Kitt Lapena—who goes under the username scarypet on Twitter—had one of their dreams come true when their art appeared on a Magic: The Gathering card, Crux of Fate. Unfortunately, Lapena was not the one who put it there. Instead, the art was allegedly swiped by freelancer Jason Felix, who has since been removed from Magic by Wizards of the Coast.
While the universe of Magic is best known through its card game, its popularity has seen a recent resurgence when Cryptic Studios began working on Magic Legends, an ARPG that is currently in beta. The card game has often been admired by fans for its incredible artwork, and the upcoming set, Strixhaven: School of Mages, was no exception. A specific card within that set, Crux of Fate, featured a battle between two legendary dragons, Nicol Bolas and Ugin. The problem is that drawing of Nicol Bolas seems to have been ripped from fanart on Lapena’s DeviantArt profile.
Magic‘s popularity meant that a fan of Lapena’s work noticed the similarities between the Crux of Fate card and her earlier work, and left a comment congratulating her, assuming that Lapena’s art had finally been recognized by Wizards of the Coast. Lapena took to the web, found an image of the Crux of Fate card, and compared her drawing of Nicol Bolas to the one featured there. The two are nearly identical. The only change is in the Bolas’ body, which carried a watermark from DeviantArt.
Magic: The Gathering is among the most popular card games in existence. Just recently, the game announced a potential crossover with both Lord of the Rings and Warhammer. For Lapena, a life-long fan of the game, getting their artwork featured on a card was a major goal. Perhaps the worst part of the entire debacle is that Lapena admitted to sending applications to Wizards of the Coast several times in the past. Apparently, their artwork was not considered good enough to be offered a job but was good enough to make it onto a card.
This recent development puts a serious damper on the upcoming Strixhaven release, with many fans suggesting that Wizards of the Coast should step-up and own its part by commissioning Lapena for legitimate work. A few other commenters have brought the other dragon, Ugin’s face under suspicion, suggesting that it too could have been plagiarized from another artist, but that remains to be seen.
Magic: The Gathering is available now in game stores and digitally through Magic Arena.
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