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[jamfamsam]

Check back for actual art postings early next week.

This post is for explaining the method and other details of the art rankings. If you aren't interested in that, skip this post.

Now that I have a copy of Empires, we will post our art rankings of all the art printed on cards with the exception of the original Estate, Duchy, Province, Copper, Silver, Gold, Potion, Platinum, Colony, and Curse. They are more symbols than actual art. Ranking the Estate card, for example, would be identical to the other Victory cards. I have included all these cards with the new art from the Base Cards set. We will not be ranking box art or art from mats, rule books, or anything that isn't printed on a card. We also did our rankings based on the view of the art as printed on the actual cards not the high-res scans. As I make the art postings though, we will be pulling the high-res art from the Wiki. My thanks to Wero and anyone else who has done the work to make that available.

I have 379 cards with unique artwork. If I've missed something, it won't be hard for me to slide it in. I have included Randomizer art that is different from the stack (Knights and Castles for example) as well as each unique piece of art in a stack. I included the Randomizer separately for the Split Piles as well as each card from the Split Piles. All Events and Landmarks are included as well as Promos. I included the 2 different Trash cards separately as well.

Four of us have done the ranking: me and my 3 teen-age daughters ranging in age from 13 to 17. Only one of the three has played more than a couple of rounds of Dominion ever and even the one that has is not a serious Dominion player (we can discuss such awful parenting failures in another thread). I am a serious player but I am not very good. I have been near or at the bottom of the D league since I started playing. There will be almost no bias toward any card's art because of the way it plays. My daughters wouldn't know one card from the other. The only potential for that bias would be from me but, if there is any, it will be limited by the method.

I stacked the cards alphabetically and each individual went through and gave each card a rating between 1 and 7 (some of us used decimals and some didn't). Each person did this alone and could not see anyone else's ratings. I gave each person a chance to go back and look again and change their ratings after a 2nd pass, but only I did that. I then averaged the four ratings and sorted the cards by the average. I arbitrarily chose to break the cards into 26 groups, one for each letter of the English alphabet. This puts approximately 15 cards in each group. Any cards that had the same average were put into the same group. The groups, as a result, are of slightly different sizes.

We then sat down together and took each group and ordered the cards from worst to best by committee. No card was able to move out of its group. This helped to mitigate any bullying bias a member of the group had toward their particular ranking. If the average put the card in that group, it stayed in that group and we worked through a consensus of the ranking within that group.

All the credit for the idea of doing art rankings goes to jsh. I will at times quote his postings here (with permission) because I read all of his postings and they had a significant influence on how I view some of the cards, not to mention a lot of his stuff is very funny. This no way implies an endorsement from jsh to our art rankings.

I guarantee that anyone who reads our art rankings will at one time or another be disappointed, outraged, frustrated, and/or appalled at our rankings. We have done this for entertainment for ourselves. I apologize to any of the artists who may be offended at any of the comments. I have a lot of respect for artists. I don't have an artistic bone in my body and am not qualified to criticize anyone's art. In high school I had to take a semester of art so I could graduate. I took the beginning class and did my best. I attended every class and did every assignment. About half way through the teacher took pity on me. I was failing miserably. She offered to give me a B if I would do her grade book for her. I jumped at the opportunity and therefore got a B in the class.

To anyone posting comments on this thread, I would ask you to keep your language appropriate for a 13 year old to read. My daughters will certainly be interested in reading the posts.

Edit: It would appear that my daughters share my bias against the more cartoon style of art.

[Roadrunner7671]

I cannot think of one time, in or out of RSP, that language has not been appropriate for a 13 year old. I'd like to think (as a 13 year old myself) my opinion holds a bit of weight, but that's probably a discussion for another thread as well.

[jamfamsam]

I've seen a few F bombs that I would have preferred not to see.

[werothegreat]

I've seen a few F bombs that I would have preferred not to see.

Fudgesicle?

