Strixhaven: School of Mages, a new set of Magic: The Gathering cards, is due for release next month, but one of its cards is already generating controversy after it emerged that the artist responsible for drawing it sure did borrow a lot of stuff from another, uncredited artist.
Veteran artist Jason Felix is credited on the card (above), which is called Crux of Fate. Not long after the card’s art was revealed by Wizards of the Coast, though, some eagle-eyed observers started noting some similarities between one of the dragons depicted on the card and the work of artist Kitt Lapeña, specifically this piece from 2016 called Nicol Bolas.
Lapeña details the similarities between their dragon and Felix’s card art below, showing just how close the character’s head and arm match, noting that while the torso is different, this could just have been because Lapeña’s original has a huge Deviantart watermark across its chest.
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While artists use references all the time, this goes well beyond that. Even the skin folds on the dragon’s hands are the same! Making matters worse is that, as Lapeña explains, they’ve sent their portfolio into Wizards of the Coast previously.
Kotaku has contacted Felix for comment, and will update if we hear back.