[ARTICLE] Making Jace

[bruizar]

Jace has become one of the most defining icons in modern Magic, surpassing every other card I can think of. Jace, the Mind Sculptor was a game breaking icon. Literally good in every format, it was officially banned from standard a few days ago. With M12 around the corner, we will be receiving our third generation of Jace. Where does Jace go from here?

Last Friday, Tom Lapille posted an article covering the design process of M12's new planeswalkers. The focus of that article was on how the functional elements of the planeswalkers were designed. It was accompanied by an oversized shot of a hoodless Jace, but no mention about Jace´s new art.



This new art for Jace spawned some controversy among Magic players. There´s one group of people that like Jace, Memory Adept´s new art, but there´s also a group that shows less enthusiasm for the new Jace. They raise concerns about whether or not Magic is starting to look too much like Yugioh now. There is a fear that Wizards perhaps tries to cater to the younger crowd too much by going for a more anime approach. Jace, Memory Adept isn't the source of these concerns though. Jace Beleren gradually went from traditional art to straight up anime, with new iterations of the card in the Jace vs Chandra Duel Decks. With Jace 3.0 around the corner, I decided to ask D. Alexander Gregory, the artist for all of the three new Planeswalkers in M12, to tell me more about the design of Jace 3.0. He was kind enough to answer my email, and I received permission to post it in whole.

Below is an excerpt from Tom Lapille's article, and the email communication between me and Doug.

Tom Lapille's Article

Jace was the most challenging of the three new cards to make. At the design handoff, that was the card I described as "all right" above. That slot went through many iterations, even going through a brief period of time as a reprint of Jace, the Mind Sculptor. (I'm glad I didn't do that.) I ended up using our internal hole-filling process to generate a huge list of abilities, then built a card using some of our favorites from that process. The middle ability is all mine, though, as I felt that it was pretty strange for a mind mage to not have a card that went after libraries. Here's the final version of the card.

(source: http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazin...g/daily/ld/149 )

My Email

Hi Doug,

I have some questions concerning the art of Jace, Memory Adept. Prior to your interpretation of Jace, there have been 5 different pieces of artwork before that. The art started as a traditional high-fantasy piece of art, and gradually became more and more stylized / anime. Your version of Jace also looks very Japanese, mostly due to the spikey hair.

How did you come up with this idea for Jace? Did the Japanese direction come out of a design brief from WoTC, or was it something that you wanted to pursue? I would love to know more about the creative process behind Jace, Memory Adept. All of your other Magic related artwork is much more typical to Magic, whereas Jace, Memory Adept strikes a lot of players as something you would see in a game like Yugioh. Jace has become one of the most iconic cards of modern magic, and this has caused some controversy/fear among players that the game will become increasingly influenced by anime art direction. Anything you could say about the creation process would be immensely interesting to us! Below are pictures of all the variations prior to your Memory Adept:

Lorwyn Jace Beleren (Aleksi Briclot)


Agent of Artifice Book Promo (Aleksi Briclot)

(More info http://www.magiclibrarities.net/189-...rds-index.html )

Duel Decks: Jace vs Chandra:

(More info http://www.magiclibrarities.net/190-...jace-deck.html )

Duel Decks: Jace vs Chandra Japanese: (Yoshino Himori)

(More info http://www.wizards.com/magic/magazin...ily/arcana/481 )

Jace the Mind Sculptor


Best,

Bart

D. Alexander Gregory's reply

hey Bart,

This idea for Jace came from seeing Aleksi's version and being asked to show him without his hood on.
The pose was meant to show an intent toward action and his hair a stylized interpretation of wind.
Being influenced at a young age by the work of Phil Hale
http://wideworldimages.blogspot.com/...phil-hale.html
you'll start to see where my choices can be linked to my past
but no doubt I have a huge respect for certain anime artists as well.

So to stab at the larger question, no, Magic the Gathering did not ask for spiky hair ( nor would I have
painted it that way had he been standing in a kitchen making eggs) nor did they ask to not have it. Magic and the art
director there embrace a global view and interpretation of their world. They give us a basic style guide but encourage us
to be the artists that we are. There is no short lease on style there. And as the internet continues to bridge cultures and artists
find influences from everywhere, I think you are going to see a lot of everything being blended becoming the norm.

