6.1. Generic vertical: Planeswalkers, Triomes and the cherry picked

Planeswalkers wise, all three are done by the same artist to have a very dense stained glass background and a very fancy flossy character in the middle. The card frame still looks very awkward, but well we’ll have a different option very soon. You expect that much with every set, so here’s the other generic vertical cards.

For once, we get a cycle of the tricolored cycling lands to match the (actual) Triomes from Ikoria. Except this time, the text boxes are all opaque so is it really the same? Thankfully, the text box is still shrunk down, even though three of the five cards have much longer name now to warrant the 4th line of rules text. Art wise, I wonder if I’m looking at a land or even any actual 3D structure? If not the latter, I guess the person is just carved on this giant gold wall. That person would be covered by the opaque text box on the cards.

The big focus here is the faction symbol carved into a gold shape, surrounded by things that hopefully makes sense with the family. The family symbol has a line in the middle to display the three colors the land will produce, to varying degrees of effectiveness, due to the fact that it’s decided that the middle will always be black when possible so the two ends of the line will have light rods of the colors, that’s a huge problem for the two Selesnya families.

The artist of these lands also get to cherry pick three mythics to make a generic vertical version of. Along with another artist, who picked one mythic plus two rares instead, all creatures for this second trio. All of that combined, and somehow they didn’t stumble upon a red card. I wonder if that’s a foreshadow to this set.

I guess, the theme is supposed to be big abstract creatures and things in this city. Then, how come something like a kraken with a drawback, a magical door counts? Wait, those aren’t red too? I guess they’re more focused on the crimes, so they can’t show up here.

Actual art talk, here’s the card I have the most questions about. Mostly, about the box 2 to the back left of the standing person here. Is it on the same line that the person can totally walk toward, or is it perpendicular down to the back line’s second box?

Here’s the isometric way these blocks should show up in. I guess the way the artist tricked me is that the back half of that cursed block got shaded dark, which only makes sense if the two layers case is true.

6.2. Golden age frame

Being a set about five color balanced factions, this feels like the obvious pick for the showcase frame.

The frame is made of pure but elegant and sharp gold, with many spears on each side of the artwork, and a simple three clouds for the legend crown. The text boxes are darkened but very transparent like some finely made glass. This is some great grounds to create a gilded foil treatment for these cards.

Well, with the transparent text box, you run into one little problem: You can’t put the family watermarks here, can you? Or you could give each and every family a unique frame to call their own like the last 4 kindreds got? This is before some UB set figured to put the watermark above the typeline’s left, so just rely on the art. Oh well, I doubt WotC even think it’s a problem given how they’ve conceded against giving tricolor cards helpful pinlines, yet printing increasing more and more of them scattered across the game.

Cards selection wise, every card that’s purely three colored gets in. So they can dodge the question of how to make this frame fit bicolored and monocolored cards. Which unfortunately, they chose to make for real in the future (even though there’s a better alternative that took more time to actually be remembered), and the baffling result is that… those are also pure gold with no help too.

Artists selection wise, we’re looking for pieces that’s either dark so they contrast strongly against the card frame, or bright in a matte way to complement with the card frame.

As the set is so defined by its cycle, how does the top artists reflect that? One literally takes on the Charm cycle, putting them in actual world context instead of Steve Argyle just focusing on the symbol. Another one did came close, but went for a 4 colors commander instead of Brokers. The artists pair went for two Riveteers cards. And one only really makes the top with two monocolored cards, and two Maestros cards.

6.3. Skyscraper frame

Here we have a more marble texture, with quite a lot of curves eating into the art box like the cursed vertical art basic lands. There are two sets of pinlines on the artworks and the dual lands can only use one of them, for some reasons. The name box is surrounded by this gold shape with reverse rounded corners, also not for colors. Most importantly, the artworks has a lot in common with the aforementioned basics, which still leave me question why do they not adapt this frame for those lands?

Well, let’s take a look at what cards actually get this design. Namely, the tricolored cycling lands and the bad clue lands. None of which have any flavor text despite having a lot in their normal versions, yet the text boxes isn’t pushed down so that the art doesn’t feel so crammed from its weird shape.

You know what, don’t this set have more than two gold land cycles? Oh right, there’s the bad Evolving Wilds cycle too, why aren’t they here? They can actually use these full sized text boxes. And landfall decks would rather play these over those pathetic static dual lands. I guess the pinlines wouldn’t help, maybe deciding a silver tone for them is too much to ask.

Let’s tally up the artists distribution with the vertical art basics, to see quite the overlap. Like only one artist got more than one card, but not from mixing the two sections. And you may wonder, do those overlapping artists stuck to their family? Kinda, one has a Dimir set, one has a Simic set (almost a Brokers set), one has a partial Selesnya set, while one other artist managed the 1 mana Leyline Binding.

Last fact, the Maestros land stood out the most for its most intense and realistic lighting.

6.4. Art deco frame

It’s quite a pleasant to the eye design, focusing on flatness with relatively soild colors and simple lines but not being boring like that glossy thing I really hate. Thanks to little details like the name and type lines have spikes upward outside of their cylinders, or the statline spikes to the side, or the legend crown being just three well calculated tetragons. All this so that the artwork can take good focus with their shadings, still staying elegant in the grand schemes of things.

Two are monocolored commanders, out of the three that exists. Oh right, that one is a promo card instead. The three others are normal creatures. I quickly see the common theme of grounded elegant creatures, and I think the set has a few more of that than what we have here.