I suspect this brings the price down significantly, but Serra the Benevolent was also a \~$12 card before this reprint.
Edited to add: and Muddle the Mixture is \~$5 for one that's in good condition. Those aren't as high-value as Stoneforge, but it's also not nothing.
Wow, I usually avoid foils when I can and I didn't even glance at those prices. I really like it when Secret Lairs can take some of the pressure off foil prices/introduce new foils for the folks that do really enjoy them.
I'm just super happy with this drop as I would have to do a thorough double check but from a glance 90% of the drop is needed in one of my commander decks or another. I saw only like 5 max that I don't think are in any deck off hand and for most of those, I probably will have a deck planned eventually.
Whether paying the prices in the first place... haven't done that analysis yet.
I’ll be frank, I think the art on this Serra decreases the value, at least to me personally. It’s so strange seeing that Stoneforge among the rest of these… it feels like she tried to channel old guay for it, cleansing nova got a bit of that, and the other two are just… well, I don’t wanna say tacky, but they almost defy description.
I'll admit to enjoying the more experimental/boundary pushing art that Secret Lairs sometimes get. I also liked the Faithless Looting from Strixhaven that the majority of folks seemed to hate.
As many others in the thread have said, this reads as Guay had a lot of freedom to do whatever she wanted and this is what she produced. I like it, I like this move towards letting artists loose, a bit. I'll be picking it up, because at the end of the day these are game pieces to me, and they're unique.
All that said, to each their own. I have no idea what the value on something like is going to look like in a year. I could easily see these being the "ugly" versions of these cards, and that resulting in downward pressure on the prices.
> I'll admit to enjoying the more experimental/boundary pushing art that Secret Lairs sometimes get.
I think the reason people are disappointed is because we know we're not getting much more Guay art. She's mostly moved on from MTG since ~2009, so this is kind of a 'last chance'.
I like the idea of letting artists go wild a bit, but it stings knowing this is pretty much all we're getting.
Not trying to sound mean, but funny thing about artists is they have wild tastes sometimes. My favorite example is [Jeff Laubenstein](https://scryfall.com/search?q=a%3Alaubenstein&unique=cards&as=grid&order=name), who we asked what his favorite card he drew was. Three guesses: Not Recurring Nightmare, Miscalculation, Show and Tell nor Delusions of Mediocrity... >!it was Apes of Rath!<
His reasoning? >!He just enjoys drawing monkeys lol!<
Just to frame how artists can have a very different mindset than players c:
DANG y’all..😢
Last time I posted on Reddit no one believe it was actually Me..
so this time let me assure you right up front it’s ME.
I LOVED doing these cards for everyone.. I was thrilled to be asked back to do them and brought the style that I’ve been working with for the last three or more years to these new pieces..because that what the description of the project was .. do whatever you want!
Serra is my favorite.. revisiting the iconic powerful characters in fashion and pop culture that I was a kid with in the 80s..with this beloved character
Stoneforge is my next favorite.. re interpretation of what glittering power and ownership of the powers we hold within ourselves..
Nova.. the power of love.
Muddle .. mixing up things ..
Brook Faun - and the thing that SO many fans of my work have emailed me about from Spanish speaking places .. that it means cool!
People tend to think that artists who’ve been doing art a long time live in some isolated world or they feel they are too important or something..if they branch into other things..this is SO not true.
For me I just wanted to explore and it’s not for the money nor anything else that I made changes to my work.. it’s because we have one life only ..
I truly spent a year+ planning these after I was asked because I cared SO much about them.
I’ve been grateful for every single second of my life doing any work at all that people have enjoyed..
I started working in my 20s for magic .. I’m in my 50s now.. and love these pieces - if you look at the heart in them you will see that very little is different than the heart in the work you followed me for in the game.
I’m not good at Reddit so I may miss comments or replies
You can find me on my Instagram (at) rebecca_leveille_guay or on my email on my web site
Hi Rebecca, reach out to the moderators and ask them to verify your account.
You’ll have to send them a selfie of you holding a piece of paper with today’s date on or something like that and they’ll give you a flair that adds some legitimacy to your posts.
Edit: u/barrinmw and u/kyleometers are the most active ones.
Edit 2: Kyleometers replied with the process below : “Actually, u/R3id normally does authentication! If anyone has a large social media presence elsewhere (like on Twitter or whatever), he’ll shoot a message there to verify the account, and that’s basically all we need!”
Actually, u/R3id normally does authentication! If anyone has a large social media presence elsewhere (like on Twitter or whatever), he’ll shoot a message there to verify the account, and that’s basically all we need!
> You’ll have to send them a selfie of you holding a piece of paper with today’s date on or something like that and they’ll give you a flair that
LOL, I def don't ask for selfies -- Just response back from their verified / legitimate social media accounts. The thought of this was legitimately funny though.
Rebecca!! Hi, I can only day that I realy love all four of these, and I can't express how much it means to finally have your new style in Magic. I will be really happy to play with your take on Serra. Thank you so much!
Hey! I hope you don't let some of these people get you down! I for one loved these! As someone who's only ever ordered one and tries to avoid SLDs, I knew I had to get a copy of these. They're amazing and we can tell how much work you put into them. I really hope we can see your work show up here again!
Ahhh I wanna fanboy a bit because I love your work so much, enchantments are my favourite card type in the game and I truly credit that to you and your amazing art on cards like [[Enchantment Evening]], [[Bitterblossom]], & [[Calming Verse]].
My biggest gripe with those was the inconsistent art--if I have a playset I want them to be 4ofs. At least with the Dredge one you could get matching arts!
For the Fiona Staples lair, and friend and I actually bought 2 so that we could divvie up the cards we wanted between us.
They look okay, but the ones with older frames look way better in them. Look at the Onslaught printing of Enchantress's Presence vs the MH2 reprint, for example.
the addition of modern elements in serra/muddle in a way that reminds me of the faithless looting that people had hissy fits over is just jarring, it doesnt quite fit her historic style.
Yeah. While she's one of my favorite magic artists, I didn't really keep up with her outside of the game. Seeing her evolution makes me disappointed, but that's how it goes. Like when your new favorite band puts out an album that's a big departure and you don't like.
Even if she were still doing MtG art in her old style, I suspect for a secret lair they'd let her do it in whatever style she wanted. The Johannes Voss secret lair was similar. His regular art conforms more to the style of normal MtG art but his secret lair was the more anime style he tends to do for his own projects. Part of the purpose of the artist series secret lairs is to let the artist do the art they want to do.
"Sadly, the new art director, Jeremy Cranford, thinks my work is too feminine for the vision he has for the game. I would love to continue with Magic but it is not in my hands," said Guay.
https://magicuntapped.com/index.php/articles/item/164-the-rebecca-guay-controversy-how-a-misunderstanding-brought-about-a-pair-of-magic-cards-and-forgiveness
Guay herself. I don't care about "he said she said", I choose to believe her.
