Another “Magic: The Gathering” Art Plagiarism Scandal

Back in April 2021, we took a look at a plagiarism scandal that was rocking the world of Magic: The Gathering and one of the game’s best-known artists, Jason Felix.

Magic: The Gathering is a well-known trading card game created and managed by Wizards of the Coast (WotC), the company that also holds the rights to the Dungeons & Dragons tabletop gaming series. 

In that story, Felix was an artist who had provided visuals for over 150 different Magic: The Gathering cards. However, the artwork he provided for the Crux of Fate card was quickly recognized as a plagiarism of a fan creation, only with the character rotated and one of the limbs repositioned.

The story ended with WotC halting work with Felix pending an investigation. While the outcome of that investigation was never announced, Felix’s own website indicates that his work with the series ended that year. 

However, it appears that very little was learned from that story as WotC finds itself at the center of an eerily similar plagiarism story, this one involving artist David Sondered and the release of the new The Lost Caverns of Ixalan Commander decks.

Here, the artist is accused not of copying a character, but copying the background for his Wayfarer’s Bauble card art, only altering it to flip it horizontally.

Once again, WotC has said that they are suspending future work with the artist, saying that “Such misuse of art is expressly prohibited by our artist guidelines.”

For Lorenzo Lanfranconi, the artist who was plagiarized, this appears to be the end of the story. He said in a post on X (Twitter) that Sondered has written both him and WotC and that, if this was the only case, it’s just a “weird situation and a stupid mistake.”

Update: the artist wrote to me and to wotc. I'll don't do nothing more than sharing this image and to me, if this was the only case this happened, it's ok…just a weird situation and a stupid mistake.

— Lorenzo Lanfranconi (@L_Lanfranconi) November 18, 2023

But is it? This is the second time we’ve had a story like this in less than three years. Though Magic: The Gathering is a major institution that releases hundreds of pieces of art per year, it raises the question: What is going on?

To that end, we have to look at the plagiarism and figure out what, if anything, WotC can do to prevent it in the future.

Magic, Wizards and Artistic Plagiarism

For many artists, working for Wizards of the Coast is a dream. For those who do fantasy art, working on either Magic: The Gathering or Dungeons & Dragons is one of the most desirable jobs possible. 

That is part of why these cases sting so badly for both the artists and the community. The artists who do get to create work for these games should be the best of the best, yet, repeatedly now, they’ve turned out to be plagiarists. 

To that end, the two cases are remarkably similar. In both cases, an artist chosen and recognized by WotC plagiarized, work of lesser-known artists found online. The first copied a Magic: The Gathering character from a fan artist (complete with error) and the second plagiarized a landscape for a painting background.

However, in both cases, at least to date, neither artist was accused of additional plagiarism. Whether investigations were completed or not, neither artist has faced significant additional allegations after the initial ones came to light.

That said, though it’s far too early to say what Sondered’s future holds, in both cases WotC quickly cut ties with both artists. Also, in both cases, the plagiarized artists didn’t seem interested in taking any serious action against WotC, either legally or professionally.

That likely is due to the fact that, as we discussed, for many artists, working for WotC is a dream. Legal action or even raising too much of a ruckus could be seen as closing that door.

But should WotC be held responsible for these cases? The question is a difficult one, but there is clearly more that they could do.

Where WotC Went Wrong

With the first case, it’s easy to be somewhat sympathetic to WotC. They have produced thousands of cards with hundreds of artists and, at the time, hadn’t faced any significant, public plagiarism scandals.

To improve matters, their response to the situation was nearly perfect. They quickly suspended working with that artist, worked with the plagiarized artist to give proper credit and, in general, smooth things over.

However, that incident should have been a warning. The plagiarism was very clear-cut and would have likely been easily detected if proper systems had been put in place.

Unfortunately, it’s pretty clear that those systems were not implemented.

Though this latest round would likely have been more difficult to detect, it would not have been impossible. Not if the company had been thoroughly checking all incoming work.

To make matters worse, there’s no mention of how this plagiarism evaded their processes or where/if there was a breakdown in their checks. It seems, once again, they’ve just blamed the artist and are moving on.

And, to be clear, the artist does deserve the blame. They are the one who plagiarized, they are the one who submitted the work to WotC, and they are the ones who, ultimately, bear the responsibility.

But WotC had an opportunity to learn from the 2021 incident, and they clearly didn’t. They did nothing to improve the processes and accepted art with blind trust.

Once again, that is almost understandable for them in 2021. But they learned nothing from that incident and, seemingly, changed nothing on their end. 

Maybe this one might compel them to take the issue more seriously. If not, it’s very likely I’ll be writing a third story along these lines in a few years’ time. 

Bottom Line

There’s an element of this story that’s easy to overlook. In both cases, either the plagiarizing artist or the victim has cited “overworked” as a cause for the plagiarism.

While that is obviously a common excuse for plagiarism in any environment, it’s interesting that it was brought up both times. Given that Felix had over 150 cards in Magic: The Gathering at the time of his incident, there may be an argument that, on top of checking incoming art, WotC needs to ensure they aren’t overloading artists.

This could be done by simply setting (or lowering) a cap on the number of works an artist is commissioned to do at one time. Not only would this ensure artists can do their best work, but it would open the door to more artists to participate.

Either way, the lion’s share of the blame still has to be laid at the feet of the artists involved. Even if they were overworked, they still chose to plagiarize. There’s no shortage of overworked artists, and most find another way through.

But WotC would still be wise to examine their processes and how they can be improved. This includes checking incoming work and ensuring that artists have a reasonable amount of time to complete their tasks. While, obviously, they can’t control what other work an artist takes on, they can avoid being the sole source of the overload.

Though such steps don’t guarantee that plagiarism will never happen again, it makes it much less likely and helps to frame WotC as a company doing what they can.

Right now, they’re a company with two separate, but eerily similar cases of plagiarism, both of which were likely avoidable. If they want to avoid a third, now is the time to take action.