When I started on Magic, it was all traditional art. That was the look of the game. Then during the late 90's it was heavy on
the British painted style that was prevalent on Judge Dredd since most of the top artists from 2000AD were the art director's favorite.
Some said then, why so stylized...then it became the norm. In the early 2000's, digital art was starting to enter MTG and people were
afraid of this non-traditional look. Now the game is almost 100% digital and more 'realistic' than ever...which if you are talking about
'traditional high fantasy art'...then Magic looks nothing like that as a whole. Traditional high fantasy is Frank Frazetta, The Hildebrandt Bros.,
Jeff Jones, Larry Elmore, Michael Whelan and so on....none of them less than highly stylized artists. Magic constantly evolves and has a rich
look that has been crucial to its relevance and cultural influence.

I'm glad that you and fellow players have such a strong connection to Jace. I think what you will find is the more interpretations there are, the greater the chance
that he will have to connect to an ever widening world and thus ensure his longevity. Look at how many versions of Batman we have. I have never thought that
the animated Batman took anything away from the Nolan movie Batman. Nor when my favorite artist stopped drawing Spiderman and the new guy took over, did
I stop buying Spiderman if the story was still good. So the cool thing is that my version will resonate with some more than others and i'm good with that.
I'm happy to be invited to the party with such great talents and that Magic the Gathering would trust me with their top tier characters.

I hope that helps
best,

-doug

And that´s the truth about Jace!

As an aside: Jace, Memory Adept looks like a strong card. Perhaps it's not Legacy-grade, but that's mostly due to its mana-cost. I do think that the abilities are Jace-worthy, even though I wished he would have a less win-big ultimate and cost 2UU. Art-wise I think Garruk Primal Hunter wins by a long shot. It´s a less controversial piece of art, but it´s certainly badass.

For reference, here are the other new D. Alexander Gregory walkers!

[danyul]

Well, that clears that up.

I don't know if you have the time or gall to do so but you should email/interview more Magic artists. It was kinda cool to get into Mr. Gregory's head for a little bit there.

[GGoober]

Quoting my friend

Hi, I'm Jace. After the DCI banned me in Standard, I became all emo and put down the hoodie, spiked my hair, and added eyeliner.

I most definitely disapprove of the art lol. Any idea if more girls are playing MTG these days, hence the new artstyle?

[Ozymandias]

Silly Jace! you can't catch Kira!

[keys]

Ugh, I don't care what the design process is, it's still an abomination.

[lorddotm]

He kind of looks like he just finished a nice warm and cuddle glob of H.

[Darth Nihilus]

i am actually pretty fine with the new art. i am a big bleach/one piece fan so a bit influence from that direction doesnt realy bother me, as long as it doesnt get too childish like Yugioh. theres nothing wrong with some mashups in my opinion. this art still fits into MTG and i dont get all this panic about MTG getting to stylized

[DrJones]

I really dislike its art, and I'm usually a fan of D. Alexander Gregory, and the card is also pretty bad. I feel the first ability on Lorwyn's Jace clashed with another card they want to print in Innistrad, and that is the sole reason for the change.

[TheInfamousBearAssassin]

I mean they did not reprint old Jace because there are literally a billion copies floating around. As to why they didn't make a new non-Jace Planeswalker....eh. Maybe they decided we needed one more answer to TMS?

[ivanpei]

I generally hate the anime jaces, however it did pull alot of casual anime-gamers into magic, so it served it's purpose. They were like wow, sick art, what game is this?? As for mr emo walker, I like new interpretations but this jace looks like an emo, black haired cloud strife. I don't approve, but it does look stylish and will attract alot of kids.

My love is always Jace TMS and always will be. If they put the emo art on my 2.0 I will be coming after them with a machete. Art plays a huge role in magic. What drew me into the game when i first started were the epicness of Serra angel, sengir vampire and shivan dragon. The art was just amazing and led to a chase for those cards. Then you lay the smack down with the cards you love and it feels amazing.