[markusin]

I've seen a few F bombs that I would have preferred not to see.

Fudgesicle?

Fusion?

[Kirian]

I've seen a few F bombs that I would have preferred not to see.

Well, if we go by movie rating logic, we can have one F bomb in the thread and it'll still be PG-13.

That said, she's 13, she almost certainly hears and/or uses "inappropriate" language every day at school.  I certainly did.  At home, too, for that matter.

[singletee]

I've seen a few F bombs that I would have preferred not to see.

Fudgesicle?

Fusion?

Fscout.

[SuperHans]

I've seen a few F bombs that I would have preferred not to see.

Well, if we go by movie rating logic, we can have one F bomb in the thread and it'll still be PG-13.

That said, she's 13, she almost certainly hears and/or uses "inappropriate" language every day at school.  I certainly did.  At home, too, for that matter.

Not to mention reading "F bomb" is essentially the same thing as reading the actual word. You acknowledge the actual word and probably say it in your head as well.

And by the actual word I of course mean falafel.

[Awaclus]

I cannot think of one time, in or out of RSP, that language has not been appropriate for a 13 year old. I'd like to think (as a 13 year old myself) my opinion holds a bit of weight, but that's probably a discussion for another thread as well.

In my experience of having been 13 somewhat recently (only 7 years ago!), I agree with this.

[Burning Skull]

My thanks to Wero and anyone else who has done the work to make that available.

excuse me, what?

[jamfamsam]

OK. Here we go. Group Z contains 15 cards.

#379 - Harem



A lot has already been said about this art in the previous 2 postings from jsh's art rankings.

We had a discussion about the gender of the figure in red in the middle without coming to a conclusion. We wondered what the white lady with the crazy eyes is doing in the picture at all. It looks like a couple of the women have just come from the dentist and their cheeks are all swollen.

Whenever the Harem head shows up in Making Fun's creepy crystal ball, it freaks me out a little bit.

Aside from the dislike of the cartoonish art in general, I think one of the main problems with this card is the expectation created by the title which is unmet in spades. If a guy were going to have a harem, you'd think there would be some level of attractiveness to the women in it. Everything is just wrong with this card.

[jamfamsam]

#378 - Masterpiece



"Where's the Masterpiece?" asked one daughter. Another wondered if that might be Lumiere from Beauty and the Beast. If you look close, it could be a little face there on the candlestick.

I think here again we have an expectation problem. When I think of masterpieces, I would think of a painting or a sculpture or perhaps even a vase. Candlestick? Really? It's not even symmetrical. Then you have that weird curvy thing going on with the window next to it. I've seen curves like that at the top of windows but never at the bottom.

[jamfamsam]

#377 - Shanty Town



There was a rather heated discussion about whether this was the worst card or Harem. I won out on the argument about what Harem is supposed to represent versus what is actually there. I mean, what do you really expect from a Shanty Town? Certainly not a deformed version of Mr. Potato Head or a Play-do figure gone wrong.

I'm not exactly sure how Masterpiece squeezed between this and Harem after the argument, but there it is.

[jamfamsam]

#376 - Candlestick Maker



There's something wrong with the perspective here. The eyebrows are weird. He's polishing his candlesticks with a wig? He is working hard at it though with that muscle going in his neck.

[jamfamsam]

#375 - Chancellor



Two words: Butt Chin.

One of my daughters thought he looks awfully constipated.

I think plenty has been previously posted about this card art.

[jamfamsam]

#374 - Pearl Diver



He's got some nice Botox going on with the lips. He's got the bubbles behind him as if he is propelling forward but the hair going all different directions as if he is not moving at all. If he's a Pearl Diver, why is he diving for Pan's flute?

[SuperHans]

#378 - Masterpiece

"Where's the Masterpiece?" asked one daughter. Another wondered if that might be Lumiere from Beauty and the Beast. If you look close, it could be a little face there on the candlestick.