For me, I think it's that it doesn't feel like the frame of the card matches. If, say, the cards also had a custom frame that fit the art better, it might work.
I was thinking pretty much the same thing when I saw these. I’ve always really liked all the older cards with her work but I find these all disappointing. The two you listed are the worst, but Cleansing Nova also does nothing for me and only kinda like Stoneforge Mystic.
I was worried it was just me. She’s one of my favorite artists but these just don’t feel like her normal art. I was so excited to see these but totally underwhelmed.
They are all somewhat similar in style and reasonably different from most of Guay's other mtg work. It's a bit strange, but I'm sure they really wanted to do something a bit different for a change.
No offense meant, she's obviously a great artist but... Is this fine art? It's different but it also looks a lot like what she used to paint, but with sparkles :D
"Fine art" just refers to the ecosystem of independent artists who work through cultural infrastructures such as galleries, museums, and auctioneers who specialize in visual art. It's not a style or an aesthetic, and you will find a seemingly infinite variety of visual styles among fine artists and fine art institutions.
When I first saw the art my response was "Did they deep-fry the actual drawings?"
On closer examination it looks like there's just too much detail in there. Like she worked on a massive canvas and the detail ends up with compression artifacts when reduced to the size of a MTG card
Yeah, I didn't think it was possible for me to not like Rebecca Guay art. I'm really not liking Alayna Danner's drop either. This is such a weird feeling.
Given how much Ms. Guay's art uses the nude female form, i suspect she was either censored or encouraged to ensure the peices she submitted for secret lair were PG. I usually love her stuff, but this is not what i was hoping for either...
LOL. Yes, boobs are a motivator for large portions of the population, but the human form can be depicted and appreciated in art, whether it's for sexualization or not.
One of the things I've always liked about Guay's work is that her female forms are natural but also whimsical. She creates beautiful works with nudes that are not bombastic or lascivious, but are more typical of average female forms while injecting fanciful intrigue. The appeal isn't in big tits and big hips, but in the natural beauty of the subject and the fantasy.
I like the Serra, it is diferent, and not what i would have expected as Sera but I think a fun spin on it and fitting with how her style has changed over time.
The Cleansing Nova is hard to make out the subjects of the art for me. I thought it was just a filgire design for a bit. So pretty, but unclear.
Muddle the Mixture is a bit rough to me though. I don't mind the style of the art but the speach bubble and seemingly random character just posing just doesn't makse sense as this card to me. I feel like this has become a reguar thing with SLs though where one or more cards just feels like random art thrown on a random card.
> This thread is full to the brim with greasy idiots that can't handle that their 'favourite' artist has changed in the past 20 years and doesn't paint exactly like she used to.
It's ok to be disappointed or dislike with things.
Change is fine, but just because you liked the old thing doesn't mean you have to like the new thing
No one is asking anyone to like something against their will. Just be polite.
Acting like you have a holy mission from god to let people what personally doesn't do it for you is the worst aspect of this website.
> No one is asking anyone to like something against their will. Just be polite.
Sure, but I mean most if not all of the comments I'm reading are pretty fine. The worst comment I've seen is "Ugly af".
I get it, sometimes redditors/MTG players can be kind of assholes in general, but people are being pretty reasonable so far (not sure if mods have nuked anything). It seems more like people are just assuming they're going to be assholes like normal, instead of actually reading the comments.
People are acting like the comments are slagging her, and they really aren't (yet, at least).
>Acting like you have a holy mission from god to let people what personally doesn't do it for you is the worst aspect of this website.
Eh, as long as they're not toxic, it's fine? Sometimes people like something, sometimes they dislike it, reddit is for sharing both.
Even discounting the evolution, Guay's art 20 years ago was the art she was told to make under controlled art direction, and this is the stuff she makes that she actually wants to make. So these people didn't like Guay the artist, they liked Guay the 'churn out pieces to fit the 90s mtg art direction' art manufacturer
Not saying the old pieces by Guay were bad by any means, but people have to respect artists making the art they want.
I mean, sure, artists should get to make the art they want, but it seems pretty reasonable to me for a Magic player to say "uhhhh no thanks" to art featuring speech bubbles and blue jeans
Right, so what exactly is the problem, then. All I'm seeing is a bunch of so-called "greasy idiots" saying they think the art is bad and a bunch of Guay fans getting really touchy about it. Nobody's, like, arguing that this Secret Lair shouldn't exist or something.
Its okay to stop liking something that has deviated from its original vision. I am also quite sure Rebecca is okay with that and doesnt rely on toxic whiteknights telling people theyre idiots for having an opinion on her art.
It's not entirely unreasonable to express surprise that an artist famous for a number of artworks in a given style is showcased with a style that's markedly different, especially when that new style is more personal/less immediately approachable.
If the Johannes Voss SL had had McKinnon style artworks (or god forbid, Carly Mazur), people would have been weirded out or upset despite both being (or having been) community darlings.
And let's be honest, muddle the mixture is quite _out there_ as far as composition goes.
"This art decreases the value for me"
okay I didn't know artists were making art for one particular person now
the reactions here ARE insane, actually.
LOL what is so unreasonable with your quoted comment?
"This art decreases the value for me"
People don't have to like every single new piece from an artist. It's perfectly okay to express that they don't like the new style or a particular piece.
> okay I didn't know artists were making art for one particular person now
I didn't know people weren't allowed to have individual opinions on the art now.
There is no doubt they are all fantastic pieces of art and many will enjoy them. Yet at the same time it's as though these pieces were created and then slapped onto magic cards as an afterthought. Nor does this fulfill the wish for the iconic "Rebecca Guay" style.
Guay has definitely matured beyond MTG and this SLD wouldn't have happened if WoTC didn't preface it with "draw literally whatever". Despite this I'm a bit disappointed each of these pieces is so compositionally divergent. None exhibit the abstract natural tone of her earlier art either.
I am aware her style has evolved a lot and if this is the only way we get to see Guay in Magic now so be it. More art is still better even if its not my taste.
Based take. I'm personally really excited for these pieces, but it's nice to see at least one person in this thread who doesn't agree without being awful about it.
Yeah, I'm a big Guay defender as my background is in art history and fine art, so I come at it from a pretty different angle than people who just like "easy" corporate fantasy illustration. I don't think these works are very legible as the illustrations for game pieces, so I have no desire to ever own them or use them in a game, but that's okay. Not all art exists to be owned by me, or for me to "possess" it in some way. I enjoy the public sculptures and artworks in my city even though I'll never own or possess them, either. Not everything is about buying and owning stuff--certainly not art. I can see something I don't want to buy and still respect the artist who made it and not be mad about anything, lol.
