Magic’s In-Multiverse Cards Rarely Start With Their Art

Magic’s in-Multiverse sets start card designs with the art “pretty infrequently,” Mark Rosewater said in a Blogatog post on November 3, 2026, answering a fan’s question about how often an illustration is the starting point for a card.

For Universes Beyond, Rosewater said the first art wave usually includes major characters, even when Wizards has not finished those characters’ card designs yet. But that timing seldom means the eventual card is designed to fit the illustration, he said.