I think here again we have an expectation problem. When I think of masterpieces, I would think of a painting or a sculpture or perhaps even a vase. Candlestick? Really? It's not even symmetrical. Then you have that weird curvy thing going on with the window next to it. I've seen curves like that at the top of windows but never at the bottom.

I always interpreted this as the Candlestick Maker's Masterpiece. You'll note that both cards have the same artist and are from the same set.

Surprised to see this as the second worst card. I actually sort of like the art. Even a candlestick can be a masterpiece to some.

[jamfamsam]

An excellent point. My daughters are not Dominion players and have no idea about any such link between cards.

Edit: You see, though, that the Candlestick Maker didn't fare much better than his Masterpiece. Perhaps he is really the man from the 'There was a crooked man..' bit rather than from 'Rub-a-dub-dub, 3 men in a tub'.

[2.71828.....]

He's got the bubbles behind him as if he is propelling forward

Those bubbles though. Hadn't really thought about it that much. Is it just his toes spinning at a rapid rate? Does he have miniature propellers attached to them? All good questions

[enfynet]

I assumed the bubbles were created when he dove into the water, and his hair is the result of him lifting his head and slowing as he reaches for the pearl?

[jamfamsam]

#373 - Scout



Not only is Scout a poor card (roadrunner interjects here), we think it has poor art as well.

No neck, withered hand, freaky shaped boot.

[Seprix]

I think Scout's art is better than most people think. I don't know if it's trash tier. I think Junk Dealer belongs in the trash tier. That 3D modeled picture is just awful. I'm expecting Borrow's art shortly.

[jamfamsam]

#372 - Teacher



The bulbous head, withered ear, and Top-Ramen beard just aren't working for us here. The weird forefinger (maybe he stole Scout's hand) is strange too.

[brokoli]

The thing with cartoon art is not that it's cartoon art, but that it's very bad cartoon art.

[jamfamsam]

#371 - Fugitive



Up until now, I don't think there has been anything too controversial about the art postings. I think that is about to change.

My daughters all really disliked this piece of art. His hand is too small compared to his face. He's got the lazy eye thing going or perhaps he can look two different places at once. They think it looks like he is wearing an old-lady shawl.

Dissenting opinion: I hope I'll give equal voice to my daughter's dissenting opinions as well, but I am writing the posts after all. I actually think this image works for this card. Sure, it's not the greatest art ever. However, this guy is on the run, presumably after deserting from the army, and is probably sleeping in barns and hungry and cold most of the time. I think this art captures that at some decent level. No way I put this in the bottom group on my own.

[Beyond Awesome]

I love the video JSH made where he is cracking up at the Peasant line art.

[2.71828.....]

I see a theme going on here.  Tiny hands don't bode well for card art rankings.  Does remind me of some other people with tiny hands.

   

I wonder how these would stack up against Teacher and Fugitive.

[Seprix]

I love the video JSH made where he is cracking up at the Peasant line art.

Link?

[singletee]

I see a theme going on here.  Tiny hands don't bode well for card art rankings.  Does remind me of some other people with tiny hands.

[...]

http://onetinyhand.com/

[jsh357]

I love the video JSH made where he is cracking up at the Peasant line art.

Link?

Twitch didn't save it

[Seprix]

I love the video JSH made where he is cracking up at the Peasant line art.

Link?

Twitch didn't save it

Why don't people just have their Twitch streams go to YouTube afterwards? This is such an annoying problem that could be prevented.

[jsh357]

I love the video JSH made where he is cracking up at the Peasant line art.

Link?

Twitch didn't save it

Why don't people just have their Twitch streams go to YouTube afterwards? This is such an annoying problem that could be prevented.