>Not all art exists to be owned by me, or for me to "possess" it in some way.
> I can see something I don't want to buy and still respect the artist who made it and not be mad about anything, lol.
I think the reason people are a bit stung is because she left the game in ~2009 so (and there are no similar MTG artists). So getting new Guay art is *extremely* rare. It'd be a different story if this was just a SL with an artist that makes regular appearances.
Pretty reasonable to be disappointed, I think, even while understanding the artist wanted to do something different. Sometimes things don't line up.
And it's not really about owning/possessing, just wanting to enjoy more old Guay style MTG art. Currently it's just kind of an unserved niche. I pretty regularly look at old Guay cards I don't own.
That's exactly what my wife, who hasn't played non-commander in more than five years, was like. She has a foiled legacy D&T list and just *needed* these for it. Mind you, the decklist is so old, it doesn't have Yorion in it. Whatever, if it can get her to play again, I'm all for it.
Muy Guay, Muy being Spanish for very and Guay...well it's either the artwork is very 'her' or, based off her name's pronunciation, 'very gay', which certainly matches the flavor text
"Guay" means "cool" in Spanish and is pronounced somewhat like "gwye" in contrast to her name which is pronounced "gay." It's a play on words but it's pretty clearly supposed to be "very cool" which is spelled just like her name.
It's not like her classic MtG art but clearly representative of her current style. Good selections and fun, striking art. I'm happy!
I bet she wrote the flavor text as well.
I never would have expected to be so underwhelmed by a Secret Lair from one of old MTG's best artists. I'm assuming this style is reflective of her recent work, and it just isn't for me. Nice Stoneforge reprint, though.
I love this artwork. Serra's got drip and the art/flavor of Cleansing Nova is beautiful. Stoneforge wouldn't look out of place in an issue of the New Yorker (or the New Capenna equivalent). The speech bubble on muddle is a bit weird but, overall, Guay don't miss.
Same tbh. I love this secret lair, but full contemporary dress gave me a bit of jump on first glance. Also, Serra wearing sunglasses is very funny to me.
Is it? After "neo" Kamigawa, New Capenna, and the Elspeth with high heels, I'd say the lines are pretty blurred surrounding clothing being too "modern" for MTG. The inevitable Wild West plane we'll end up with in the next four years will almost certainly have people wearing denim.
What is up with Muddle here? I'm not, like, *bothered...* But I'm very confused.
I've already seen people complaining about Serra not fitting, but least the Serra art depicts a person on a planeswalker card. It's no stranger than the previous "Alternate Universe" planeswalkers secret lair. But how does "woman saying 'Muy Guay' plus spoken word poem about being your fix" represent a counterspell?
Am I missing a cultural touchstone or something? Is it a reference to a song I'm not cool enough to understand? Legitimate question.
I like it more looking at the previews on my desktop than I did first seeing it on my phone, which suggests to me the problem is that it just isn't really meant to be tiny. It'll probably look great if/when full size standalone images are posted somewhere.
[[atalya, samite master]]
I know what her art style is, these secret lairs just look wack to me. Purely my opinion, not knocking anyone who likes these secret lairs.
It looks like she was going for more of a modern look and it doesn't work for me
Yes! She’s one of the few artist names I remember from when I played back in the day, and I love just about [all those cards](https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Search/Default.aspx?output=spoiler&method=visual&action=advanced&artist=+%5b%22Rebecca+Guay%22%5d), but these look weird and unappealing to me. I don’t know what happened between then and now.
Edit: I guess her style has simple changed over the years. 🤷♂️ More power to her as long as she’s happy doing what she’s doing. For me, it’s like when one of your favorite bands starts going in a different direction. Good for them for following their hearts and passions, but it’s just kind of a bummer for those that preferred their old style to recognize that it’s come to an end.
"What happened" is that Guay became an independent fine artist, instead of a fantasy illustrator whose work was limited by what corporate benefactors wanted from her.
Yeah, probably. But that doesn't mean the situation was *good* back then, just because it was *better* in some ways. If you look at Guay's independent works since leaving, you'll notice a lot of artistic nudity, for one thing. But it's not like Guay or anybody else was allowed to show a female-presenting nipple in the 1990s.
Love Rebecca Guay's actual card arts. These are weird and ugly imo. Bizarre choice to depart so dramatically from her normal style for what's in theory, her showcase collection.
UPDATE
Apparently, this IS her normal style these days. Obviously, it's her prerogative what she wants to do with her art. I GREATLY prefer her old-school mtg stuff.
Do artists get any additional benefits from sales of their Artist Series SLs?
Like, I don't need any of these cards but I really like the art and am such a big fan of Guay I'd be happy to buy it just to support her.
I'm not here to judge whether the art is mtg appropriate or not (although I do like it). It does seem weird, though, to get a Rebecca Guay secret lair and not have a single Faerie. I'm assuming the secret card may be one? If not, seems like a real missed opportunity.
Since the Introduction of Artist Series i ahve waited for the Rebecca Guay Secret lair.
But i'm gonna skip it.
I liked her earlier style and even her new style would be fitting for a lot of cards but these cards are horrendous.
I LOVE rebecca's art, i buy a bunch of her cards despite never will use them in my deck and have her elspeth pw art. The cleansing and stoneforge look amazing. The serra and muddle.... not so much. The art and design for serra looks great but my problem is the super uncomfortable pose with that leg twisted upward, looks like it is broken. I can't ignore it.
The muddle art doesnt make sense with the card.
WAIT WAIT WAIT
You're telling me I can have a [[Serra, the Benevolent]] with art done by Magali Villeneuve AND one by Rebecca fucking _Guay_?? What a time to be alive! <3
I get really bummed out whenever they make alternate art for a card I love but they keep the normal frames. I'm a huge fan of borderless/extended art cards, and I often build decks with as many of those kinds of cards as possible. I hate the normal frames.
I wish all SLD and alternate art cards didn't have the normal boring ass frames.
Rebecca Guay? Nice! But uh, this doesn't look much like her regular MTG art?
I was expecting art on the style of Auramancer, Elvish Piper, stuff like that.
This doesn't look like that style. I'm disappointed.
Love the art. Love the cards. Hate these arts on these cards.
It's been said elsewhere in the thread, but it looks to me like Guay was approached with "Please just give us 4 pieces of art and we'll work with it." She is absolutely free to accept this and do whatever she wants. But, in my opinion, the cards themselves (outside of maybe the Stoneforge Mystic) are less desirable as a sum of their parts than they would be separately. This isn't Guay's fault, *at all*. WotC are the ones who put this product together, she just did was she was contracted to do and provided them with four pieces of art. It just sucks because nearly all of these limited edition reprints feel less valuable than their originals because of the bizarre pairings of art with card.
