An artist who frequently posts Magic-inspired art on Deviant Art is claiming that their work was used on a new Magic card without their permission.
The user Scarypet tweeted a video yesterday showing how an image of Nicol Bolas they posted to Deviant Art in 2016 appears to be used on the Mystical Archive version of Crux of Fate by artist Jason Felix. The video points out how the Nicol Bolas character matches on both pieces after a slight rotation, with the cutout of their original piece lining up exactly with the art on the new card.
A Reddit thread and the chain of tweets responding to video pointed out how Nicol Bolas’s claw features five digits unlike the majority of images of the dragon on other cards showing only three.
Another Twitter user posted a follow up showing the similarity in the image of Ugin with the original art from Ugin, the Spirit Dragon by Raymond Swanland.
Felix, who has more than 100 illustrations on Magic cards, has yet to make a response or Tweet anything since March 26. There still hasn’t been a statement from Wizards of the Coast (WotC) regarding the allegations.