From http://www.threedonkeys.com, the man himself Richard Garfield discusses how he feels about the impending changes to the game he created with the release of Magic 2010. Plus, free thoughts on the game coming to the Xbox.
Big names? Antoine Ruel, Frank Karsten, the OMS brothers (still eligible), Pat Chapin, Dave Williams. The ballot is tough this year for certain. Who do you think should be on it? Sound off in our forums below.
From Mike Flores’ article today on the mothership, which you can read here, for a limited time customers can get a free Honor of the Pure for buying a booster box at participating locations. The card, which promises to be a heavy hitter in the world of Standard, is previewed in Mike’s article.
The promotion allows the first twenty people to purchase a booster box at select retailers to receive a promotional foil copy of the card. Relevant links on the promotion:
Participating stores (North America)
From Lee Sharpe, a member of the Magic Online team at Wizards of the Coast, on Facebook. You’ll find it here.
Today is the last day for voting in the Ryzwear Magic-themed shoe design competition. If you haven’t voted already, you’ll want to head here.
Read the full article here on ICv2. The set won the category “Collectible Card Games.”
From MTGBelgium.be:
Branco Neirynck - 1st Place
4 Arcane Sanctum
4 Fetid Heath
4 Reflecting Pool
4 Windbrisk Heights
2 Mutavault
4 Caves of Koilos
2 Plains
1 Swamp
4 Murderous redcap
4 Tidehollow Sculler
3 Cloudgoat Ranger
4 Kitchen Finks
4 Glorious Anthem
4 Bitterblossom
4 Spectral Procession
3 Zealous Persecution
3 Ajani Goldmane
2 Path to Exile
Side Board
3 Burrenton Forge-tender
2 Path to Exile
4 Thoughtseize
2 Wrath of God
1 Celestial Purge
1 Zealous Persecution
2 Paladin en-Vec
Jan Doise - 2nd Place
1 Forest
1 Plains
1 Mountain
1 Forest
1 Vivid Grove
3 Vivid Crag
1 Vivid meadow
1 Exotic Orchard
4 Ancient ziggurat
4 Primal Beyond
4 reflecting pool
1 Springleaf drum
4 Flamekin harbinger
3 Horde of notions
4 Smokebraider
4 Bloom Tender
3 Ranger of Eos
4 Reveillark
4 Incandescent Soulstoke
4 Mulldrifter
2 Soul Warden
3 Fulminator Mage
1 Cloudthresher
1 Nameless Inversion
Sideboard
2 Pithing Needle
2 Meddling Mage
1 Fulminator Mage
2 Burrenton Forge-Tender
2 Path to Exile
2 Cloudthresher
2 Eyes of the Wisent
1 Shriekmaw
1 Tar Fiend
Alexandre Darras - 3rd Place
4 Secluded Glen
4 Burner Ruins
4 Mutavault
3 Undergound River
3 Swamps
6 Island
4 Bitterblossom
4 Broken Ambitions
4 Scion of Oona
4 Mistbind Clique
3 Spellstutter Sprite
1 Sower of temptation
2 Peppersmoke
2 Thoughtseize
4 Cryptic Command
1 Terror
2 Jace Beleren
4 Agony Warp
1 Faerie Conclave
Side Board
2 Thoughtseize
2 Puppetteer Clique
3 Flashfreeze
3 Loxodon Warhammer
2 Sower of Temptation
3 Deathmark
2 Plumeveil
Robbert Menten - 4th Place
4 Gilt-leaf Palace
4 Llanowar Wastes
4 Mutavault
4 Treetop Village
3 Forest
2 Swamp
2 Twilight Mire