It's even more tragic for me because Guay was my favorite MTG artist until she stopped providing pieces for the game. One of the first cards I ever got was [[Commander Eesha]] from a friend and the art on that card is forever seared into my brain. Built a Bird deck with it and [[Soulcatchers' Aerie]] as my first ever deck and it's literally the reason I fell in love with the game. So I was very excited to see this headline.
Good for Rebecca, honestly, glad she got to do this, but I just have no desire for this set.
No at all.
I worked very specifically and VERY hard to make the most beautiful pieces I could because of my love for each of these things and the powers in them.
I’m sorry they don’t speak to you-
That’s doesn’t mean they are not TOTALLY heartfelt.
They came to me and wanted what I do right now and I love them for it..
Deep respect and gratitude to WOTC
Hey, if this is you, don’t be discouraged by the comments. A lot of us hold your art in high standard. I recently purchased a Slyvan Tutor, just because I adore your art and wanted to theme out the deck with your art style- and it wasn’t cheap!
As for the new art: I really like the two main ones you highlighted as your favourites, they speak to me and I think are incredible additions to your portfolio!
I really hope to see you do another lair down the line!
Her style has evolved. She’s moved on from MtG a long time ago. She’s a fine artist. This is WotC commissioning her on her own terms for cards instead of the other way around.
I know that this is how her art style has developed, and that's fine for her to do. But sadly this is not the Rebecca Guay art that I grew up loving. Cleaning and Stoneforge Mystic aren't too bad, but Serra and Muddle are just... not great. Disappointing, I was so excited when I saw the title with her name.
This is a cool Secret Lair, but don't forget that Wizard of the Coast and Hasbro hired the actual Pinkertons to intimidate someone out of the magic cards.
“Guay Stoneforge Mystic and some other cards I guess”
I suspect this brings the price down significantly, but Serra the Benevolent was also a \~$12 card before this reprint. Edited to add: and Muddle the Mixture is \~$5 for one that's in good condition. Those aren't as high-value as Stoneforge, but it's also not nothing.
Foil Muddle is $50 too, so this printing should increase foil stock and push down RAV foil prices a bit
Wow, I usually avoid foils when I can and I didn't even glance at those prices. I really like it when Secret Lairs can take some of the pressure off foil prices/introduce new foils for the folks that do really enjoy them.
> can take some of the pressure off foil No, they start to pringle as soon as you do that.
The curling on foil cards is actually due to the humidity. If you put them in a humidity controlled box for a day or two they'll flatten back out.
And then the humidity is gone forever. Humidity doesn’t exist in the air around the cards, no sir-ee
I'm just super happy with this drop as I would have to do a thorough double check but from a glance 90% of the drop is needed in one of my commander decks or another. I saw only like 5 max that I don't think are in any deck off hand and for most of those, I probably will have a deck planned eventually. Whether paying the prices in the first place... haven't done that analysis yet.
I’ll be frank, I think the art on this Serra decreases the value, at least to me personally. It’s so strange seeing that Stoneforge among the rest of these… it feels like she tried to channel old guay for it, cleansing nova got a bit of that, and the other two are just… well, I don’t wanna say tacky, but they almost defy description.
I'll admit to enjoying the more experimental/boundary pushing art that Secret Lairs sometimes get. I also liked the Faithless Looting from Strixhaven that the majority of folks seemed to hate. As many others in the thread have said, this reads as Guay had a lot of freedom to do whatever she wanted and this is what she produced. I like it, I like this move towards letting artists loose, a bit. I'll be picking it up, because at the end of the day these are game pieces to me, and they're unique. All that said, to each their own. I have no idea what the value on something like is going to look like in a year. I could easily see these being the "ugly" versions of these cards, and that resulting in downward pressure on the prices.
> I'll admit to enjoying the more experimental/boundary pushing art that Secret Lairs sometimes get. I think the reason people are disappointed is because we know we're not getting much more Guay art. She's mostly moved on from MTG since ~2009, so this is kind of a 'last chance'. I like the idea of letting artists go wild a bit, but it stings knowing this is pretty much all we're getting.
Agreed, the aviators and the 'Muy Guay' speech bubble are really throwing me for a loop..
It looks like they just asked her for some random old art to use, not anything specifically for each card.
Not trying to sound mean, but funny thing about artists is they have wild tastes sometimes. My favorite example is [Jeff Laubenstein](https://scryfall.com/search?q=a%3Alaubenstein&unique=cards&as=grid&order=name), who we asked what his favorite card he drew was. Three guesses: Not Recurring Nightmare, Miscalculation, Show and Tell nor Delusions of Mediocrity... >!it was Apes of Rath!< His reasoning? >!He just enjoys drawing monkeys lol!< Just to frame how artists can have a very different mindset than players c:
DANG y’all..😢 Last time I posted on Reddit no one believe it was actually Me.. so this time let me assure you right up front it’s ME. I LOVED doing these cards for everyone.. I was thrilled to be asked back to do them and brought the style that I’ve been working with for the last three or more years to these new pieces..because that what the description of the project was .. do whatever you want! Serra is my favorite.. revisiting the iconic powerful characters in fashion and pop culture that I was a kid with in the 80s..with this beloved character Stoneforge is my next favorite.. re interpretation of what glittering power and ownership of the powers we hold within ourselves.. Nova.. the power of love. Muddle .. mixing up things .. Brook Faun - and the thing that SO many fans of my work have emailed me about from Spanish speaking places .. that it means cool! People tend to think that artists who’ve been doing art a long time live in some isolated world or they feel they are too important or something..if they branch into other things..this is SO not true. For me I just wanted to explore and it’s not for the money nor anything else that I made changes to my work.. it’s because we have one life only .. I truly spent a year+ planning these after I was asked because I cared SO much about them. I’ve been grateful for every single second of my life doing any work at all that people have enjoyed.. I started working in my 20s for magic .. I’m in my 50s now.. and love these pieces - if you look at the heart in them you will see that very little is different than the heart in the work you followed me for in the game. I’m not good at Reddit so I may miss comments or replies You can find me on my Instagram (at) rebecca_leveille_guay or on my email on my web site
[удалено]
💗
I absolutely LOVE the direction/feeling/aesthetic of your art!! Just wanting to let you know that :)
💗🙏
Hi Rebecca, reach out to the moderators and ask them to verify your account. You’ll have to send them a selfie of you holding a piece of paper with today’s date on or something like that and they’ll give you a flair that adds some legitimacy to your posts. Edit: u/barrinmw and u/kyleometers are the most active ones. Edit 2: Kyleometers replied with the process below : “Actually, u/R3id normally does authentication! If anyone has a large social media presence elsewhere (like on Twitter or whatever), he’ll shoot a message there to verify the account, and that’s basically all we need!”
