Piper of squirrels.
World-Weary (Modern Horizons 2)	Intent: This is an abstract depiction of a spell that causes a person to rapidly age.
Faithless Salvaging (Modern Horizons 2)	Mood: A bit regretful but still looking for loot.
Gargadon (Modern Horizons 2)	Intent: Magic has made a Greater Gargadon and a Lesser Gargadon (see ref). We want you to design the “average” Gargadon.
Harmonic Prodigy (Modern Horizons 2)	Focus: The musician-wizard.
Abundant Harvest (Modern Horizons 2)	Mood: Surrounded by the abundance of nature.
Ignoble Hierarch (Modern Horizons 2)	Intention: Do a mirror image of the Noble Hierarch card, only this time with a goblin.
Jade Avenger (Modern Horizons 2)	Action: Show a frog samurai who is a master swordsman. Skilled and agile, he stands about four feet tall and wields a daisho (see ref).
Sylvan Anthem (Modern Horizons 2)	Action: This is an abstract illustration that celebrates green creatures.
Timeless Witness (Modern Horizons 2)	Intent: We’d like to re-imagine the Eternal Witness as an initiate on Amonkhet.
Combine Chrysalis (Modern Horizons 2)	Action: Please design a Simic device that turns smaller creatures into big flying beasts.
Ethersworn Sphinx (Modern Horizons 2)	Intent: Most Esper sphinxes have minimal filigree enhancement, but this sphinx has been extensively enhanced.
Garth One-Eye (Modern Horizons 2)	Mood: A powerful, quirky, curious man.
General Ferrous Rokiric (Modern Horizons 2)	Apperance: A skilled military commander, Ferrous is a new character for you to design.
Lazotep Chancellor (Modern Horizons 2)	Mood: We will conquer you.
Moderation (Modern Horizons 2)	Intent: This card prevents you from casting multiple spells per turn but rewards you for your restraint.
Rakdos Headliner (Modern Horizons 2)	Mood: Unrestrained violence in a festival atmosphere.
Ravenous Squirrel (Modern Horizons 2)	Action: This is a squirrel who eats everything.
Sythis, Harvest's Hand (Modern Horizons 2)	Action: We’d like you to design Sythis, a legendary green- and white-aligned female dryad who’s closely tied to Karametra, the god of the harvest (p.26)