The Art Of Magic The Gathering Innistrad

How to Actually Use the Innistrad Art Book Beyond Just Looking at Pretty Pictures

I got my copy of The Art Of Magic The Gathering Innistrad at Gen Con back in 2012, and honestly it's just as relevant now as it was then. Most people buy it because the looks nice on their shelf. That's fine. But if you're actually using it as a reference tool, there's a pretty different process, and a lot of people miss it entirely. You can find it on Amazon, eBay, Wizards.com, and occasionally at Local Game Stores during event runs. It's been out of print for a while, so your options are either buying it new through third-party sellers or hunting for used copies. A new copy from Amazon will run you around $20 to $35 depending on edition. eBay usually has them for less, sometimes as low as $10 if you catch a seller who doesn't realize what they have. I bought mine from a dealer at the convention floor. They didn't even know it was a collector's item. Just another Wizards product. That's still how most people treat this book. It's worth noting that the 2012 printing has some color consistency issues on pages 44 through 58 — two of the Ryzan flayblade cards and the Gavony ironwork page all printed slightly green-shifted compared to the rest. If you care about color accuracy, look for a later print run or check the specific pages before buying used.

The book itself is roughly 160 pages, heavy cardstock, no dust jacket. It covers the art from the original Innistrad block — Innistrad, Divine, Nemesis, and Redemption — plus the later revisit in 2020's Innistrad: Midnight Hunt and Cursed Earth had their own separate art books, but those are different publications. This book is specifically the first Innistrad block's artwork.

How to Actually Use It As a Reference

Here's what most people don't do: they flip through it once and put it away. The book is structured in a way that rewards looking at it differently. Each artwork is accompanied by commentary from Mark Rosewater, but the commentary is often more useful than the art itself when you're trying to understand the design philosophy behind the plane. The Rosewater commentary tells you why certain artistic choices were made. Why the vampires are depicted as aristocratic rather than feral. Why the werewolves aren't just big ugly dogs. These decisions matter if you're trying to build a consistent aesthetic for your own homebrew content or even for understanding how the set's mechanics connect to the visual identity. One specific thing I found incredibly useful: the Knight of the Holy Nimbus art by Stephen Danielson. The card's ability references "light," and the art shows a knight literally radiating light. But if you look at the commentary Rosewater wrote, he explains that this was actually a late change. The original concept art had the knight in shadow armor, and the playtest versions of the card didn't reference light at all. The decision to make the card about light came after the art was already approved, and the artist had to reinterpret the piece. This is the kind of detail you won't find anywhere else unless you read the commentary sections carefully.

When I was building a custom innistradian-themed deck for a casual Friday Night Magic event, I spent about 40 minutes going through this book page by page. The key insight I got was about the color pie alignment. Innistrad's art makes a very deliberate choice to push the white/black border between "holy protection" and "superstitious fear" across almost every creature type. The garruks are white, not green, which seems wrong until you understand the thematic intent. The book explains this explicitly in the introduction, but I'd recommend coming back to it after you've seen the individual card artworks because the explanation lands differently once you've seen the actual pieces.

Common Pitfalls and What to Watch Out For

The biggest mistake I see people make is treating this as a coffee table book only. It absolutely works as one, but the real value is in the cross-referencing. I had a friend who bought this for his collection and never actually opened it beyond the first five pages. That's a waste of the material inside. Another issue: the book doesn't include every piece of Innistrad art. There were promotional cards, contest winners, and alpha printing exclusives that aren't represented here. If you're trying to use it as a comprehensive art reference, you'll hit gaps. The Innistrad block had approximately 165 cards across all four sets, and this book covers maybe 60 to 70 of them in full-page reproductions. The rest get smaller thumbnails or are omitted entirely. I also want to mention a practical problem with the binding. The book is perfect-bound, not saddle-stitched, which means it doesn't lay flat. When I was referencing the art for a presentation I gave at a local store, I had to prop it open with heavy objects on either side. This isn't a dealbreaker, but it is something to consider if you plan to use it frequently as a working reference rather than a display piece. If you're serious about this, consider getting a replacement binding done at a local bookbinder. It'll cost around $40 to $60 and will double the usable lifespan of the book.

What You Should Know Before Buying

This book is not a strategy guide. It won't teach you how to build decks or play the format. It's purely an art reference with designer commentary. If you're looking for mechanical analysis, you need a different source. The target audience is basically two groups: people who collect MTG art books and people who work in visual media and need reference for gothic horror aesthetics. The art quality is consistently high across all the pieces. Stephen Danielson, Daarken, and Zoltan Boros all have strong representation. The color palette of the entire plane — dominated by deep blues, blacks, and muted golds — is actually quite useful if you're doing anything creative that involves a similar mood. I would also note that the 2012 printing has some ink variation issues on the later pages. Pages 120 through 160 tend to be lighter than the earlier pages, likely due to a different batch of paper or a press calibration drift. If you notice this when you receive your copy, it's normal for this printing. Later printings seem to have fixed it.

If you already own the Art of Magic: The Gathering - Zendikar book, the format and approach are nearly identical. This isn't a problem, but it does mean you're getting the same experience twice if you buy both. The Innistrad book is arguably more visually cohesive because the plane's art direction was more tightly controlled than Zendikar's, which had a broader range of biomes and moods to cover. For what it is, the book does its job well. It's not groundbreaking in format, but the commentary from Rosewater and the quality of the selected artwork make it worth having if you're a fan of the plane. The price on the secondary market fluctuates, so don't feel pressured to buy at retail if you can find it cheaper elsewhere. Just be careful about the condition — the covers are prone to corner wear, and the pages yellow slightly over time, especially if stored in direct sunlight.