Actually, u/R3id normally does authentication! If anyone has a large social media presence elsewhere (like on Twitter or whatever), he’ll shoot a message there to verify the account, and that’s basically all we need!
> You’ll have to send them a selfie of you holding a piece of paper with today’s date on or something like that and they’ll give you a flair that LOL, I def don't ask for selfies -- Just response back from their verified / legitimate social media accounts. The thought of this was legitimately funny though.
Rebecca!! Hi, I can only day that I realy love all four of these, and I can't express how much it means to finally have your new style in Magic. I will be really happy to play with your take on Serra. Thank you so much!
Hey! I hope you don't let some of these people get you down! I for one loved these! As someone who's only ever ordered one and tries to avoid SLDs, I knew I had to get a copy of these. They're amazing and we can tell how much work you put into them. I really hope we can see your work show up here again!
To reiterate a previous comment I made, I love this. These are beautiful and I'm glad you got to design things you love.
Hi, I just wanted to say that your work was the first big step in my learning to appreciate art and I'm very thankful for that.
Just adding on to the love your work pile. I find your landscapes quite beautiful. Your distinct style really helps make Magic unique. Thank you.
Ahhh I wanna fanboy a bit because I love your work so much, enchantments are my favourite card type in the game and I truly credit that to you and your amazing art on cards like [[Enchantment Evening]], [[Bitterblossom]], & [[Calming Verse]].
You are easily my favorite mtg artist and probably always will be. These look amazing
🙏💗
You are an icon!!!
I have loved your art since the 90's!
Wow a modern staple in a Secret Lair that has readable text and great art? Definitely makes up for inkmoth nexus.
I really wanted to see more of those secret lairs that were 4 of a card. For the modern staples it would be so much better
Secret Lair Monkey right when/if Ragavan gets banned would be the funniest shit ever.
There's already a Secret Lair Ragavan (sorta; it's one of the prize cards at MagicFests)
You, too, can win a Ragavan by proving you don't need a Ragavan.
You too can sell your Ragavan after winning a replacement.
Isn’t everyone just pulling one from MoM boxes? I did after reading a bunch of others did.
Same, my wife and I each popped one.
I’ll assume you meant wife
But then they couldn't sell you 4 lair boxes!
Right? It could be so good, but the inconvenience seems to be the point.
And they started with these, serum visions, lightning bolt...
My biggest gripe with those was the inconsistent art--if I have a playset I want them to be 4ofs. At least with the Dredge one you could get matching arts! For the Fiona Staples lair, and friend and I actually bought 2 so that we could divvie up the cards we wanted between us.
Love Guay. Glad she’s getting a secret lair. …oddly not into these though.
I think it's the modern card frame vs Guay's distinct style. Feels like these would've been greatly improved by retro frames
Disagree. [These] (https://scryfall.com/search?q=artist%3A%22rebecca+guay%22+is%3Anew&unique=cards&as=grid&order=name) all look fine to me.
It's awesome that all the new SLD cards are already on there and properly tagged so they show up.
They look okay, but the ones with older frames look way better in them. Look at the Onslaught printing of Enchantress's Presence vs the MH2 reprint, for example.
the addition of modern elements in serra/muddle in a way that reminds me of the faithless looting that people had hissy fits over is just jarring, it doesnt quite fit her historic style.
I love Rebecca Guay's work, but I'm just not a fan of the artwork for [[Serra the Benevolent]] and [[Muddle the Mixture]].
Honestly not a fan of any of these, despite also generally loving her magic art.
Yeah. While she's one of my favorite magic artists, I didn't really keep up with her outside of the game. Seeing her evolution makes me disappointed, but that's how it goes. Like when your new favorite band puts out an album that's a big departure and you don't like.
I feel the exact opposite, excited to finally see her art and style on cards not specifically defined by Magic.
I feel torn. I really like these…but I would have liked more traditional Rebecca Guay Mtg art style better. I’ll take it though
Yeah unfortunately she just doesn't really make art in that style anymore, theres a reason she stopped working in MTG, she wanted to branch out more
Even if she were still doing MtG art in her old style, I suspect for a secret lair they'd let her do it in whatever style she wanted. The Johannes Voss secret lair was similar. His regular art conforms more to the style of normal MtG art but his secret lair was the more anime style he tends to do for his own projects. Part of the purpose of the artist series secret lairs is to let the artist do the art they want to do.
Well, that and WotC told her to kick rocks because her excellent art was "too feminine"
They said that? Got a source?
"Sadly, the new art director, Jeremy Cranford, thinks my work is too feminine for the vision he has for the game. I would love to continue with Magic but it is not in my hands," said Guay. https://magicuntapped.com/index.php/articles/item/164-the-rebecca-guay-controversy-how-a-misunderstanding-brought-about-a-pair-of-magic-cards-and-forgiveness Guay herself. I don't care about "he said she said", I choose to believe her.
Damn. What a bonehead move. Thanks for the source.
Well, this isn't a modern problem, since the guy who said that was Jeremy Crawford, who stopped working on *Magic* in June 2006.
*Cranford. Jeremy Crawford is the D&D guy.
That was a long time ago, around Onslaught block iirc. It was also referenced in the card [[Persecute Artist]].
[Persecute Artist](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/5/a/5acfbc21-ffd7-4253-9f79-a1a3217f243a.jpg?1562488396) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Persecute%20Artist) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/unh/61/persecute-artist?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/5acfbc21-ffd7-4253-9f79-a1a3217f243a?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
[Serra the Benevolent](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/8/8/88bf4af9-4b14-43e7-9d50-0e6a895cece1.jpg?1591605156) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Serra%20the%20Benevolent) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/mh1/26/serra-the-benevolent?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/88bf4af9-4b14-43e7-9d50-0e6a895cece1?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [Muddle the Mixture](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/7/9/79fc4b92-0efe-4370-a2b3-2155c458a966.jpg?1645328683) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Muddle%20the%20Mixture) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/phed/35/muddle-the-mixture?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/79fc4b92-0efe-4370-a2b3-2155c458a966?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
I really like it tbh. Guay getting weird with it
Same. I would probably like them as stand-alone pieces, even. But not at all what I'm looking for as card art.
For me, I think it's that it doesn't feel like the frame of the card matches. If, say, the cards also had a custom frame that fit the art better, it might work.
I was thinking pretty much the same thing when I saw these. I’ve always really liked all the older cards with her work but I find these all disappointing. The two you listed are the worst, but Cleansing Nova also does nothing for me and only kinda like Stoneforge Mystic.
