(SwampSwamp | Art by Steven Belledin)

Your Deck is a Canvas

With Tarkir: Dragonstorm just around the corner, spoilers are starting to finally pull their way through the bloat of Universes Beyond.

As I'm writing this I've just now seen a little preview of the full art basics we'll be treated to in packs and bundles via a post on BlueSky from good old Saffron Olive.

Would you just take a look at those! I'm well aware that the art of full art basics can be a touchy subjects for Magic: The Gathering purists.

But personally I'm in love with these. Even as a player that doesn't usually run dragon focussed decks. They're such a perfect blend of the modern, glossy stylings of recent full arts that we've become accustomed to with truly classic fantasy art.

This cycle in fact was illustrated by none other than Ron Spencer , one of the original collection of artists that worked on Magic's Alpha set.

The Beauty of Basic Lands

And this got me thinking, once again, about all the gorgeous art we're treated to in this game of ours. One of my favorite things about building mono decks, in any format, is the amount of beautiful basic lands you can flood your deck with.

And as this is The Monolith, the column in which I try to convince you to build more mono decks, this seems like a perfect opportunity to gaze and gawp at some of the most gorgeous illustrations your mana base can have.

For this list I'm going to be sticking with only full arts that are available in standard sets. Regular game pieces that you get from a booster pack, just like any other card.

There's plenty of stunning illustrations in Secret Lairs and promos, but the cards listed on this article aren't locked behind paywalls or artificial scarcity.

They're a part of the game just like any other basic land. So with that being said, let's take a look at some of the most beautiful basics money can buy.

Foundations

I'll kick off with some recency bias in the shape of what has to be the coolest core set we've ever had, right? Foundations was a slam dunk in my opinion, providing a perfect jumping off point for new players whilst also establishing a new bedrock for standard decks of all kinds.

There's some nice new designs, a tonne of old favourites, and most importantly - some absolutely beautiful art.

And the full art lands are no exception. There's two cycles, all portraying locations from across Magic's multiverse including planes from sets old and new.

My favorite of the two depicts some of the settings most iconic Planeswalkers relaxing in the vistas. I love the way they cut silhouettes across the landscapes and add a nice sense of scale to the artworks. Not to mention the absolutely beautiful colors.

Just look at Ajani's Plains. The incredible sunset hues, glowing against his face. The wreaths of shadow slicing across the golden fields. Stunning.

Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty

Magic's return to the plane of Kamigawa saw a departure from its roots as a play on traditional Japanese folk lore. Instead, Neon Dynasty flung itself far into the future with a cyberpunk twist. Mechs and motorbikes careened down neon soaked alleyways and the ninjas stalked the rooftops.

However, the set's full art basic lands looked back at the plane's original scope. To a Japan more feudal, rich with tradition and concerned with the old ways. A nod to the original set but also a celebration of the nation's artworks. Wood block prints and delicate ink-works.

The cards depict a Kamigawa more rural and pastoral than its future form in which the set takes place. And as a result, we're left with what must be some of the most enticing depictions of a Magic plane ever rendered on cardboard.

The Brothers' War

Things don't have to be innately beautiful for one to make beautiful art of it. Whilst there are many tranquil scenes in Magic's world, most of the game's subject matter depicts stories of turmoil and strife.

And no classic story in Magic's cannon was so tragic and also caused so much destruction as that of the The Brothers' War. When Urza and his brotherly rival Mishra ravaged a world in their attempts to best one another.

The Brothers' War's basics show the dichotomy artists strike when they illustrate for Magic: the Gathering. Between violence and beauty.

Themes of darkness and streams of lights. In their imagery, the lands show gargantuan war machines, alone in empty fields and swamps.

A mech the size of a skyscraper stands solemnly in a torrential storm at sea. All in masterful, oil-like landscapes that ape of the depictions of war from centuries past.

It's Pacific Rim meets the Dutch masters. It's beautiful and it's sick as hell.

Theros: Beyond Death

Sets like Theros: Beyond Death and Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty that revisit planes from older sets, give an interesting insight to Magic's evolution over time.

You can hold one card up from the previous iteration next to another from the newest and physically gaze upon all the differences in the artworks between sets old and new.

The new blood of illustrators side by side with the old greats. The digital renderings of a modern card next to the traditional mediums of a classic.

The full art lands in Theros: Beyond Death were the topic of some controversy among Magic traditionalists when they released. "These aren't lands" they said. They're constellations. Nebulae. There's not a forest or a mountain in sight. And whilst on a surface level I agree, I do think the lands' detractors may have slightly missed the point.

There's plenty of abstraction in this game of ours. And whilst it's important to keep the game's themes rooted in internally consistent logic, the fact of the matter is that as ideas for planes get more ambitious - certain core principles need to adapt to fit in with those new designs.

Boiler rooms in haunted houses become mountains. Garden districts on top of skyscrapers become forests. And whilst Theros has plenty of regular lands to work with, it's also the domain of the gods. And here, the lands you seek are also among the cosmos. In beautiful and glittering starlight.

Dominaria United

But don't worry too much if you are a traditionalist, (although if you really are, are you even playing full arts to begin with?) because I've got a set of basic lands here that hark back to the stunning vistas of Magic's original setting, Dominaria.

Emblazoned in stained glass are a cycle of lands paying reverence to the myriad iconic locations of the OG plane. Floating cities and great forests surround stylized illustrations of the mana symbols.

The colours are bold and saturated and of all the standard sets' full art basic lands, these stand out from the rest of your board like no other. They're a perfect matching of style and substance for me. The perfect blend of a medium and a place to depict it with.

There's so much history in the lands of Dominaria and as the home of the Saga, the history depicting enchantment that pays homage to great stories in Magic's past, there seems no better way to make mana to cast them with.

I really like it when a card you can get in a standard booster pack feels like you've just ordered a secret lair by mistake. These lands have such a unique feel to them that stand out from so many of the other basics on offer.

Like they were custom-built for an artist to illustrate for some special drop. But they're not. They're right at the back of a Dominaria United pack.

Behind the Tolarian TerrorsTolarian Terrors, Temporary LockdownsTemporary Lockdowns and SheoldredsSheoldreds of an already fantastic set.

The Best Land is Your Favorite Land

One of the lovely things about art is its subjectivity, which means that no matter how hard they try any commenters on this article won't actually be able to tell me I'm wrong for these choices.

That does unfortunately go both ways however which means that in the end, whatever basics you love will also be the best of the bunch.

As long as they're in your deck. And no matter how much I disagree with your choices, that'll always be true. Funny how life is like that sometimes, huh?

Here's an honorary mention to the cool space lands from Unfinity.

I'll see you in the next episode of The Monolith where I'll no doubt be checking out some cool new monocolored cards in Tarkir! Until then happy building, and happy full art admiring. I'll see you in the next one.

Michael 'Wheels' Whelan

Wheels is a lover of all things cardboard from Brighton & Hove in the UK. As well as playing card games of all flavours multiple times a week he's also deeply invested in board games, wargames, and RPGs. In fact, he even designs his own tabletop games from self published TTRPGs like, The House Doesn't Always Win to published wargames like, FREAKZ! Mutant Murder Machines. Wheels is a big advocate for wacky deckbuilding and is an evangelist for more commander players building mono-coloured decks. He talks about all this and more on his YouTube and TikTok channel, Just For Fun!