As one of the biggest collectible card games in the world, Magic: The Gathering is no stranger to collaborations with many of gaming and pop culture's most popular franchises. Earlier this year, the game partnered with another equally popular Wizards of the Coast franchise, bringing an entire Dungeons and Dragons booster set to the game that added plenty of new mechanics. The long-running franchise has often featured guest artists for its droves of unique and spectacular card designs, and a prominent Metal Gear artist will soon be bringing his own flair to the game's magic and monsters.
Magic: The Gathering often features a wide variety of artists for its card designs with Wizards of the Coast often collaborating with major gaming franchises for stunning new cards. Popular franchises like Fortnite and Street Fighter have been confirmed to be receiving "Secret Lair" sets next year, and pop culture giants like Godzilla have previously received their own cards. With Wizards recently announcing its intent to return the Japan-inspired Kamigawa plane in its next expansion, Magic: The Gathering officially announced that prominent Metal Gear artist Yoji Shinkawa would be creating artwork for a promotional card.
The Japanese Magic: The Gathering Twitter account announced Thursday that Shinkawa would be creating an alternate artwork of the Satoru Umezawa creature card, a prominent piece of the Kamigawa lore. The Metal Gear and Death Stranding artist will be joining Xenoblade Chronicles character designer Raita Kazama in creating two alternate artworks for Satoru Umezawa that will be featured as "Buy-A-Box" promotional giveaways for purchasing Magic booster boxes at select game stores.
The Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty expansion will feature Magic's return to the plane of Kamigawa, heavily inspired by Japanese culture and mythology. The newest expansion into the plane will feature a markedly different artstyle from the region's previous expansions, bringing the popular plane into a neon-colored future taking place over 1,200 years after the conclusion of the original Kamigawa storyline. The new set will feature a new set of legendary dragons and full-art lands paying homage to the classic Japanese artform of woodblock paintings.
With online card games like Hearthstone and Legends of Runeterra gaining popularity over recent years, Magic: The Gathering has been among the forerunners of the classic card games when pushing its game into an online space. Magic: The Gathering Arena has established a strong presence in the digital card game market since its initial release in 2019, and the online card game often features similar pre-release events to the physical version for newly releasing sets. Magic has established itself as a dominant force in the card games industry and will likely remain one for years to come.
Magic: The Gathering is available now in game shops and digitally through Magic: The Gathering Arena. The Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty expansion is scheduled to release on February 18, 2022.