New Respect for Restoration Angel

By now you have probably seen Restoration Angel.

If not, I will remind you by pasting it here:


Restoration Angel

My friends Hall of Famer Brian Kibler and future Hall of Famer Patrick Chapin had some interesting things to say about Restoration Angel last week. Patrick pointed out that Restoration Angel, at 3/4, is perfectly suited to mug a Delver of Secrets or Strangleroot Geist with its flash ability; moreover, its “Momentary Blink” will often be worth a card.

Patrick was surprised at how little hoopla and hype were surrounding Restoration Angel (at the time). I mean what if it said…

Flash
Flying
When Restoration Angel enters the battlefield, draw a card.

?

That would be un-ignore-ably bonkers, no?

Well, she kinda sorta says that now… And if you think back to how much I liked Simian Grunts back in the day (sadly I played Simian Grunts to a PT Day Two… in Extended… #BlameAdrianSullivan)… Restoration Angel has a lot of Simian Grunts to it, only without the echo (but with, you know, flying).

Kibler said Restoration Angel is his favorite card in the new set, and not to expect Daybreak Ranger prices.

So yeah Yeah YEAH Restoration Angel is a good card.

… None of that is what I want to talk about today. During my stint in the SCGLive booth this past weekend, Joey Pasco had Restoration Angel blown up on the big screen.

It was an eye-opening experience for YT, and one that catapulted Restoration Angel to new heights of something in my mind.

I actually stumbled on Johannes Voss’s DeviantArt page and found a great graphic that shows the artist’s process from start to finish. You should check it out. (BTW Voss’s Commander’s Authority is probably my favorite art in the set).

But for our purposes I am just going to excerpt from one of the early stage pre-pics:

I want to emphasize that I really like Voss’s stroke. You can see some mad light source skills in this earlier stage, and I feel like I can actually see the speed used to produce the strings holding together that blue bustier. Technique, I like. Here is a rare commentary from YT about the content of the piece.

So… As far as I can tell, this is a pic of a dude looking up the skirt of a winged blonde in full battle armor a Southern Belle nighty.

Discuss.

LOVE
MIKE

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3 comments ↓

#1 hdhrant on 04.24.12 at 6:05 am

So Kibler was referring to Restoration Angel when he tweeted on Friday, “Pretty sure I identified another card I’m going to go deep on.”? I love Restoration Angel, and pre-ordered my playset last night, but I think it’s a bad card to speculate on since it’s the Avacyn Restored Launch Weekend promo, and everyone who goes to FNM on May 4 is going to get a foil one with alternate art (which is more modest and less suggestive). While at a glance the regular art might look like a guy looking up an angel’s dress, upon closer inspection (for science!) the middle part of her dress comes right back down on both sides of her exposed right leg. Instead, I think Voss’s art is clearly a premonition of Angelina Jolie’s infamous leg pose from the Oscars a couple months ago (while we only got to see the art a couple weeks ago, it had to have been finished, what, a year ago?).

#2 MTGBattlefield on 04.24.12 at 6:59 am

New Respect for Restoration Angel…

Your story has been summoned to the battlefield – Trackback from MTGBattlefield…

#3 Hard-working Huntmaster of the Fells — Five With Flores on 05.29.12 at 7:10 pm

[…] like me can do it! You can use your mana to sacrifice creatures to Birthing Pod, or just cast a Restoration Angel on the opponent’s turn (ideally locking fingers with your Ravager of the Fells to set up more […]

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