4 Llanowar Elves
4 Wren´s run Vanquisher
3 Civic Wayfinder
3 Wilt-Leaf Liege
3 Kitchen Finks
4 Putrid Leech
3 Chameleon Colossus
4 Maelstrom Pulse
3 Profane Command
3 Thoughtseize
2 Nameless inversion
1 Loxodan Warhammer
Side-board
1 Chameleon Colossus
1 Thoughtseize
3 Cloudthresher
2 Primal Command
2 Shriekmaw
2 Puppeteer Clique
2 Pithing Needle
2 Snakeform
Marco Baiesi - 5th Place
18 Forest
2 Treetop Village
4 Noble Hierarch
4 Llanowar elves
4 Nettle Sentinel
4 Bramblewood Parangon
4 Wren’s run Vanquisher
4 Boggart Ram-Gang
3 Imperious Prefect
2 Chameleon Colossus
1 Brianhorn
4 Giantbaiting
2 Obsidian Battle-Axe
2 Tower Above
2 Hurricane
Side Board
2 Overrun
2 Kitchen Finks
2 Snakeform
2 Guttural Response
2 Naturalize
2 Cloudthresher
1 Hurricane
1 Tower Above
1 Pithing Needle
Pieter Verbanck - 6th Place
3 Forest
4 Treetop Village
2 Swamp
4 Mutavault
4 Llanowar Wastes
2 Twilight Mire
4 Gilt-leaf Palace
4 Wren’s run Vanquisher
4 Civic Wayfinder
3 Chameleon Colossus
4 Kitchen Finks
4 Putrid Leech
4 Llanowar elves
1 Noble Hierach
3 Wilt-Leaf Liege
3 Maelstrom Pulse
3 Thoughtseize
2 Nameless Inversion
3 Profane command
Side Board
1 Maelstrom Pulse
1 Snakeform
3 Cloudthresher
1 Puppeteer Clique
2 Guttural Responce
1 Pithing Needle
1 Loxodon Warhammer
2 Infest
1 Necrogenesis
2 Avatar of Might
Maikel Ruelle - 7th Place
4 Treetop Village
2 Vivid Meadow
4 Reflecting Pool
4 Exotic Orchard
1 Savage Lands
1 Swamp
1 Plains
2 Sulfurous Springs
3 Vivid Grove
2 Fire-lit Thicket
1 Twilight Mire
1 Llanowar Waste
1 Vivid Crag
4 Boggart Ram Gang
3 Bloodbraid elf
4 Putrid Leech
4 Anathemancer
2 Runed Halo
4 Maelstrom Pulse
1 Wrath of God
3 Volcanic Fallout
3 Bitumous Blast
3 Maya Charm
4 Captive Sunlight
1 Behemoth Sledge
Side Board
2 Behemoth Sledge
2 Jund Charm
2 Bane Fire
2 Wrath of God
3 Thought Hemorage
4 Kitchen Finks
Geoffrey Siron - 8th Place
4 Captured Sunlight
3 Volcanic Fallout
4 Primal Command
4 Enlisted Wurm
4 Wrath of God
3 Incendiary Command
1 Bitumous Blast
4 Bloodbraid elf
4 Kitchen Finks
1 Obelisk of Alara
3 Vivid Meadow
3 Vivid Crag
3 Vivid Groove
4 Treetop Village
2 Battlefield Forge
4 Reflecting Pool
1 Plains
1 Mountain
1 Forest
3 Wooded Bastion
2 Fire-lit Thicket
1 Rugged Prairie
Side-board
3 Maelstrom Pulse
4 Cloudthresher
2 Ajani Vengeant
1 Volcanic Fallout
3 Jund Charm
2 Eyes of the Wisent
Discuss this article in our forums.
The nation of China has declared it will ban the sale of digital objects for real world currency in a recent effort to curb the practice within its borders. It is unclear whether the sale of such digital objects will include tickets on Magic Online, and whether or not Chinese players make up a significant portion of the Magic Online community to be seriously driven away from the game under the new rules.
To read more about the announcement, check out this article from Information Week.
(Thanks to Dylan Mayo on Facebook for the tip).