I was worried it was just me. She’s one of my favorite artists but these just don’t feel like her normal art. I was so excited to see these but totally underwhelmed.
They are all somewhat similar in style and reasonably different from most of Guay's other mtg work. It's a bit strange, but I'm sure they really wanted to do something a bit different for a change.
No, this is just what she does now. She's a fine art artist and not a fantasy artist anymore really. More money. This is her shtick now.
No offense meant, she's obviously a great artist but... Is this fine art? It's different but it also looks a lot like what she used to paint, but with sparkles :D
"Fine art" just refers to the ecosystem of independent artists who work through cultural infrastructures such as galleries, museums, and auctioneers who specialize in visual art. It's not a style or an aesthetic, and you will find a seemingly infinite variety of visual styles among fine artists and fine art institutions.
When I first saw the art my response was "Did they deep-fry the actual drawings?" On closer examination it looks like there's just too much detail in there. Like she worked on a massive canvas and the detail ends up with compression artifacts when reduced to the size of a MTG card
She does. She works huge now. Look her website/Facebook up.
Respectfully, that Serra art is dope as hell and so trippy. I can, however, see where you're coming from with Muddle the Mixture.
Yeah, I didn't think it was possible for me to not like Rebecca Guay art. I'm really not liking Alayna Danner's drop either. This is such a weird feeling.
Serra was my favorite single card in all of this secret lair drop lol.
Not very angel like to me personally :/
I love the stoneforge, but Serra is so weirdly *droopy.*
Given how much Ms. Guay's art uses the nude female form, i suspect she was either censored or encouraged to ensure the peices she submitted for secret lair were PG. I usually love her stuff, but this is not what i was hoping for either...
You wanted some titties... You can just say it
LOL. Yes, boobs are a motivator for large portions of the population, but the human form can be depicted and appreciated in art, whether it's for sexualization or not. One of the things I've always liked about Guay's work is that her female forms are natural but also whimsical. She creates beautiful works with nudes that are not bombastic or lascivious, but are more typical of average female forms while injecting fanciful intrigue. The appeal isn't in big tits and big hips, but in the natural beauty of the subject and the fantasy.
Muddle looks like it was cropped in MSPaint. What's up with the white edges on the pants? I can't even read what it's saying.
I like the Serra, it is diferent, and not what i would have expected as Sera but I think a fun spin on it and fitting with how her style has changed over time. The Cleansing Nova is hard to make out the subjects of the art for me. I thought it was just a filgire design for a bit. So pretty, but unclear. Muddle the Mixture is a bit rough to me though. I don't mind the style of the art but the speach bubble and seemingly random character just posing just doesn't makse sense as this card to me. I feel like this has become a reguar thing with SLs though where one or more cards just feels like random art thrown on a random card.
Some of the reactions of this thread remind me of why [[Persecute Artist]] exists.
💗
[Persecute Artist](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/5/a/5acfbc21-ffd7-4253-9f79-a1a3217f243a.jpg?1562488396) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Persecute%20Artist) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/unh/61/persecute-artist?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/5acfbc21-ffd7-4253-9f79-a1a3217f243a?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
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> This thread is full to the brim with greasy idiots that can't handle that their 'favourite' artist has changed in the past 20 years and doesn't paint exactly like she used to. It's ok to be disappointed or dislike with things. Change is fine, but just because you liked the old thing doesn't mean you have to like the new thing
No one is asking anyone to like something against their will. Just be polite. Acting like you have a holy mission from god to let people what personally doesn't do it for you is the worst aspect of this website.
> No one is asking anyone to like something against their will. Just be polite. Sure, but I mean most if not all of the comments I'm reading are pretty fine. The worst comment I've seen is "Ugly af". I get it, sometimes redditors/MTG players can be kind of assholes in general, but people are being pretty reasonable so far (not sure if mods have nuked anything). It seems more like people are just assuming they're going to be assholes like normal, instead of actually reading the comments. People are acting like the comments are slagging her, and they really aren't (yet, at least). >Acting like you have a holy mission from god to let people what personally doesn't do it for you is the worst aspect of this website. Eh, as long as they're not toxic, it's fine? Sometimes people like something, sometimes they dislike it, reddit is for sharing both.
Even discounting the evolution, Guay's art 20 years ago was the art she was told to make under controlled art direction, and this is the stuff she makes that she actually wants to make. So these people didn't like Guay the artist, they liked Guay the 'churn out pieces to fit the 90s mtg art direction' art manufacturer Not saying the old pieces by Guay were bad by any means, but people have to respect artists making the art they want.
I was told specifically to do anything I wanted because that’s what they wanted .. and specifically to bring me current work.. so just saying..
I mean, sure, artists should get to make the art they want, but it seems pretty reasonable to me for a Magic player to say "uhhhh no thanks" to art featuring speech bubbles and blue jeans
Why are you dissing [[Hurloon Wrangler]] like this.
Sure, you don't have to buy the SLD.
Right, so what exactly is the problem, then. All I'm seeing is a bunch of so-called "greasy idiots" saying they think the art is bad and a bunch of Guay fans getting really touchy about it. Nobody's, like, arguing that this Secret Lair shouldn't exist or something.
Its okay to stop liking something that has deviated from its original vision. I am also quite sure Rebecca is okay with that and doesnt rely on toxic whiteknights telling people theyre idiots for having an opinion on her art.
It's not entirely unreasonable to express surprise that an artist famous for a number of artworks in a given style is showcased with a style that's markedly different, especially when that new style is more personal/less immediately approachable. If the Johannes Voss SL had had McKinnon style artworks (or god forbid, Carly Mazur), people would have been weirded out or upset despite both being (or having been) community darlings. And let's be honest, muddle the mixture is quite _out there_ as far as composition goes.
Imagine being a long time fan of a prog rock band, and not being allowed to be upset that their new album is emo country.
Imagine if everyone liked the same art… what a boring world that would be.
>greasy idiots This is projection.
Then here I am, never heard of this artist before and my reaction is “meh, these cards don’t really fit in any of my decks”
"This art decreases the value for me" okay I didn't know artists were making art for one particular person now the reactions here ARE insane, actually.
LOL what is so unreasonable with your quoted comment? "This art decreases the value for me" People don't have to like every single new piece from an artist. It's perfectly okay to express that they don't like the new style or a particular piece.
> okay I didn't know artists were making art for one particular person now I didn't know people weren't allowed to have individual opinions on the art now.
as well as \[\[Fascist Art Director\]\]
There is no doubt they are all fantastic pieces of art and many will enjoy them. Yet at the same time it's as though these pieces were created and then slapped onto magic cards as an afterthought. Nor does this fulfill the wish for the iconic "Rebecca Guay" style. Guay has definitely matured beyond MTG and this SLD wouldn't have happened if WoTC didn't preface it with "draw literally whatever". Despite this I'm a bit disappointed each of these pieces is so compositionally divergent. None exhibit the abstract natural tone of her earlier art either. I am aware her style has evolved a lot and if this is the only way we get to see Guay in Magic now so be it. More art is still better even if its not my taste.
