If you’ve been following us on instagram and twitter the last couple of weeks you’ve noticed that we* posted our Top 5 Shadows Over Innistrad tokens. Rich, my editor overlord, said, “Hey, Matt, why don’t you post your Top 5 Shadows Over Innistrad tokens as an article?” And I said, “Well sure, editor overlord, I’d love to.”
#5
Insect
Acid ass here doesn’t have infect despite having, well, acid exploding from its ass. However, Christopher Moeller did a bang up job on this illustration. The orange and green coloring of the wood grain, the bubbling lime green of the bug’s butt, and the beautifully rendered darks on the body of the beast and the shadow from which it emanates are all lush and convincing.
#4
Devil
Old fire bone. What more can I say? This creature is disastrously close to the moon, is totally naked with no fur to hide its parts (looking at you, Chewbacca), not that there are any parts to be seen, and has an expression on its face only a mother could love.
Wayne England was a great fantasy artist. He died on February 9, 2016, the day before fellow Magic: The Gathering artist Christopher Rush died. They live on in their work (though their physical absence from this plane does not go unnoticed).
#3
Ooze
Looks like we know how to put out a bone torch. Seems our well-read snot here (note the book in the background) disposed of the devil and suffocated its flame. It’s nice when tokens have narrative interaction like this. Wizards would do well to include more of it. And no, I’m not talking clue tokens. Those things suck. Bah. So bad. Other than the one that looks like a weird ghostly altar by Noah Bradley, they all look campy, forced, and totally uninteresting. They’re like B-movie level Magic cards. Worse. I’m sure booger body here doesn’t give them the time of day.
#2
Zombie
This zombie illustration is good. I don’t have much to say about it so I’ll just describe its good qualities. Beautiful graveyard, nice glowing red intestines, perfect zombie hand, regal outfit, atmospheric mist, lovely green tones throughout, and traditional unkempt undead hair. Good job, Craig J. Spearing.
#1
Wolf
I’ve got a soft spot for all wolf tokens. Wolves are the second best animals in our non-fantasy world (second to the American Bison, obviously). The softness of the wolf form, the light of the ‘shrooms, undergrowth, and wounds subtly illuminating the foreground, the way the legs merge with the dead body the wolf is standing on making wolf and corpse one, nature triumphing over humankind, a lovely, almost elven forest of tinted diffused light, and those baby blues, Christ in hell, I’m in love with this illustration. I’ve got a sneaking suspicions this is not an oil or acrylic painting, but if it is, Aaron Miller, I’d trade you a space painting for it. Just putting that out there …
Matt Jones is a sorcerer archeologist born and raised in a forest near a field by a creek in Western New York. He is one of the founders of Hipsters of the Coast and Team Draft League. Though he hasn’t played Magic: The Gathering in almost a year he still drools over all the cards and lovingly talks shit about Wizards of the Coast. You can see Matt’s art at www.mattjonesrules.com.