NOTE: Most of this work is considered fiction and is not embraced by the bulk of the WG of MDV. If you have problems with my writings, talk to me about it first and foremost. Based off Luther’s “The Writer’s Guild: The Inside Scoop,” read it.

Visual Spoilers and Art Catacombs, what better article for the resident Guild artist? Delving into MDV, we’ll look at some of the things that make this site unique and interesting throughout. Sure some areas aren't up to speed, but that doesn't stop them from being great resources for those who visit.

My recommendation is to have a browser with tabs (Firefox, Opera, IE7).  Now let's rewind back to before the Sarpadian Empires contest...

There’s nothing worse than a good wait. Personally I like the man as a writer, designer, and friend, the only thing I have to argue with is waiting around for his appearance. I hear someone nearly screaming at the top of his lungs. My mind snaps to Tynion in his normal suit attire, straps across his shoulders like any good editor holding his pants on.

A long running joke between Luther and I is that if Tynion got any better at those rants, those straps would snap and heaven forbid if those pants fell. I chuckled. Others cowered. Within earshot—and who wasn’t?—I heard Tynion making a lewd comment about Luther and a cigar. I decided to borrow Luther’s ashtray and enjoy the wait. Lighting the cig I thumbed through some of the work I’m to give to Luther.

Three hours prior to my waiting to see Luther, I was in my office. It’s not as close to the others, and that’s my personal preference, but unluckily it’s not outside of Tynion’s ranting. I took a breath and continued to work the art. Jack-of-all-trades, they say, and sadly that always means someone’s doing the job better than you. I’ve learned to live with it. My apartment hasn't been graced with my presence in over a week if that tells you anything about the work. Artist, check. Writer, check. Editor, check. Emergency tech support, check. More qualified men to do the job, check. Any of them as flexible as I am, nope. Arrogant, check.

It’s from right next door—the Art Catacombs as we all call it—and various places around the net that I gather some nice images at a beautiful resolution to do my work. A few I have to find for myself if possible, but luckily it’s normally here. I finished a few pieces of art for Luther, printed them out and copied them to a flash drive; only the Administration of the Gods knows if Luther’s computer is working.

I decided that I had some time to myself, so I browsed through the catacombs. They still need some good spit and polish, but since I’m one of the few who tread these files they’ve fallen in disrepair. I’m still waiting for some of the Shadowmoor art to makes its way from Streetz’s office down here. I grabbed a few and made for my office. Tynion was there. I gave him a greet. He reciprocated in kind. He gave me a job for an article, I nodded and showed him a few of the arts I just grabbed. He loved it. He said that Cashew also needed a few pieces of crop art for an article. I nodded and told him to send him my way when I’m in. I made a beeline to the spoilers.

The Visual Spoilers room is like this: You first enter and notice, well, the red walls. The entire building is covered in either those, or white and blue. I never understood why red, but I don’t question Streetz, normally. The next thing you notice is the organization bar, which has each of the main categories of spoilers listed. Each of them has the same cards in different orders to meet the needs of several types of people. Image hunters like those who want their MWS to show actual cards, searchers who look for specific cards or types of cards, deck builders who normally reference the Banned and Restricted Lists to make sure their decks are in line. A few more interesting lists include the Vanguard section (or as some are saying “The Old Planeswalkers / MTGO Avatars”) and the reprint policy which visually lists the “Not to Reprint” cards from older sets.

The next thing you see is the board, which is the news for most of the sections of the spoilers normally handed down by Streetz from other sources (for example the Wizards Reprint Policy is on Wizard’s site, somewhere…).

From the organization bar the expansions’ visual spoilers are listed by sets that have come out in this order: Newest, Near Future, Expert Expansion Sets in stack order (newest on top, oldest on bottom), Special Expert Sets, Basic Sets, and Limited Production Sets (i.e. MTGO only).

Each of these pleasant little boxes links to a gallery of cards, for example Fallen Empires, which I need for Cashew’s project.

If you notice in this image there are a few new framed cards amongst the older cards. Streetz doesn’t like to waste the limited space he has so he only keeps the most recent versions of reprinted cards. That card in particular happens to be the 8th Edition Orcish Spy.

The “Near Future” sets are based off the various rumor mills around the net dedicated to MTG’s sets. Normally expect them to be completed the day of the pre-release (New Zealand time-ish).

In the Creature Types section, we see another board that is specific to the updates here and another organization bar. One of the interesting lists here is the text-based creature types list, which just so happens to be the un-official Mistform Ultimus / Changeling Watch. It’s like suicide watch without the messy endings if you mess up. Here there are a few more lists of classes and races and of course the link to the Tribal-based decks of MDV.

In the Lands section I sometimes find Luther when I can’t find him anywhere else. He is constantly looking for a play set and more of each land in the game of Magic. If you‘ve got them, he probably wants them. Irish and Basic Lands need not apply (kidding, both are welcomed). The difference here is the in-depth organization of this section, thanks to Streetz.

Banned and Restricted is structured to the formats of play and the various lists in visual form (with the newest versions of the cards). As a casual player, I normally don’t come down to this area unless I need to tool a deck to match my opponent who normally (and luckily) doesn’t care.

Not to brag on the usefulness of the Visual Spoilers, but the former StarCityGames writer and current multiplayer Wizards of the Coast writer “The Ferret” mentioned the combo pages of MDV which directly link to the Visual Spoiler archives. The thread where our members talked about this is located here and the actual article for those who don’t want to sign up with MDV (not that you would need to, but should to show support and yell at the writers… I mean, give feedback) you can find the article on MTG.com here. Also you can bet top dollar when the newest Visual Spoilers come online for the images on that particular set to be slow due to the excess of people trying to download them for MWS or other projects that require the Gatherer cloned images.

