A Hobbit set is coming soon for Magic: The Gathering, and of all things, the One Ring is now causing problems.
For fans of Magic: The Gathering and The Lord of the Rings, the upcoming MTG set is actually a cause for celebration. On August 14, The Hobbit a new set of LOTR-themed cards for the trading card game is set to be released.
To that end, some existing cards have been reissued. However, one particular card caught the attention of a connoisseur, becausethe design looked suspiciously familiar to him.
Illustrator uncovers design theft
The Hobbit set was announced at MagicCon in Las Vegas, where the redesigned card“The One Ring”was also shown. The card has existed with these stats since the setThe Lord of the Rings: Stories from Middle-earth, only the artwork was redesigned for The Hobbit.
After the reveal, however, an old acquaintance from Wizards of the Coast, the publisher behind Magic,on Facebookshares his thoughts. Donato Giancola is an illustrator and has been working with the company for several years. He noticed a striking resemblance between the “new” design of the Ringand the old design
In the post, he writes:
Wizards of the Coast has just released a truly pathetic excuse for the most important card in their upcoming Hobbit set. They simply digitally copied the previous One Ring card from the Lord of the Rings set, flipped it, and removed the Elvish runes.
The old artwork is by Marta Nael; Dan Frazier is credited as the artist for the new card. While Giancola still gives the latter the benefit of the doubt in his post and doubts that he had a say in the decision, there is now a statement from both Frazier and Wizards of the Coast.
Wizards of the Coast and the artist apologize
Via Bluesky, the official Magic account shares a statement from both parties. Frazier writes:
I made a mistakeand I am terribly sorry. I am especially sorry to Marta, whose work I greatly admire.
While attempting to create an iconic version of the One Ring and searching online for references, I ultimately used Marta’s ring as a template and painted over it to depict the object that means so much to fans.
In doing so, I did not sufficiently make it my own. I will contact Marta privately to apologize from artist to artist. I love creating art for Magic. I have enjoyed being part of this artist community for over 30 years, and I am sorry that I have disappointed my fans.
Wizards of the Coast adds that their review processes were insufficient to identify this issue. They, too, have reached out to Marta Nael to apologize. Furthermore, she will be credited as an artist alongside Frazier in the digital versions of the card and will receive compensation.
The publisher acknowledges that both Frazier and the company itself made mistakes. However, the collaboration between the two is set to continue in the future.
