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Featured image: Everydays—The First 5000 Days by Beeple
NFTs offically met Magic: the Gathering last week when Kirsten Zirngibl and Peter Mohrbacher minted the very first Magic artwork turned into non-fungible tokens. Each was listed on the trading platform Foundation for 20 ETH, or approximately $35,000 when the article was written.
Islands by Kirsten Zirngibl and Peter Mohrbacher.
Before NFTs, if an artist who worked exclusively digital wanted to participate in the market for original Magic artwork, they would make a 1/1 giclée print, often with some degree of hand embellishing, and alongside a certificate of authenticity stating that this would be a singular printing on a certain medium at a certain size. This created a 1/1 work related to the card art, and something for collectors to acquire.
Bedevil by Seb McKinnon, a suite of work including 1/1 canvas print.
Fan favorite artists like Seb McKinnon and Jenn Ravenna have both found success using this method, and have offered a number of their works in this form, either through direct sale or as Kickstarter tiers for their various film fundraising campaigns. It’s a recent trend that’s grown as the market for original Magic: the Gathering artwork has risen over the last few years.
It would stand to reason that NFTs could potentially replace these digital-to-physical representations. Today, a traditional artist can sell a physical painting of their card art as a part of their contract, alongside prints and playmats through properly licensed channels. Are NFTs not the digital artists version of that same thing? And if the artists themselves can’t mint them, does that mean that the corporation could then sell the NFTs? What does that mean for originals and artist contracts moving forward? These are some of the questions for today’s article.
10th percentile price
3d glasses: 3.1%
Hair
(Image credit: Wizards of the Coast)
Wizards of the Coast declined to comment on the project, or on its own possible plans for Magic: The Gathering-based NFTs.
Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.
Wrapping Up
NFT history is being written and rewritten almost daily, and it remains to be seen whether it will be a post-pandemic fad or something that changes the very landscape of the art market and what it means to own an “original” piece of artwork. How it ultimately translates to Magic could change the game and its artists forever, and it cannot be ignored.
I owe a great thanks to Jisu for writing their original article and illuminating so much of what is going on in this arena. Furthermore, thanks to Karla Ortiz for sharing this in-depth work, and providing that constant inspiration of exploration to take the deep dive and try to figure out what this means for Magic moving forward. And finally to Titus Lunter, who provided innumerable insights and was my devil’s advocate as I tried to work through these evolving issues.
At this point I am conclusively cautiously optimistic that NFTs will evolve in a responsible way while at the same time putting money in artist’s pockets. As an art collector, NFTs probably won’t be for me, and I don’t know that I’ll ever acquire one. I am very much a touch it, feel it, silver over stocks kind of person. But as an art critic, I think this could be a serious game changer for a lot of people, and that means it’s deserving of attention, at least for now.
What is an NFT? What is a Blockchain?
Everydays—The First 5000 Days by Beeple. Digital. Sold for $69m+.
What Does This Mean for Magic?
For a cryptocurrency-using collector, NFTs are likewise an opportunity to collect something without sacrificing their currency of choice, and within a space in which they exist. NFTs present art to an entirely new group of collectors in a form that may better resonate with them. I’ve been in the antiques business for the last 15 years and watched this same change spell success for those who adapt. It’s about meeting a new group of buyers and collectors where they are, and connecting them with something that personally resonates, even if that’s not a physical object.
The Problems With and Arguments Against NFTs
I don’t have the bandwidth or the word count to detail all of the issues surrounding NFTs. You can read a much more comprehensive take if you’re curious to see numbers and arguments broken down and analyzed.
Environmental Impact
Will there still be art thieves, money launderers, and bastard-coated bastards with bastard filling harming artists and their work? Yes. But the idea that NFTs could create solutions that translate to the physical and fine art markets is optimistic as opposed to outlandish.