Tom Gartin is a gamer and aspiring artist from central Iowa. Over the past few years he has carved a niche for himself in Magic creating some of the most detailed, extravagant personalized playmats the world has seen. When he’s not playing Magic or 40K, he remains happily married to his high school sweetheart, works restoring a classic 1969 Dodge Charger, and works on his daily art blog at www.zombie365.webs.com.
Tom "Boonie" Gartin (no that's not his car...)
1. How did you first become involved with Magic, and to what level do you play the game?
A friend showed me the game when Revised had just come out. I was hooked the moment I saw cards like Lord of the Pit, Nightmare, and Hurloon Minotaur. I really didn’t learn to play the game until some years later but I started collecting initially on just how great the cards looked. Now I mostly play EDH [Elder Dragon Highlander] and a few other homebrewed formats at the 9th Zone [Tom's local gaming store].
2. When did you start illustrating playmats, and why?
I started around 2002; Five Color was a popular format here at the time. We didn’t play for ante, rather we played for defacement, which meant that the winner got to draw on the loser’s card. People started wanting to play, and lose, to me so that they could have me alter their cards. Back then these were simple Sharpie alterations, nothing like the alters you’d find on eBay these days.
Once word got out that I was pretty decent at “defacing” cards my friends started hounding me to draw on their deck boxes, binders, etc. It was shortly after that I started making playmats for them. It kind of blew up after that.
3. What is your art background?
My mother was/is a starving artist. We didn’t have a lot of money so typically instead of playing with action figures or Legos I was drawing. I grew up drawing warriors and vikings, monsters, and aliens much like the ones I was watching after school and on Saturday mornings. In high school every elective I had was an art class. Illustrating, sculpture, jewelry, and 4-D (computer illustration). I am now on track to wrap up my graphic design degree in the spring of next year.
In 2002 I started the playmats and doing a lot of character illustrations for RP gamers and portraits for family members. I’ve also done some logos and adds for local companies. I basically draw most of everyday. If it’s not playmats its logos, or character sketches or concept art or lately its a zombie a day for www.zombie365.webs.com. I’m still just trying to re-create and re-imagine those mythical creatures from my childhood.
4. What is the process you use to create your playmats?
Typically people come to me with an idea. Usually it’s their favorite cards or combination of cards arranged on a single mat. I go out and find the largest, highest resolution pictures I can and start mentally laying things out.
Then it’s just a matter of throwing them down on to a mat. I usually start with a very light pencil sketch then I start laying on the color. Once I am happy with the color I drop in the outlines and textures (cross hatching, stippling, shading, etc.). Then the mat is ready for the finishing spray. It dries for 24 hours and then it’s ready for the mail.
I may have simplified it a bit too much there. Some mats can take me hours. The best ones typically do. Not only can they be time consuming but my material cost is pretty high as well. The mats themselves can cost me anywhere from $5 to $10 each. I also typically burn through at least two industrial strength Sharpies at a cost of about $2 each on top of burning up my Prisma Color markers which cost anywhere from $2.50 to $4 each. The costs start to add up.
5. How do customers request what type of mat they want from you?
People can get in touch with me through my website http://www.tomgartinart.blogspot.com or by e-mailing me at tontomtoofat@gmail.com. Let me know what you’d like on your mat and possibly a rough layout idea. I will get back to you with a cost and I’ll give you an idea of how long it will take me to finish.
6. What do your custom playmats generally cost?
It varies but I like to start at a minimum of 45$ for a mat with a simple image. As the number of images and the complexity of the mat increases so will the cost.
7. How many playmats would you estimate you’ve done, and which were your favorites?
I’ve lost track of just how many I’ve made, but it’s got to be in the hundreds. I sold 88 last year, and I’ve already sold 60 this year. Here are some of my favorites:
A Goblin you do NOT want to mess with...
A Juzam any Magic fan will recognize.
A playmat any Vintage fan would love.
View more Boonie mats perfect for any Magic fan at http://tomgartinart.blogspot.com/.
Subscribe to RSS feed Subscribe to Comments feed