The annoying thing is Twitch likes to change your settings periodically, or at least it has in the past. I had set it to archive all of my streams, then that functionality went away at some point and I ended up losing a lot of stuff. My youtube account was generating almost no views at that time so I didn't think it was worth saving anything there. Now, it seems like it's doing a bit better so I've been backing up my videos again. (it also helps that Twitch now lets you export directly; in the past I had to download my videos, edit them in Camtasia Studio, wait for that to render, and upload them to Youtube)

[Willvon]

#371 - Fugitive



Up until now, I don't think there has been anything too controversial about the art postings. I think that is about to change.

My daughters all really disliked this piece of art. His hand is too small compared to his face. He's got the lazy eye thing going or perhaps he can look two different places at once. They think it looks like he is wearing an old-lady shawl.

Dissenting opinion: I hope I'll give equal voice to my daughter's dissenting opinions as well, but I am writing the posts after all. I actually think this image works for this card. Sure, it's not the greatest art ever. However, this guy is on the run, presumably after deserting from the army, and is probably sleeping in barns and hungry and cold most of the time. I think this art captures that at some decent level. No way I put this in the bottom group on my own.

Though I agree that this picture captures the mood or theme of the card fairly well, particularly in the color scheme, those eyes definitely freak me out when I look at him. It's like he is staring at me and something to my right at the same time. Very disconcerting.  I don't know how soon he is going to appear, but I would definitely put Mandarin below this guy. Mandarin's misshapen head and unbalanced mustache are much weirder to me.

[SirSlugma]

Man, there's no way I'd call the Peasant art good, but there's something that I find really enjoyable about it.  Maybe it's the weird combination of a very powerful line of cards with very silly artwork?  I dunno, but it's better than any of the Kelli Stakenas pictures, or the bad Lynell Ingram art. (Or Navigator, which oddly hasn't shown up yet.)

[Willvon]

My thoughts on a few of these cards:

Harem: Just plain weird, even scary

Masterpiece: Though it may be connected to Candlestick Maker, when you take it on its own, which I believe is how they are being judged, then it definitely does not fit my idea of a masterpiece. And the stained glass artist was not having his best day when he made that window.

Chancellor: He has always struck me as looking like he just put the last Oreo in his mouth and is trying to pretend there is nothing in there.

Shanty Town: The moon is pretty good, but the guy in the door way appears to be Igor escaped from Dr. Frankenstein.  His head is wide at the top and quickly tapers into the pointiest chin in history. But that eye of his is very strange. After the guy in green, it's basically the first thing I see when I look at that card.

[Accatitippi]

I find the Peasant line's art terrible, in a cute way. Fugitive is clearly the worst there.
Where is the computer-generated art? Some of it should definitely be around here.

[Awaclus]

I think Teacher is actually pretty good. Shanty Town, too.

[werothegreat]

Honestly, I find Royal Carriage to be the worst of Kelli Stakenas' art - it looks like it was drawn in crayon. Her other stuff is fine.

[Awaclus]

Honestly, I find Royal Carriage to be the worst of Kelli Stakenas' art - it looks like it was drawn in crayon. Her other stuff is fine.

What's wrong with crayon?

[Seprix]

Honestly, I find Royal Carriage to be the worst of Kelli Stakenas' art - it looks like it was drawn in crayon. Her other stuff is fine.

What's wrong with crayon?

Everything.

[Awaclus]

Everything.

How is Drawception related to crayon?

[SuperHans]

Honestly, I find Royal Carriage to be the worst of Kelli Stakenas' art - it looks like it was drawn in crayon. Her other stuff is fine.

The legs on the horse in Royal Carriage always crack me up. Looks like it's rolling an ankle (hoof).

[Seprix]

[LostPhoenix]

I never thought that the art for teacher was bad at all, but really, the longer you stare at it, the weirder it looks.

[jamfamsam]

#370 - Peasant



Here's 3 in a row for the Peasant line. Not all 5 made group Z

The background is a bit psychedelic like maybe this guy is growing something other than wheat. He's got a red birthmark there on his face that apparently faded with time.

My daughters really didn't like this line of art. They didn't even know that it was a line of art until I told them while we were debating the ranking within group Z.