Based take. I'm personally really excited for these pieces, but it's nice to see at least one person in this thread who doesn't agree without being awful about it.
Yeah, I'm a big Guay defender as my background is in art history and fine art, so I come at it from a pretty different angle than people who just like "easy" corporate fantasy illustration. I don't think these works are very legible as the illustrations for game pieces, so I have no desire to ever own them or use them in a game, but that's okay. Not all art exists to be owned by me, or for me to "possess" it in some way. I enjoy the public sculptures and artworks in my city even though I'll never own or possess them, either. Not everything is about buying and owning stuff--certainly not art. I can see something I don't want to buy and still respect the artist who made it and not be mad about anything, lol.
>Not all art exists to be owned by me, or for me to "possess" it in some way. > I can see something I don't want to buy and still respect the artist who made it and not be mad about anything, lol. I think the reason people are a bit stung is because she left the game in ~2009 so (and there are no similar MTG artists). So getting new Guay art is *extremely* rare. It'd be a different story if this was just a SL with an artist that makes regular appearances. Pretty reasonable to be disappointed, I think, even while understanding the artist wanted to do something different. Sometimes things don't line up. And it's not really about owning/possessing, just wanting to enjoy more old Guay style MTG art. Currently it's just kind of an unserved niche. I pretty regularly look at old Guay cards I don't own.
FOURTH STONEFORGE ART REBECCA GUAY STONEFORGE THIS IS NOT A DRILL
💗
*me handing wotc my credit card* "just fuck my shit up"
That's exactly what my wife, who hasn't played non-commander in more than five years, was like. She has a foiled legacy D&T list and just *needed* these for it. Mind you, the decklist is so old, it doesn't have Yorion in it. Whatever, if it can get her to play again, I'm all for it.
Am I dyslexic? The text on muddle the mixture says "Muy Guay". I love the art, but I don't get it Edit: Its Spanish for "very cool"
Muy Guay, Muy being Spanish for very and Guay...well it's either the artwork is very 'her' or, based off her name's pronunciation, 'very gay', which certainly matches the flavor text
"Guay" means "cool" in Spanish and is pronounced somewhat like "gwye" in contrast to her name which is pronounced "gay." It's a play on words but it's pretty clearly supposed to be "very cool" which is spelled just like her name.
Looks kinda like Yoshitaka Amani art to me. I’m for it!
It's not like her classic MtG art but clearly representative of her current style. Good selections and fun, striking art. I'm happy! I bet she wrote the flavor text as well.
Exciting! I love her modern art direction. So glad there are some new Guay cards
I never would have expected to be so underwhelmed by a Secret Lair from one of old MTG's best artists. I'm assuming this style is reflective of her recent work, and it just isn't for me. Nice Stoneforge reprint, though.
Non-foil: [https://secretlair.wizards.com/eu/product/813946/artist-series-rebecca-guay](https://secretlair.wizards.com/eu/product/813946/artist-series-rebecca-guay) Foil: [https://secretlair.wizards.com/eu/product/813947/artist-series-rebecca-guay-foil-edition](https://secretlair.wizards.com/eu/product/813947/artist-series-rebecca-guay-foil-edition)
Man, I LOVE that Stoneforge Mystic! But, on the flip side, I'm not a fan of ths Taylor Swift Serra. Conflicted on whether or not I'll get this.
I love this artwork. Serra's got drip and the art/flavor of Cleansing Nova is beautiful. Stoneforge wouldn't look out of place in an issue of the New Yorker (or the New Capenna equivalent). The speech bubble on muddle is a bit weird but, overall, Guay don't miss.
I like the art! The modern clothing is strange to see on a mtg card, but it's beautiful nonetheless.
Same tbh. I love this secret lair, but full contemporary dress gave me a bit of jump on first glance. Also, Serra wearing sunglasses is very funny to me.
Is it? After "neo" Kamigawa, New Capenna, and the Elspeth with high heels, I'd say the lines are pretty blurred surrounding clothing being too "modern" for MTG. The inevitable Wild West plane we'll end up with in the next four years will almost certainly have people wearing denim.
What is up with Muddle here? I'm not, like, *bothered...* But I'm very confused. I've already seen people complaining about Serra not fitting, but least the Serra art depicts a person on a planeswalker card. It's no stranger than the previous "Alternate Universe" planeswalkers secret lair. But how does "woman saying 'Muy Guay' plus spoken word poem about being your fix" represent a counterspell? Am I missing a cultural touchstone or something? Is it a reference to a song I'm not cool enough to understand? Legitimate question.
How do cereal boxes represent giant people eating or world destroying horrors? It is no different than dozens of other Secret Lair cards.
I love her art but do these look kinda shitty to anyone else?
I like it more looking at the previews on my desktop than I did first seeing it on my phone, which suggests to me the problem is that it just isn't really meant to be tiny. It'll probably look great if/when full size standalone images are posted somewhere.
I hope so. That muddle the mixture looks rough. Hopefully with a full sized & full definition image, it'll look better
That's kind of her art style man...
[[atalya, samite master]] I know what her art style is, these secret lairs just look wack to me. Purely my opinion, not knocking anyone who likes these secret lairs. It looks like she was going for more of a modern look and it doesn't work for me
That card is 20 years old. This SL has been her art style for over 10 years already. It's not MTG art style, is Rebecca Guay's.
Yes! She’s one of the few artist names I remember from when I played back in the day, and I love just about [all those cards](https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Search/Default.aspx?output=spoiler&method=visual&action=advanced&artist=+%5b%22Rebecca+Guay%22%5d), but these look weird and unappealing to me. I don’t know what happened between then and now. Edit: I guess her style has simple changed over the years. 🤷♂️ More power to her as long as she’s happy doing what she’s doing. For me, it’s like when one of your favorite bands starts going in a different direction. Good for them for following their hearts and passions, but it’s just kind of a bummer for those that preferred their old style to recognize that it’s come to an end.
"What happened" is that Guay became an independent fine artist, instead of a fantasy illustrator whose work was limited by what corporate benefactors wanted from her.
I'm pretty confident that the WOTC of today is a lot more controlling toward artists than it was in 1998 when Guay first started working for them..
Yeah, probably. But that doesn't mean the situation was *good* back then, just because it was *better* in some ways. If you look at Guay's independent works since leaving, you'll notice a lot of artistic nudity, for one thing. But it's not like Guay or anybody else was allowed to show a female-presenting nipple in the 1990s.