I quit magic for a while and only came back competitively because of the Ron Spencer full art mpr wraths. Don't tell me you weren't impressed by them. I bought a set and asked myself, what do i do with these now? Wait I have force of wills, and theres this deck called uw landstill, my love for legacy started because I bought a bunch of amazing looking cards.

Wizards trying to encourage art that generates interest in younger kids is not a problem to me IMO. Jason chan/daarken are some of my favorite digital artists. They did not make a mistake hiring new blood IMO.

[bruizar]

I generally hate the anime jaces, however it did pull slot of casual anime-gamers into magic, so it serves ita purpose. They were like wow, sick art, what game is this?? As for mr emo walker, I like new interpretations and this jace looks like an emo, black haired cloud strife. I don't approve, but it does look stylish and will attract alot of kids.

My love is always Jace TMS and always will be. If they put the emo art on my 2.0 I would be coming after them with a machete.

The question is, do you love Jace TMS because of its functionality, or because of its art? I think people tend to get colored opinions due to the playability of a card.

I think that Jace, Memory Adept at 2UU would be over the top It would probably be even stronger than Jace, the Mind Sculptor even though it can't directly protect itself, (it can draw into protection). +1 to draw a card gets out of control quickly, and his ultimate + Sword of War and Peace ends the game right there (Gain 20 life, Deal 20 extra damage, protection from plowshares and bolts). People also underestimate his +0 and the fact that Jace already starts at 4 loyalty (+1 draw a card replaces the card and puts him on 5 loyalty, Jace 2 can go to 5 loyalty but won't be able to replace himself immediately if you do).

I would like to get a couple of Jace, Memory Adepts. The card will be a serious control staple in standard. It's a shame 5 mana is too much for legacy. For that mana, you can resolve Battle of Wits :-).

As for the art, it's interesting to see how much the opinions differ from each other. I personally really like the pose/motion and the readability of the suit, which Jace, the Mind Sculptor both did not have. In that sense, it´s definitely an improvement. I also believe the black eyes are fine (Jack Sparrow isn't an emo either!), though I'm personally not really digging the hair.

Controversial cards are good because experimenting is the only way forward. One of my favorite cards is the old Stasis, and that card clearly has 2 camps as well.

[ivanpei]

I initially loved jace 2 because of the art. I got some foil ones because they looked insanely awesome. I felt the art was pretty epic. He looks larger than life with that pose instead of the sullen, hidden aleksi art (which is also brilliant, but more subtle).

I was also one of the early adopters of jace 2 in legacy. I played jaces instead of fact or fictions in landstill. I got bashed alot locally (Australian forumers, I'm looking at you) that jace 2.0 was bad, it's not instant, its win more, bla bla, jace 1/eotfofiwin is better etc etc. Then I got my foil set before the price jump and laughed in their faces. :) :)

That will always be one of my fondest memories.

[Goaswerfraiejen]

As someone on MOTL said... people read "Jace" and just assume the card is good because of what's come before (notably TMS). If it was called by any other name, everyone would evaluate it properly (junk by comparison).

But thanks for the post. The Q&A was a good idea with interesting results.

[Stinky-Dinkins]

I think the new art is absolutely horrendous. It looks more like a cheap Anime Saturday morning cartoon castaway and less like the traditional kind of high fantasy art Magic is all about. It looks like complete ass to me, terrible.

[dontbiteitholmes]

[dontbiteitholmes]

Also I haven't heard anyone make this comparison yet but

[SurFitOfTheVine]

These arts are a train wreck. I miss old magic art.

[Nihil Credo]

These arts are a train wreck. I miss old magic art.

Magic art has never been better than it is now; Jace and Chandra just got two relative stinkers. Just from M12, look at Angelic Destiny, Mind Unbound, or Wall of Torches.

[Bardo]

These arts are a train wreck. I miss old magic art.

All of the art for Jace is meh to me; nothing grabs me.

The flames around the new Chandra are just gorgeous though. Personally, I think that are is amazing.

And talk about anime...

<Need to find new image>

But that's obvious homage.

[Darkenslight]

tl;dr New Jace inspired by AFI; New Chandra inspired by GaGa; New Garruk inspied by Lordi

That's...interesting