[Seprix]

I actually really like peasant's art. Maybe I'm a minority here, but I actually liked it.

[gkrieg13]

#370 - Peasant



Here's 3 in a row for the Peasant line. Not all 5 made group Z

The background is a bit psychedelic like maybe this guy is growing something other than wheat. He's got a red birthmark there on his face that apparently faded with time.

My daughters really didn't like this line of art. They didn't even know that it was a line of art until I told them while we were debating the ranking within group Z.

I really like peasant's art as well.  I have to disagree with this art ranking.

[jamfamsam]

#369 - Salt the Earth



Domo arigato Misters robotos.

I suppose you would need guards if you were going out to salt peoples' fields, but they are in awfully close proximity. It's nice that they got a set of twins to guard her.

What are they all staring at in the distance? If I were walking over a field, I would probably want to look down a little so I didn't fall flat on my face.

Is that a cyclone forming in the background?

[Seprix]

No, that's the smoke of her house razed to the ground because she can't pay taxes!

[Accatitippi]

#369 - Salt the Earth



Domo arigato Misters robotos.

I suppose you would need guards if you were going out to salt peoples' fields, but they are in awfully close proximity. It's nice that they got a set of twins to guard her.

What are they all staring at in the distance? If I were walking over a field, I would probably want to look down a little so I didn't fall flat on my face.

Is that a cyclone forming in the background?

I'm surprised by this. It's not among the best, but neither it belongs here among the worst. You must really hate cartoony art, because this is pretty much the best dominion has to offer. 

[jamfamsam]

#368 - Minion



This guy has kind of a nice Steven Tyler thing going. His goatee kind of blends in with the purple shirt which make it look a little funny.

The wall to the left doesn't seem to be square and I'm not sure I'd want to stand near it. The picture on the wall is not very flattering to whoever it is, presumably the ruler.

He arm has some type of ant infestation which is really gross.

Edit: When we play, the name of this card is always imitated after the way Floop says it in the movie Spy Kids.

[ignorentmen]

#368 - Minion


The picture on the wall is not very flattering to whoever it is, presumably the ruler.

   

i always thought the Minion picture guy was the Duke and as a result liked the Minion art more because of the cross over, but now that I compare them side by side I am not so sure anymore.

[jamfamsam]

#367 - Charm



This is another card that I think shouldn't have been this low. But my daughters collectively rated it poorly.

The first thing this makes me think of is the training droid Obi-Wan-Kenobi used in Star Wars Episode 4 to train Luke Skywalker with the lightsaber. It's the only thing I see. I didn't even notice there was a candle in it until I really looked hard.

My daughters thought the candles looked gross, that the perspective is wonky and there are no shadows.

[jamfamsam]

#366 - Militia



One guy with one glass eye and the other a black hole next to a guy with a nice mullet wasn't working for us. This is another card that when they guy with the foggy eye came up in Making Fun's crystal ball, it made me cringe.

[Willvon]

I agree with Minion, but certainly there are a lot of cards that are much worse than Salt The Earth. The girl's arms are strangely proportioned or positioned, but the rest of it is not too bad.  I think it is definitely in the lower third of the cards, but not this low.

[jamfamsam]

#365 - Fairgrounds



Another card that I didn't think belonged this low. My daughters all agreed on one point in particular. If this was the ad for the fair you were putting on, nobody would come.

Either the melancholy, wraith-like girl in the foreground couldn't get in or her boyfriend dumped her for Judy at the fair and it's her party and she'll cry if she wants to. What's she got in the basket? Parsley? Sage? Rosemary? Thyme? The people down at the fair seem to be running for cover.

Overall we felt that this image did not remotely capture what you would expect for Fairgrounds.

This is the final card for group Z. We will get to work on the next group.

[Seprix]

So it is established that art must not only reflect general aesthetic art quality, but also must attain the imagery that the judges envision when they think of a word. Hmmm.

