Magic: The Gathering has been around a long time and has experimented with a ton of art styles in the past — some serious, some silly, some realistic, some cartoon-y. But yesterday’s Secret Lair surprise drop, “Prime Slime,” takes the cake in my opinion with its extremely punk aesthetic and lighthearted chaos. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen such unabashedly fun art in the game.
Just check out these images of the five cards included. They’re incredibly gnarly:
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The artist, Wizard of Barge, aka Dakota Cates, has brought a silly / punk / high school vibe to the art that really stands out against the rest of Magic’s art. The game leans on a much more traditional epic fantasy painting style for most cards and sets, tailoring it to whatever setting they may be in.
These cards are most likely to find homes in Commander Decks, which is a more casual format of the game. Commander lends itself to personalization, customization, and flair, so having such unique art built around a slime theme is a knockout success in my opinion. Voidslime is likely to be the most valuable card of the set because of its limited number of reprints so far, but the real value of these is in the totally weird, funky, beautifully executed art.
The cards are being released as part of Magic’s Secret Lair series, which are limited print products with five cards with alternate art you won’t get anywhere else. Secret Lair drops only have an extremely short window where they’re available, so if you want to pick up a set of these cards, you only have until tomorrow morning, August 19th, to do it.