Back to work, I made my way back to the catacombs to get the pictures I needed. I was already informed by Cashew a few days ago about the assignment and I quickly sauntered to the gallery. Not the be confused with the Visual Spoilers, this is a section dedicated to art only, featuring New Art, Artist Links, the Art Catacombs, and Art Spotlights. I was hoping to find some of the original art at a good size to use to help my speed on the jobs.

I keep a flashlight outside this section for good reason, you know one of those wind-up ones that don’t need batteries. To quote Douglas Adams from the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy: “He had gone straight to the planning office, and sure enough, found the plans on ‘display’ in the ‘bottom of a locked filing cabinet stuck in a disused lavatory with a sign on the door saying Beware of the Leopard.’ Additionally, this lavatory is in a dark basement that happens not to be equipped with stairs.”

You know the section is outdated when the newest news is from Christmas of the previous year. This being the middle of June, that means the Art section has not been updated in six months. Anyways, it’s organized in a similar fashion to the Visual Spoilers with a few new things.

The Artist Links section links to the main sites of MTG artists, which are filled with both MTG and other art by those artists, most with some form of protection so you can’t just right click and save the image, and if you can it normally has a watermark, which is one of many reasons why the area is not constantly reorganized and updated it happens.

The bulk of this the art section, however, belongs to the Art Catacombs, called that for a reason (usually due to lack of updates) and not just because it sounds good. The art here is divided into sections of the alphabet based on last names as printed on the MTG cards of the arts they represent. Normally, selecting a thumbnail will bring up the higher resolution of the artwork. Some are fantastic Photoshop remakes based off the weekly wallpapers MTG.com puts out, some come from the artists themselves (or found on their websites) and the rest are from high resolution, high quality card scans.

The best way for me to explain the usefulness of this section is that of banner designers like myself who need the best quality we can get, because we want to make eye catching banners that make people want one. For others it’s nice to have beautiful art just to admire. Personally, I’m a fan of Brom and r.k. post’s work. One of my favorites by Brom is the art commissioned for Greel Mindraker, which is actually named Fortitude.

Two hours rushed past and I had all the needed artwork covered, even for Cashew. I thought some R&R at the good R&R would make for a nice lunch, maybe I’ll find Luther to pay it, but that was dashed as Tynion came by my door as I looked up. He smiled and handed me four folders. I looked at them and handed one back. Editors cannot edit their own work as a part of “The Process.” I sighed, then laughed, and then lighted a smoke. The coffee here would kill me, so I just keep about three packs in my office in random locations. Normally they need replacing after a week or so. Blasted Zippo, it refused to light. Tynion handed me a matchbook. “To Mal by Thursday,” he said. I smiled and replied, “End of day.”

Afterwards I made my way to Mal’s office, right next to Tynion’s. Some people consider Mal a bit off tilter, but I consider him the MDV’s equivalent to Machiavelli in comparison to the philosophers before him. I handed him the three. He looked at me, in that constant state of half-dead and half-spite that the higher editors are infamous for, which includes, well, just him. I smiled, he said he needed coffee, and I said good luck to his health. You know something is horribly wrong in the world when Mal says more words verbally than in his criticisms on articles. Bets have been placed on how close the world is to oblivion using a formula based around Mal. So far, we are in the constant state of understanding that next month is the time the world will end, give or take a day and a half. Personally, I hold no value in it.

I got back to my office and saw more work. This time it was mail from the public—the few I get I’m happy for, but mostly it’s some jobs for my work. Nothing on the better job offer, yet. I can’t help that I’m good, even though I know there are better men; they’re normally on bigger projects or out to lunch. I grabbed Luther’s art and made my way to his office.

Back to the Present:

As I stub the cigar out, Luther strolls into his office—two coffees in hand and a smile that would break the coldest stone. As I reach for the coffee I ask about the “inside strap” joke and laugh along with him when he states they're still there; barely.

My head swims from the aroma coming off the coffee and I take it as no surprise when Luther informs me he's doubled up the dose of “Pick-Me-Up” this week. Shaking my head, I make leave, and as I make my way down the hall, I consider the future and wonder what the MODS have in store for me.

Remember, visit the other areas of this fine site; maybe you’ll find a few stones even us veterans missed.

Until then, This is MZ, and it’s back off to the Æther with me.

You can discuss this article in the MDV forums here.
Find other articles by this author here.
Find other articles from this series here.

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Articles Spotlights from 2009:
Magus of the Bazaar – Merchant Magic
Parasitism: The Devolution of Magic Players. - by Kozy
Mechanic Week: Kicking a Bad Habit - by Streetz
MTG Theory: Card Design 101 . - by Cashew
Potatobrain's Guide to Token Decks. - by Potatobrain
The Magic of Friday Night. - by hamsandwich
Memories of an Old Magic Player: Recrossing the River Jordan. - by Chris Newton
Mechanic Week: Offering Up Mechanic Week. - by Dan Wright (Drathro)

Articles Spotlights from 2008:
A Fresh Perspective: Stasis - Part One.
The Apprentice Magician - Part Six.
Design on a Dime: The Lunch Meat Edition!
Fit the Flavor 2008 - FINALE!
The Games People Play - Market & EDH.
Sarpadian Empires, Vol VII: Foreword.
More Evil Than Evil.
Pauper Chronicles: Top O' the Morningtide to You!
Words from the Streetz: Uncommon and Common Magical Treasures.
The Writers Guild: The Inside Scoop.