A newly revealed Magic: The Gathering card has prompted allegations of copied artwork, but Wizards of the Coast says the resemblance was both intentional and mandated by the publisher’s art direction.
On Thursday, artist Liiga Smilshkalne alleged that Volkan Baga’s illustration for Jace, Multiverse Architect — the face Commander of the single preconstructed deck being released with the upcoming Reality Fracture set — reproduces central elements from the artwork she made for 2023’s Breach the Multiverse card. Smilshkalne said she would have welcomed an intentional homage, but objected to seeing distinctive features of her composition reused without her knowledge or credit.
“Today I found out that Volkan Baga’s illustration for Jace, Multiverse Architect uses the central elements of my Breach the Multiverse,” Smilshkalne wrote on Bluesky in a thread that has since been deleted. “Had this been an homage, I would’ve been tickled pink. However, as seen in the same arbitrary shapes in the stolons and the crown, that’s not what it is.”
Breach the Multiverse depicts Realmbreaker, the corrupted World Tree used to carry Phyrexia’s invasion across the Multiverse during March of the Machine. Its branches stretch across the sky around a pale, symmetrical crown resembling Elesh Norn’s headdress. In Baga’s new illustration, similarly shaped blue tendrils of magic surround Jace’s body, presumably as he’s in the act of overwriting the Multiverse with the Echoverse he created.
“I’m very disappointed”
Smilshkalne particularly called out a dark vertical line running through the center of both compositions. In her original illustration, it represents a waterfall of Phyrexian oil running down Realmbreaker and helps the surrounding composition form the Phyrexian symbol. A comparable blue line runs down the front of Jace in Baga’s painting.
“I’m very disappointed to see my work copied without understanding or at the very least asking,” Smilshkalne wrote, adding that she would have advised against retaining the oil waterfall in the new illustration because its original symbolic purpose didn’t apply here.
In a statement provided to Polygon, Wizards confirmed that Baga was instructed to reference Smilshkalne’s illustration directly.
“We’ve seen some of the discussion around the art of Jace, Multiverse Architect by Volkan Baga and Breach the Multiverse by Liiga Smilshkalne and wanted to make a few things clear,” the company said. “First, the art direction given to Volkan was to directly reference this piece in the art.”
According to Wizards, the resemblance was intended to communicate Jace’s relationship with the magic he has encountered throughout Magic’s story. After being captured and compleated by the Phyrexians, Jace cast a spell to try to rewrite the Multiverse from within the Meditation Realm with the intention of erasing all his greatest enemies entirely. But the spell consumed him and destroyed his body. Fractured pieces of Jace’s mind were able to create a new body, but one of them calling itself The Theorist created the Echoverse as a dark parallel multiverse. His plan was to ultimately have it replace the Multiverse entirely. Interestingly enough, Realmbreaker does have the power to merge planes, so there is some measure of resonance in having the symbols be represented on Jace as he tries to merge the Multiverse and the Echoverse.
“Much of the visual storytelling in Reality Fracture centers on Jace utilizing or incorporating powerful magic he has learned from events he has experienced,” Wizards said. “This was a direct, intentional callback to that moment to indicate that, in his efforts to rid the multiverse of Phyrexia, Jace had become the very thing he sought to eradicate.”
Wizards also said Baga created the piece traditionally, beginning with a hand-drawn sketch and continuing through to a final painted version. That would rule out speculation that elements of Smilshkalne’s digital artwork were simply extracted, recolored, and composited into the Jace illustration.
Mark Aronowitz, Baga’s art broker, said in a public statement that Baga followed the creative brief and specifically consulted the card’s art director about the similarities before beginning the final painting.
“He specifically checked with the art director prior to painting regarding the background swirl and overall mood, and was instructed to proceed with that exact composition,” Aronowitz wrote. “Creative misunderstandings happen, especially when reference material is involved, but Volkan worked entirely in good faith and with total professionalism from sketch to final oils.”
Wizards’ statement does not say whether Smilshkalne was informed of the planned callback before Jace, Multiverse Architect was revealed. The publisher did, however, acknowledge that the dispute has prompted internal discussions about its process.
“Magic has long created visual callbacks in its art to evoke connection through its shared multiverse,” Wizards said. “This has spurred some additional internal conversations about how we communicate those callbacks to artists who create iconic pieces, but it is very important to us to create a shared world that feels unified.”
Wizards said it has since contacted both artists.