Have you ever noticed how you overlook cards with ???ty art? Take Spinal Embrace for example. It's one of those rares that looks like a pile, but it actually has a really powerful effect. Try covering up the picture and just reading the text.
See what I mean.
Since I'm on invasion block I'll move on to Spiritmonger. I mean everyone knew he was gonna kick some ass just because he is one of those obviously good bomb rares. I remember vividly my experience at the Apocalypse pre-release trading for three of those bad boys. I put them in my Dark Fires deck, that splashed black for Thunderscape Battlemage, Terminate, and Mr. Monger. I remember how proud I felt. My goal for the day was to get that awesome Green/Black card that I read about on the spoiler. I actually remember being a little let down when I saw the picture. I was expecting some fat snarling beast carrying the heads of its vanquished enemies, with the fresh blood still dripping from his razor sharp claws.
Nope, just some retarded monkey with horns everywhere with some weird green gooey looking ???. Perhaps the King of this formula belongs to Umezawa's Jitte. When opening the first Betrayers of Kamigawa packs it was pretty easy to skip past that stupid looking artifact and take a badass looking ninja. In fact, I actually recall someone passing me a Jitte. I'm not actually sure if that happened, because it may have been in a dream.
I mean really. This looks like the cards from Alpha! You can't even tell whats going on in this drawing. Maybe he just slashed someone, and the blood is flicking away. Or perhaps he is pumping the fist because he just stabbed someone. And what an awkward looking weapon, definitely doesn't look like it can do anything to actually impact the game. It looks like one of those tools you keep by the fire place.
And the rest of the picture is just a moon with a few craters and a mediocre starry sky. The angle on the card is also pretty horrible. It just looks wrong. It doesn't make sense. There should be something else in the picture, like the peak of the head, or more of the arm.
I think Wizards really needs to make sure that doesn't happen again. They need to make all the good cards have awesome artwork. If your going to make a card that is going to dominate multiple formats and change the way you are forced to build Standard decks at least give us something decent to work with.
And where are the charge counters going to go? And what about this Jitte will let you gain life, kill donks, and pump you up? I don't understand. It's looks like an ordinary metal rod!
-Sanchez
