Wizards of the Coast wanted a lion upskirt for MTG Modern Horizons 3 (seriously)

Traditional painting of a muscular anthropomorphic lion. His fur is white and he wears a blue loincloth.
(Image credit: Wizards of the Coast / Art by✅ Ilse Gort)

With nine sets on the 2024 release calendar, you could fill an entire gallery with all the stunning Magic:ꦗ The Gathering illustrations we’re set to see this year, and from what we’ve seen so far, MTG Modern Horizons 3 is no exception. However, some are stunning for... well, different reasons.

Players have been finding certain cards particularly aesthetically pleasing, shall we say. Just earlier this week, we got our first look at this year's additions to one of the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best card games, and 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:a certain pointy-eared bad boy l🐬eft fans bl♏ushing. Then MTG Modern Horizons 3 arrived with an answe🍃r to this in the form of Ajani Goldmane and his brother Jazal. While the set has a Modern focus, these two leonin beefcakes seem to have rejected the contemporary social norm of wearing a shirt. It's all good though, it's not like the furries are complaining.

As you can se💦e from the art below, one of these cards has an upskirt shot of Ajani as he stands rather proudly amongst the treetops.

However, this wasn't all on the artist. Ilse Gort (A.K.A. Caraid) is an illustrator, self-professed “cat lady”, and the brush behind the gorgeously rendered borderless Ajani, Nacatl Pariah art. She hopped on Twitter to address the heated fan respo🎐nse to the card’s reveal and pointed out that MTG publisher Wizards of the Coast "CHOSE the upskirt shot. So this is really only partially on me."&nওbsp;

While Caraid proudly claims the furry label, she says that her art director choosing to “lean into” the anthropomorphic pinup vision was an unexpected development for her.

Alongside her statement, the artist posted images of the three original digital sketches as well as the full traditional painting. Thankfully, itꦯ turns out that all that the card’s text box conceals is a little pair of blue modesty shorts (if you wear skirts, you already know what’s up).  

Cat warrior Ajani has had it real rough as of late. After seeing him receive some brutal cybernetic treatment during last year’s 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:March of the Machines arc, I’m happy to see him living his best life in what seems to be his home plane shard of Naya, gallanting through the treeline and feeling the wind in his hair (or fur, I suppose).

If you’re keen to 🎀add a tasteful bit of Ajani upskirt to your collection, I'm afr🐭aid you’re going to have to hold out until Magic: The Gathering - Modern Horizons 3 releases on June 14. 


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