Magic: The Gathering’s Secret Lair has never exactly been afraid of unusual artwork, but its newest Commander deck might be one of the more immediately recognizable releases the line has produced.
Wizards of the Coast has announced Secret Lair Commander Deck: Odds and Ends, a complete 100-card Commander deck featuring new artwork from Spanish artist Ricardo Cavolo. Alongside the deck, Secret Lair is also releasing The Oddlands, a collection that gives Magic’s five basic lands the same wonderfully strange treatment.
And strange is definitely the right word here.
Cavolo is a Spanish artist born in Salamanca whose work combines influences from folk art, traditional and modern tattoo culture, European religious imagery, outsider art and other forms of visual storytelling. He grew up surrounded by art through his father, who was a painter and art teacher, and eventually studied Fine Arts himself.
His work tends to be incredibly colorful and packed with symbolism. Multiple eyes, flames, hearts, tattoos, bold outlines and exaggerated figures regularly appear throughout his illustrations.
More importantly, Cavolo treats those elements as part of the story rather than simply decoration.
He has described illustration as his way of telling stories visually, building images around characters and surrounding...