[ignorentmen]

#365 - Fairgrounds


Overall we felt that this image did not remotely capture what you would expect for Fairgrounds.

This is a travesty!

The card art is perfect. Because it reflects the end of a fairgrounds. All the food has been eaten. The games have been played. The rides are coming down. It is the end of autumn and all that is left is the cruel, horrible winter ahead. Sadness, despair, grief. Until next spring.

Just like when you play a game of Dominion. Fairgrounds are fun because you want to buy lots of Action cards, + cards, + buy, gainers, trashers, + $, Attacks, Interactions. But once you actually get to the point of buying Fairgrounds all that you have left is the cruel greening slowly turning into the end of the game. Sadness, despair, grief. Until the next game starts.

This card should be on the flip side. If the highest score given was 379. I would give it around a 365.

[jamfamsam]

I didn't really give any guidelines for how they should rate the art. I agree that of all the card postings so far, this one is way off. The disadvantages of art ranking by committee, I suppose.

[jamfamsam]

So it is established that art must not only reflect general aesthetic art quality, but also must attain the imagery that the judges envision when they think of a word. Hmmm.

There is always some link. If I showed you the art for Fairgrounds and used it for a card named 'Siege', I think you would not rate it highly.

[Roadrunner7671]

I didn't really give any guidelines for how they should rate the art. I agree that of all the card postings so far, this one is way off. The disadvantages of art ranking by committee, I suppose.

That's why we have brackets!

[drsteelhammer]

Somebody stole jamsamfam's Navigator cards and hid them somewhere. Or put them on the first place to troll us.

[faust]

Where the hell is Borrow?

[jamfamsam]

Somebody stole jamsamfam's Navigator cards and hid them somewhere. Or put them on the first place to troll us.

Navigator and Borrow are in group Y

[trivialknot]

On the Z group...
The thing that most bothers me about Harem is the composition.  Imagine trying to reenact this in a photo--you stand right up next to the camera, and I'll stand partly behind you, looking at something behind your head.

Wikipedia tells me that "salt the earth" is an expression with no basis in fact.  So it's pretty hard to say how it should have been depicted.  Casually sprinkling the earth with salt from a bowl doesn't seem right though.

The thing that bothers me most about Minion is that the artist put a bright red curtain behind him for color contrast, but somehow lost confidence in it, and felt the need to also outline his frame as if he were glowing.

I disagree with the peasant line rankings.  I'm impressed with how, throughout his life, the guy always finds the right lighting to suit his mood.  I'm feeling kind of a blue right now, but the lights here are warm yellow.  It's like going to the fairgrounds and finding that the weather is just so dusty and gloomy.

[Seprix]

Wikipedia tells me that "salt the earth" is an expression with no basis in fact.  So it's pretty hard to say how it should have been depicted.  Casually sprinkling the earth with salt from a bowl doesn't seem right though.

I don't think I agree that there is no basis in fact for salting the earth. (I know, I'm such an expert right?) The Romans allegedly did that to Carthage after the Third Punic War. Maybe it was just symbolic language, but the Romans really destroyed Carthage pretty badly in that third war.

edit: Quoting from a wikipedia article:

Many Carthaginians died from starvation during the later part of the siege, while many others died in the final six days of fighting. When the war ended, the remaining 50,000 Carthaginians, a small part of the original pre-war population, were, as was the normal fate in antiquity of inhabitants of sacked cities, sold into slavery by the victors.[4] Carthage was systematically burned for 17 days; the city's walls and buildings were utterly destroyed. The remaining Carthaginian territories were annexed by Rome and reconstituted to become the Roman province of Africa.

That Roman forces then sowed the city with salt to ensure that nothing would grow there again is almost certainly a 19th-century invention.

Hey, you learn something new every day.

[trivialknot]

Wikipedia tells me that "salt the earth" is an expression with no basis in fact.  So it's pretty hard to say how it should have been depicted.  Casually sprinkling the earth with salt from a bowl doesn't seem right though.

