Artist: Andreas Rocha

Concluding artist month, today I look at Andreas Rocha.

Andreas Rocha is one of the more recent Magic artists. He started illustrating Magic cards in 2013 (for the Magic 2014 set). He is still active. You can see his portfolio on his official site.

Rocha does a lot of lands. His first work (for M14) was one of each basic land. About 90% of his 112 unique prints (see links below) are lands.

Rocha's work has echoes of luminism—he often uses light in a way that gives a sense of a coming hope. Even his Swamp and Forest (both pictured below) can depict gruesome scenes in a way that hints at better things to come.

I use Scryfall for searching for Rocha's illustrations. The following syntaxes in scryfall

artist:"Andreas Rocha" not:digital not:artseries

artist:"Andreas Rocha" not:digital not:artseries unique:prints

yield the following results, respectively:
34 cards

112 cards

So he has illustrated 34 Magic cards that have appeared 112 times (some show up in multiple sets or special releases). Here are some of my favorites (Plains, above, is number one):

Artist: Daniel Gelon

Continuing artist month, today I look at Daniel Gelon.

Daniel Gelon was one of the original Magic artists. He started illustrating Magic cards in 1993 (he had nine cards in the Alpha, the very first set). His work appeared in many early core sets (Beta, Unlimited, Revised, Fourth through Sixth Edition) and expansions (Legends, The Dark, Fallen Empires, Ice Age, Chronicles, Homelands, and a few more). He was active through 2006 (Time Spiral), with only reprints since in subsequent releases. 

I don't know how to describe Gelon's style, but I like what I consider to be his nineties-era approach to fantasy art: creatures are done in a way that convey power without being scary (you know you're looking at the fantastic). Some even are light-hearted and amusing (like the Gobling Chirurgeon or Snowman, below).

Ultimately, what I like about his work is the nostalgia. I remember being awed by big creatures (Craw or Scaled Wurm) and enjoying the aforementioned light-hearted cards.

Today, you can still get many of his cards for reasonable prices. But not Wheel of Fortune . . . that will set you back $300 or more.

I use Scryfall for searching for Gelon's illustrations. The following syntaxes in scryfall

artist:"Daniel Gelon" not:digital not:artseries

artist:"Daniel Gelon" not:digital not:artseries unique:prints

yield the following results, respectively:
65 cards

232 cards

So he has illustrated 65 Magic cards that have appeared 232 times (some show up in multiple sets or special releases). Here are some of my favorites (Scaled Wurm, above, is number one):

Artist: Quinton Hoover

Continuing artist month, today I look at Quinton Hoover.

Quinton Hoover was one of the original Magic artists. He started illustrating Magic cards in 1993 (he had eight cards in the Alpha, the very first set). His work appeared in many early core sets (Beta, Unlimited, Revised, Fourth through Sixth Edition) and expansions (Legends, Antiquities, Fallen Empires, Ice Age, Chronicles, Alliances, Tempest, and a few more). He was active through 2008 

(Lorwyn/Morningtide), with only reprints since in subsequent releases. 

Hoover's style is defined as Art Nouveau or Art Deco. I don't know enough about art to articulate more, but I enjoy his work; it has a soft quality appropriate to the fantasy genre.

I use Scryfall for searching for Hoover's illustrations. The following syntaxes in scryfall

artist:"Quinton Hoover" not:digital not:artseries

artist:"Quinton Hoover" not:digital not:artseries unique:prints

yield the following results, respectively:
78 cards

262 cards

So he has illustrated 78 Magic cards that have appeared 262 times (some show up in multiple sets or special releases). Here are some of my favorites (Archangel, above, is number one):

Artist: Melissa Benson

In December 2022, I introduced an artist series where I look at favorite or prolific Magic card artists.

- 2022: I looked at Jesper Myrfors, Christopher Rush, Anson Maddocks, and Kev Walker

- 2023: Seb McKinnon, Rebecca Guay, DiTerlizzi, and John Avon

- 2024: Terese Nielsen, Greg & Tim Hildebrandt, Nils Hamm, and Carl Critchlow

Today, I look at Melissa Benson.

Melissa Benson started illustrating Magic cards in 1993 (she had seven cards in the Alpha, the very first set). Her work appeared in many early core sets (Beta, Unlimited, Revised, Fourth through Sixth Edition) and expansions (Legends, Fallen Empires, Ice Age, Chronicles, Homelands, Portal, Starter 1999, Urza's Saga block). She had the most cards in Legends (14). She was active through 1999, with only reprints since in subsequent releases. 