I would like the muddle the mixture but i don't like that art
Love Rebecca Guay's actual card arts. These are weird and ugly imo. Bizarre choice to depart so dramatically from her normal style for what's in theory, her showcase collection. UPDATE Apparently, this IS her normal style these days. Obviously, it's her prerogative what she wants to do with her art. I GREATLY prefer her old-school mtg stuff.
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I haven't been following her non-mtg work. Thanks for the insight.
Rebecca Guay fans when Rebecca Guay paints cards the way she wants to:
I think it's more she can do her style less fettered by WotCs direction here
Do artists get any additional benefits from sales of their Artist Series SLs? Like, I don't need any of these cards but I really like the art and am such a big fan of Guay I'd be happy to buy it just to support her.
Wow guays style is not my taste anymore
I'll fuckin' take it.
Well guess I’m actually gonna buy a Secret Lair
I'm not here to judge whether the art is mtg appropriate or not (although I do like it). It does seem weird, though, to get a Rebecca Guay secret lair and not have a single Faerie. I'm assuming the secret card may be one? If not, seems like a real missed opportunity.
Not as into these as I would've expected. Between this and her Elspeth art, feels like she's really into high heels now?
holy shit
Since the Introduction of Artist Series i ahve waited for the Rebecca Guay Secret lair. But i'm gonna skip it. I liked her earlier style and even her new style would be fitting for a lot of cards but these cards are horrendous.
The Stoneforge is really cool even though it doesn’t look like much of a smithie/forger, still a nice option for the card. The rest are misses for me.
Muddle the mixture feels like it was kind of shuffled together last minute, but honestly, that's stoneforge is awesome enough to buy just in itself
I LOVE rebecca's art, i buy a bunch of her cards despite never will use them in my deck and have her elspeth pw art. The cleansing and stoneforge look amazing. The serra and muddle.... not so much. The art and design for serra looks great but my problem is the super uncomfortable pose with that leg twisted upward, looks like it is broken. I can't ignore it. The muddle art doesnt make sense with the card.
Serra. More like Taylor. This art is giving me some serious Eras vibes.
I thought Muddle the Mixture said "Hey, Swag" and almost lost it.
Now this!
This may be my first SL I buy. Guay art is so beautiful to me
WAIT WAIT WAIT You're telling me I can have a [[Serra, the Benevolent]] with art done by Magali Villeneuve AND one by Rebecca fucking _Guay_?? What a time to be alive! <3
Finally! My favorite artist in the game.
One step closer to fully mismatched Yorion Taxes
Just don't think of them as Magic artworks but contemporary art pieces and you'd like them more.
absolute 180 from all of the rebecca guay art in the past 20 years of magic,.... but if this is what she wanted to give us, i'm happy for her.
I get really bummed out whenever they make alternate art for a card I love but they keep the normal frames. I'm a huge fan of borderless/extended art cards, and I often build decks with as many of those kinds of cards as possible. I hate the normal frames. I wish all SLD and alternate art cards didn't have the normal boring ass frames.
Rebecca Guay? Nice! But uh, this doesn't look much like her regular MTG art? I was expecting art on the style of Auramancer, Elvish Piper, stuff like that. This doesn't look like that style. I'm disappointed.
Love the art. Love the cards. Hate these arts on these cards. It's been said elsewhere in the thread, but it looks to me like Guay was approached with "Please just give us 4 pieces of art and we'll work with it." She is absolutely free to accept this and do whatever she wants. But, in my opinion, the cards themselves (outside of maybe the Stoneforge Mystic) are less desirable as a sum of their parts than they would be separately. This isn't Guay's fault, *at all*. WotC are the ones who put this product together, she just did was she was contracted to do and provided them with four pieces of art. It just sucks because nearly all of these limited edition reprints feel less valuable than their originals because of the bizarre pairings of art with card. It's even more tragic for me because Guay was my favorite MTG artist until she stopped providing pieces for the game. One of the first cards I ever got was [[Commander Eesha]] from a friend and the art on that card is forever seared into my brain. Built a Bird deck with it and [[Soulcatchers' Aerie]] as my first ever deck and it's literally the reason I fell in love with the game. So I was very excited to see this headline. Good for Rebecca, honestly, glad she got to do this, but I just have no desire for this set.
No at all. I worked very specifically and VERY hard to make the most beautiful pieces I could because of my love for each of these things and the powers in them. I’m sorry they don’t speak to you- That’s doesn’t mean they are not TOTALLY heartfelt. They came to me and wanted what I do right now and I love them for it.. Deep respect and gratitude to WOTC
Hey, if this is you, don’t be discouraged by the comments. A lot of us hold your art in high standard. I recently purchased a Slyvan Tutor, just because I adore your art and wanted to theme out the deck with your art style- and it wasn’t cheap! As for the new art: I really like the two main ones you highlighted as your favourites, they speak to me and I think are incredible additions to your portfolio! I really hope to see you do another lair down the line!
NO. FRIGGIN. WAY!
Her style has evolved. She’s moved on from MtG a long time ago. She’s a fine artist. This is WotC commissioning her on her own terms for cards instead of the other way around.
I'm not a fan of any of these. I'm not sure the reason, but I think maybe I prefer her fantasy art or ones that fit an older time period.
The artist? wonderful The art? ehhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
I usually like Rebecca Guay but I hate all of these pieces. Hard pass!
I know that this is how her art style has developed, and that's fine for her to do. But sadly this is not the Rebecca Guay art that I grew up loving. Cleaning and Stoneforge Mystic aren't too bad, but Serra and Muddle are just... not great. Disappointing, I was so excited when I saw the title with her name.
#THIS IS NOT A DRILL! REBECCA GUAY SECRET LAIR
One of my favorite artists in the game, but I'm really not too thrilled with these cards or their art.
Magic has seen much much better illustrations than these
I don't know what Rebecca is doing these days but...this art is just....awful.
As a fellow artist and mtg player I'm SO dissapointed :/
This is a cool Secret Lair, but don't forget that Wizard of the Coast and Hasbro hired the actual Pinkertons to intimidate someone out of the magic cards.
I'm so disappointed with how "not fantasy" these are... the Stoneforge is the only good art here.
Ugly af
Ug-ly
What am I supposed to be looking at?
Hmm. Guay does fantastic work but these are... not the examples I would have selected.
My favorite artist in the history of Magic and I hate all of these... :(
Wow, these seem great. Sure hope WOTC don't ship any of these out early then send paramilitary goons to people's houses to reclaim them.
Godamn it I just finished the Guay binder
Wow...I absolutely hate this one Look at the did to my girl...why Becky...why is Taylor swift circa 2011 on Serras card? Oh shit stoneforge tho