I don't think I agree that there is no basis in fact for salting the earth. (I know, I'm such an expert right?) The Romans allegedly did that to Carthage after the Third Punic War. Maybe it was just symbolic language, but the Romans really destroyed Carthage pretty badly in that third war.

More precisely, Wikipedia said it was something of a symbolic practice, but they didn't actually use so much salt as to prevent land use.  Hey, maybe the symbolic practice involved a woman casually sprinkling salt all over her toga while two soldiers stand at her side.

[Willvon]

For some reason, I really like Fairgrounds.  Perhaps it's just the power of subliminal suggestion since I really love it when this card shows up in a kingdom.  JSH had it at 209 out of 241 in his original list for the same reason as you - it doesn't capture the joy and excitement of a fair. 

Throwing that aside, the art itself is actually pretty good, and I like the way it contrasts with the green of the victory card. It would personally be in my top 150 at least.  But if connection to the card's name is critical to this voting, then I agree it would have to lose points for that.

[Willvon]

Militia looks more like the deserters from the militia rather than the actual militia.  I am really not sure how effective the guy on the right is going to be with some weird sweater vest for protection.  And is he wearing a kilt?  At least the guy on the left has a helmet.

[SirSlugma]

Fairgrounds is really quite bleak looking for a card named Fairgrounds, but Jessica Cox's art is generally quite good and it's one of her better pictures, I think.

[ConMan]

Militia looks more like the deserters from the militia rather than the actual militia.  I am really not sure how effective the guy on the right is going to be with some weird sweater vest for protection.  And is he wearing a kilt?  At least the guy on the left has a helmet.

In my mind, the Militia guys share a spiritual bond with Sgt Fred Colon and Corporal Nobby Nobbs of the Watch.

[markusin]

Militia looks more like the deserters from the militia rather than the actual militia.  I am really not sure how effective the guy on the right is going to be with some weird sweater vest for protection.  And is he wearing a kilt?  At least the guy on the left has a helmet.

In my mind, the Militia guys share a spiritual bond with Sgt Fred Colon and Corporal Nobby Nobbs of the Watch.

I've mentioned this before, but the guy on the right in Militia reminds me of Riff Raff from Rocky Horror Picture Show.

[Accatitippi]

#367 - Charm
This is another card that I think shouldn't have been this low. But my daughters collectively rated it poorly.

The first thing this makes me think of is the training droid Obi-Wan-Kenobi used in Star Wars Episode 4 to train Luke Skywalker with the lightsaber. It's the only thing I see. I didn't even notice there was a candle in it until I really looked hard.

My daughters thought the candles looked gross, that the perspective is wonky and there are no shadows.

I wholeheartedly agree with your daughters here.

[jamfamsam]

#364 - Borrow



Here is the start of group Y, 15 cards.

We've got Rumplestilskin loaning some of his straw-spun gold to a guy who has had at least on major brain surgery. There's something shady about this whole transaction. Perhaps it should have gone with Loan Shark. The guy on the left has really large hands.

[jamfamsam]

#363 - Navigator



jsh had this to say "Is anyone surprised by this? If you are, man, I don't know what to tell you. Look at his massive arm. I'm not sure what Bruce Banner is doing out on the open seas, but hopefully the poor guy found some peace out there."

I don't know what we could add to that other than we were glad that Jerry Seinfeld loaned him the Puffy Shirt.

[jamfamsam]

#362 - Disciple



Disciple isn't far behind his younger and older selves. There is way too much brown in the picture. It maintains the jittery feel that I thought worked for Fugitive but doesn't work here.

I assume he has already lost most of his hair here and is wearing an ugly hat that matches his robe. Either that or that is his natural hair and he has an awful lot of body hair. The eyes of the whole line are creepy and this is no exception. I'm not sure how that twig neck holds up his head either.