Her style often includes bold colors with a soft quality, evoking a sense of the surreal and fantastic. Her one card, Segovian Leviathan, is one of the few with a Bible verse on it (I don't know if she had a hand in that choice).

I use Scryfall for searching for Benson's illustrations. The following syntaxes in scryfall

artist:"Melissa A. Benson" not:digital not:artseries

artist:"Melissa A. Benson" not:digital not:artseries unique:prints

yield the following results, respectively:
63 cards

205 cards

So she has illustrated 63 Magic cards that have appeared 205 times (some show up in multiple sets or special releases). Here are some of my favorites (Kjeldoran Dead, above, is number one):

How Many Cards (2025?)

The Grand Calculatron

How many Magic cards have been made? I looked at that question and the difficulty it creates in this post from 2020. Today, I simply update the numbers. This post will focus on how many unique cards have been made.

As with last year, Scryfall will be our guide. Any commands shown below were typed into the main Scryfall search bar. And all results are accurate only as of this writing—27 November 2025—as the numbers are always changing.

The first query: how many unique Magic cards have been made? Using Scryfall's syntax, we search as follows, and get the result (presented immediately after and copied from Scryfall's explanation):

• not:reprint  
• 31,658 cards where the cards aren’t reprints

Cool. But this includes funny cards . . . let's drop those:

• not:reprint not:funny  
• 31,056 cards where the cards aren’t reprints and the cards aren’t funny

Now let's remove those digital-only cards:

• not:reprint not:funny not:digital  
• 30,223 cards where the cards aren’t reprints and the cards aren’t funny and the cards aren’t digital prints

Great. Now let's look at how many unique cards have appeared in core sets:

• not:reprint st:core  
• 1,825 cards where the cards aren’t reprints and the set type is core

And now expansions:

• not:reprint st:expansion  
• 23,337 cards where the cards aren’t reprints and the set type is expansion

All that remains are cards that weren't in core sets or expansions:

• not:reprint -st:core -st:expansion  
• 6,752 cards where the cards aren’t reprints and the set type is not core and the set type is not expansion

Oops, that includes funny and digital cards. Adjusting:

• not:reprint -st:core -st:expansion not:funny not:digital  
• 5,501 cards where the cards aren’t reprints and the set type is not core and the set type is not expansion and the cards aren’t funny and the cards aren’t digital prints

Alright, I think that's it for today. So in summary, as of today,

• 30,223 unique Magic cards have been released in core sets, expansions, or other special releases that are not funny and not digital only [+1,954 from last year]. The breakdown:
• 1,825 unique Magic cards in core sets [+1 from last year, oddly]
• 23,337 unique Magic cards in expansions [+1,546 from last year]
• 5,501 unique Magic cards in special releases [+428 from last year]

The numbers are always changing; here's a screenshot on how the numbers have changed over the past few months. Note that the "-is:" or "-st:" syntax is interchangable with "not:" in some cases:

That's a lot of Magic cards. And, since I started this in 2020, the overall number has increased by over 10K—an increase of 50%. Magic has been around for 32 years . . . in the last six, they have gone from 21K to 31K unique cards. It's getting to be a lot.

Skinned Cards

Not all Magic cards are new; many are reprints. Five years ago, I did a series of posts on this topic. I do an annual post on "how many cards" are in the game (see 2024's post), and I discuss reprints there. I also looked at functional reprints and tweaked reprints. Today I cover another category: skinned cards.

Skinned cards are Magic cards 'traditional' reprints with an alternate name overlay. That alternate name:

- has no bearing on game play (the original name, shown under it, is the official one for rules purposes)

- has a non-Magic IP theme (like Universes Beyond sets)

Skinned cards began in 2020 and have appeared in various releases since. They can be a common feature of Secret Lair Drops. Here are two examples of skinned cards alongside their original cards. The first, Three Visits, was reskinned as a Monty Python card in a Secret Lair Drop. The second, Falkenrath Forebear, was reskinned as a Dracula card in the Crimson Vow set. 

The official rules talks more about these alternate art cards:

201.6. Promotional or alternate-art versions of some cards feature a secondary title bar below the name line. The card’s name as listed in the Oracle card reference is displayed in the secondary title bar, and an alternate name appears in the upper left corner. For the purposes of deck construction, game rules, and effects, these cards have only the card name specified in the secondary title bar. Rules text may also refer to a card’s alternate name; instances of the alternate name that are present in rules text refer to the name specified in the secondary title bar. The alternate name has no effect on game play. 

MTGWiki has more information if interested.

Skinned cards are a fun, if confusing, addition to the game. 

Until next time, keep exploring.