| 170. Hunting Grounds This card's art is a good example of how to do a more cartoony style in Dominion and get away with it. (Sorry Maura) Sure, the foremost archer looks a little goofy, but he's also very well-detailed and there's enough going on in the scene to make Hunting Grounds connect to other cards in the game. The quadrupeds are lovely, and the archer in the background is classy as tea at the palace. Why doesn't it rank higher? Because I'm dumb and refuse to shift things around even though nobody's seen the list yet.
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| 169. Witch I always thought the art on Witch did a good job conveying the other-worldliness of the Witch's power, but I guess some might see it as poor brushwork or something. The dark forest in the background is a nice touch. Looking at everything in hindsight, a lot of the early cards have worse art than later ones, but Witch looks pretty good. Her face (especially the weird double chin) is a bit lousy-looking, though.
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| 168. Market The style on this one isn't my favorite. I don't like how the buildings in the back have no separation from the ground, and he washed-out, dull coloring of the people isn't going to excite anyone. I will give this card points for having details, though. There's a good variety of people standing around, a donkey I never noticed until now, and the art really does convey the image of a market with only a very small snapshot of one.
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| 167. Cellar
I love these pictures that have a darker, moody look to them. Well, most of the time. You get that feeling of an underground room right up the bones here, though the shape of the room feels oddly like a subway or sewer. It's not the best, but something had to be #167. I thought really hard about that placing, let me tell you.
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| 166. Dame Sylvia
I'm convinced her armor is just plain drawn incorrectly. Or it doesn't fit her. Or she's pregnant. It kills me, because I think the rest of the picture is pretty great, especially the horse's armor. Look, Sylvia: rule #1 of the fashion show is to find things that fit you for your close-up. Everyone has to be judged by the same standard here.
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| 165. Chapel
Q: THE PERSPECTIVE IS ALL WRONG; WHY IS THIS SO HIGH ON THE LIST? WHAT KIND OF ART CRITIC ARE YOU? A:
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| 164. Urchin You take just one look at that picture and you know it's gonna be one of those games. A crook like him should not be tucking in his pants so gracefully. That wall is beautiful, though, I must say.
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| 163. Mandarin
I actually really love these styles of paintings and have wished I could visit China and Japan and see more of them in person. (sorry, I forgot the art genre they fall under. I didn't actually study it back in my mail-order art school program) It's a cool, funny picture of the far east bureaucrat with way too much stuff to lug around. Not the best it could be, but it's something exotic to the rest of the cards in the game that doesn't clash with everything else.
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| 162. Tribute While the color scheme here is a little crazy, I think it works nicely. Tribute has an eerie evening look to it that sets it apart from the pack. My only real complaint is that it's very difficult to see what's going on unless you look at it very closely.
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| 161. Nomad Camp It's got a pretty cool desert backdrop, which is the main reason it's ranking this highly. I also love doggies. <3 The art is otherwise a little plain, but fitting for the Hinterlands expansion. I do wonder if those clouds are being sucked in to some kind of dimensional vortex.
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| 160. Young Witch Come on, YW, you could look at least a little bit happy to be here. You have all kinds of fans waiting in the audience, but you're just folding your arms and looking too cool for the crowd. Smile a little! Show 'em you care! Well, too bad. The gothic look is easy on the eyes, and there's a nice foggy swamp backdrop behind her, but it's not that great-looking on a tiny card.
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| 159. Sir Destry
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