Many years ago, a great man began a project that would revolutionize our view and understanding of Dominion. He spent countless hours writing about various cards, putting himself out there and hoping only for the respect and toleration of his peers. That man's name was theory, and without him, Dominion Strategy may well never have existed. Let's give him a hand. Not a literal one, though. Ew.
But enough about that guy. Last summer, I began
a thread that sought to rank all of the Dominion cards by the quality of their art. Everything started off well enough, but little known fact: by that time, I had already joined the playtester group for Dominion: Adventures. Why did I start a ranking thread, knowing full well that there would one day be more cards to rank? What kind of lunatic would make life harder on himself like that? Apparently this guy. Anyway, eventually the weight of the project got to be too much. Aside from turbulent scenarios on my own life making it harder to care about ranking art, the futility of the whole thing got to be too much once the expansion started nearing release. But then I got to thinking: I could make the project less of an ordeal for myself by simply posting one card a day, sticking to one expansion at a time, and not adhering to a stupid gimmick in my write-ups every post. Sure, it could take a mammoth amount of days, but it would also be easier for everyone, most importantly myself.
At the end of each expansion, a ranking of the overall art cohesion and my perceived quality will appear. I will be keeping numerical scores of each picture private, but will show the 'average' number in those posts. The Promos and Base Cards will have their own separate expansion, and box art/mat art/etc will be evaluated with the expansion they belong in.
As an aside, a common complaint in the last ranking thread was that I was judging the quality of art by how it appeared on the card and not in high-res pictures seen online. In order to continue being a troll to these types of nitpickers I am going to continue judging the art by how it appears on the cards. That is the medium the art is intended to be seen in, and as such it will be in my mind.
As a final note, I want to get this out there to any Dominion artists who happen upon the thread. As an artist, I'm sure you understand the concept of subjectivity and hope you won't take offense if I happen to place a picture you drew lower on the list. This stuff is your work that you put sweat and tears into and I have no intention of putting you down for it. I've been there. Besides, even some art I dislike is loved by others. Also, I am in no way a professional art critic and actually have no clue what I'm talking about! Teehee!
As a true final note because I'm a liar, these rankings are not going to match up with the previous list. Times change, people change, art changes. Even war has changed.