Artists are helping to make Magic: The Gathering more expressive — and fun

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There is a card called Jeweled Lotus. The Commander card is a powerful card that can be used to cast your commander if you gain three mana of any color. The cost of a copy of Jeweled Lotus can range from $70 to $120, and the card's fancy foil version can go for as much as $20,000.

If you want to build multiple decks that use Jeweled Lotus, it can be a lot of work. You have to purchase multiple copies of the card or purchase the card once and ferry it between the different decks. With a Jeweled Lotus proxy, you can bust out that God-Eternal Oketra a couple turns early without shelling out major cash.

There is a cottage industry attached to the billion-dollar collectible card game. They are made by members of a dedicated community of players and creators in which artistry and Magic combine to allow players to express themselves with their decks and how they play

The different ways in which you can change, modify, or replace a Magic card are referred to as proxies.

An alter is when someone takes paint and puts it on an official card. A proxy is something that is made from scratch.

When one fits into or over the other, a protective card sleeve can be used to enhance a card's existing art.

Magic isn't usually thought of as such. There is a kind of philosophy that comes from that color's mechanics. The red deck is fast and aggressive. Death and decay are represented by black decks that sacrifice a player's life points for power. Green decks symbolize nature because they show powerful creatures that destroy anything in their path. Having modified cards makes building decks more enjoyable for players.

Burden said that there is a lot of visual variety that can be put into a Magic deck. EDH can lend itself to self- expression.

Understanding the appeal of alters, proxies, and overlays is dependent on knowing the Magic formats and rules. Commander is one of the most popular formats of Magic right now. The commander is a powerful creature that requires players to build 100 card, single copy decks.

Commander is more casual than standard or draft. Instead of being built from the most efficient, most powerful, and most recent set of cards, decks are designed to pull off cool combinations like over running your opponent with squirrels. Standard can be used to beat your friends. Commander is a game that will allow you to have fun with your friends.

The format is free for all. Magic's 30-year history allows players to build any deck they want. With thousands of cards to choose from, players have a lot of freedom to choose cards that are personal rather than powerful. Burden is a proxy artist that players will commission to get their own style.

People like to make EDH decks with their characters in mind. The art of my D&D character is what matters.

Three years ago, Burden began her proxy business. She was involved in Magic's competitive scene for a short time. She said proxying brought her back into playing Magic after a long time away. I was inspired to twist the art that I felt a lot of nostalgia for and make my own version of it. Her creation process is pretty easy to understand. She started drawing. I get an idea of what to draw when I don't know what I want it to be.

The artist is more strategic with how she chooses what cards to use in her artwork. She said only popular commanders would be picked. The artist made a card with art. Like card balaclavas, think of them that way. It is art printed on a piece of transparent plastic that, when slid over a card, still displays pertinent information.

Image: Athena Kipen

Commander cards are the only cards she chooses. Most Magic players put their cards in protective sleeves. Any card with one that fits over a card will be thicker in its sleeve, which makes it a marked card. Commanders are not shuffled in with the rest of the deck in order to prevent players from cheating. I enjoy working with commanders. She thinks they are fun. They are a wonderful part of self- expression in the game.

Because of the relaxed nature of the format and the thousands of creatures to choose from, a player can pick a commander not only because it is powerful but also because something about a particular card speaks to them. Commanders can be used as extensions of the player or an ideal. Seven years after her first printing, Alesha, Who Smiles At Death is still a popular commander because she is the game's first trans character.

She has a favorite among her work, even though she doesn't have an overture of Alesha. She said her favorite is Gallia. I love it because it is so silly and gay. I was thinking, "Okay, this is for anyone who wants to make their Gruul decks more sapphic for the fun of it."

Image: Athena Kipen

Self- expression is an important part of the proxy, but it isn't the only one. A method of accessibility, a simple safety feature, and an avenue of protest are some of the things that proxies can be used for. Sometimes I pick a card I already know I want to make new art for because the artist of the original card was at a neo-Nazi rally.

Burden doesn't mention him by name, but she is likely talking about the popular Magic artist who was involved in controversy earlier this year after supporting the Canadian trucker caravan. The caravan was criticized for featuring Confederate and Nazi flags while protesting the country's vaccine mandate. He only supported the end of vaccine mandates, and denied that he was racist. Fans have noted that his art hasn't been featured in recent sets, but Wizards of the Coast never issued a statement.

Burden believes that you should be able toproxy what you own. The solution to the Jeweled Lotus problem was found here. Burden and other Magic players can keep their expensive cards safe and secure, while also being able to reap the benefits of actually playing them, with the help of proxies.

Burden stated that he had a binder. How much is this thing worth? Just thinking about it makes me uneasy. It has a copy of all the reserve list cards that I use in 24 EDH decks that don't have the actual copy in it. My proxy has my own artwork on it.

Image: Meghan Burden

You won't be able to roll up to the next Grand Prix event with a deck full of proxies. If you are playing with friends, anything goes, although proxies and alters aren't usually allowed.

Burden needs to be careful about the cards she makes.

She said that she has had to rethink how she uses some cards. People are confused by the fact that they don't have that art if I put them down.

Paper Magic is not the most accessible of formats due to its sight based nature. Magic cards can be hard to read for people with vision issues. Burden can't read cards because of her visual impairment. She decided to make proxies instead of altering. I got into this because of that. I can print the text large enough that it's easy to read in plain sight.

It is difficult to get from art to a selling product. Finding the right business to print your stuff is one of the things that can be done. Burden and Kipen have their own storefronts and rely on social media to drive business.

The problem of discoverability, printing costs, shipping costs, and the other attendant issues that come with running an art business can be solved by Chad Brown.

He was looking at a large collection of painted alters. I wondered if I could work with artists to print these designs on sleeves. Is it possible for them to sell them to more people?

Brown returned to his seat and focused on the rest of the tournament. He said he was looking on his phone to see if anyone else was doing the same thing. When I typed in the search term "mtg alter sleeves", I couldn't find anything, so I immediately grabbed the domain and spent the next six months building up the business model, making prototypes, and working with a small group of artists to come up with designs that we

Artists can sell their work at altersleeves.com while Brown's company handles the logistics. There is no pressure to sell through accumulated inventory in order to make a profit since creators get a 20% cut on each item sold. Some people think that Brown's artists aren't being paid enough, but 20 percent of a $6 alter sleeve isn't a lot.

Brown said that they are working to improve with some of the things they are doing with Mythic gaming. It could be an alter sleeve, a playmat, or a deck box in the future. I hope that people's creative works can bring in more money for them.

Brown's business is very new and has exploded in popularity. Alter sleeves are still a very niche product. We haven't yet tapped into the vast majority of the market.

Brown wants the store to be more than just a store. He thinks that the platform is a white label production service for artists and fans who are willing to pay premiums to support them.

The Magic and D&D content creator has a partnership with Mythic Gaming. Fans at certain levels of patronage can get an exclusive playmat printed by Mythic gaming. Brown sees partnerships like that as the future of his businesses.

He said that if communities were willing to pay $5 a month to subscribe to a server, they would be willing to pay $5 more for exclusive designs. Initial tests seem to indicate that they are.