Summary
Magic: The Gatheringhas revealed its latest Final Fantasy-themed card, with Torgal, Clive’s Companion, and the art for it is raising more than a few eyebrows.
Final Fantasy 16’s Torgal is getting an exclusive promo card for the upcoming MagicCon Las Vegas convention, and while the card itself is a great one many people will want to use, the art is leaving a lot to be desired.
TheMagicCon Las Vegas promoisn’t a card in the upcoming Final Fantasy set, but is instead a skinned reprint of the Kamigawa card Yoshimaru, Ever Faithful. Like other skinned cards, this is mechanically considered Yoshimaru despite the different name, meaning you’re able to only play up to four copies of either card in your deck (or just one in Commander).
Torgal Deserves Better
Yoshimaru isn’t the problem, though - in fact, this is a much-needed reprint of an excellent legends-matter commander. Instead, it’s the art that has received a large amount of criticism. The problem isn’t so much Torgal itself, which is simply pre-existing concept art for FF16 by artist Kazuya Takahashi. Instead, it is the background that is receiving the most flak, with the flat grey being described by many as “lazy”.
The /r/MagicTCG subreddit is awash of people complaining about the card, such as /u/amisia-insomniadescribing it asa “low-quality proxy”, while/u/Nuclearsunburn said"horrible art. Poor Torgal". It’s/u/BlurryPeoplewho says it best, though, saying “there are so many things wrong with this art” before pointing out inconsistent brushwork inherent to concept art and poor framing as also contributing to the problem.
More Blank Backgrounds Are On The Way
Unfortunately, this criticism will likely extend to the regular Final Fantasy set as well, as this is a style we’ll also be seeing in it. The Through the Ages bonus sheet includes older Final Fantasy concept art on skinned cards against similarly blank backgrounds, as we’ve already seen with Yuffie Kisaragi, a reprint ofYuriko, the Tiger’s Shadow.
Personally, I think the framing of Torgal is more the problem than the backdrop. Compared to Yuffie’s filling of her whole card, Torgal looks tiny, with most of his body covered up by the card text. Moving him up the card and increasing his size would have looked a lot better, but, sadly, due to the time it takes for cards to be printed, it is unlikely there’s any time left for this to change.
Torgal fans shouldn’t worry, though, as we’ll more than likely see more cards with him with more dynamic art in the full Final Fantasy set whenpreviews for it begin on May 10, ahead of its launch on June 13.#