[Willvon]

Both Borrow and Navigator could have easily been in group Z, but at least they are at the bottom of the next group.

Though there are plenty of cards I would put below Disciple (I can think of 3 just from the base set), I agree with much of your assessment.  The predominant brown theme is quite overwhelming. It must be quite boring to be a disciple of whatever group he has joined. I'm not sure why he is wearing a shower cap. I agree his eyes are creepy, like he is either in some kind of trance or just discovered something surprising.

[SuperHans]

Both Borrow and Navigator could have easily been in group Z, but at least they are at the bottom of the next group.

Though there are plenty of cards I would put below Disciple (I can think of 3 just from the base set), I agree with much of your assessment.  The predominant brown theme is quite overwhelming. It must be quite boring to be a disciple of whatever group he has joined. I'm not sure why he is wearing a shower cap. I agree his eyes are creepy, like he is either in some kind of trance or just discovered something surprising.

Navigator would be last if I made a list, just barely edging out Harem on account of that card being so hilariously bad that I actually like it more over time.

Overall, I don't have many complaints with the list other than Fairgrounds, which is close to top 5 for me. I fscouting love Jessi J's card art.

[Eran of Arcadia]

I had no idea the Navigator art was so unpopular. I have no issues with it, even if it's not amazing.

[jamfamsam]

#361 - Battlefiled



Here's more hate on the cartoon-style art. My apologies to DXV and RGG for mentioning the competition, but this art looks like it belongs on a Small World box.

Why are they fighting in the clouds? Yes, we know it's snow, but that wasn't what we thought on first look. One daughter thought the bird looks like a wolf with wings. I'm not sure trained wolves were part of the Roman attacks. Also, since they are doing battle in the snow, you assume that they camped in the snow as well. They are a little under-dressed.

[jamfamsam]

#360 - Pillage



I have mixed feelings about this one. I love that it's Village being pillaged. My daughters, not knowing about the Village art, wondered why they are attacking Hobbiton.

Now, I get that any of us can be captured in an unflattering moment. But this isn't a photograph. Don't draw the unflattering moment when his face is all contorted. Also, why include the stick and shadow covering his face? Is that his arm with the sword or some other mysterious individual?

[jamfamsam]

#359 - Scrying Pool



We've got Glenda, the good witch, looking in the Scrying Pool. She sees Village (once again, I love that). One daughter wondered if she weren't brewing a love potion. One wondered about the floating eyeballs.

The art doesn't really fit an attack card. Now, in defense of the artist on that point, I'm not sure they know what type of card it will be going in. AND, in this case, even if known, DXV said the attack was added later.

Dissenting opinion: One of my daughters really likes this art and didn't think it belonged down here.

[LostPhoenix]

Personally, I absolutely love the art for Scrying Pool, but I'm really not surprised that it's this low.

[Roadrunner7671]

When I was watching TV a few weeks ago, I was struck by a random though: what is jamfamsam? I couldn't figure it out and I was getting a little frustrated. I thought I had heard it on a commercial or something. But voila, jamfamsam has revealed himself and I can now be at peace.

[jamfamsam]

Huh?

[jamfamsam]

Just to clear up any confusion about who I am, I am wanderingwinder.

[jamfamsam]

#358 - Fortune



The sandals are either super tight or tattooed on his feet.

Risk your life, defeat your enemy, and your reward? A chest of sliced pickles.

[jamfamsam]

#357 - Amulet



The fiery background is weird. The two kissing dragons are cool. However, you couldn't actually wear this amulet without serious discomfort since the spiky dragon bodies turn and go around the back.

[jamfamsam]

#356 - Duke



This guy is so proud of his dukedom. He really shouldn't have had his upholsterer also be his tailor.

We think that might be the Loch Ness monster in the river there.

Whenever this card gets bought when we play, it is called Duke of Earl.

[jamfamsam]

#355 - Fool's Gold



The consensus was that this was just weird. It's a really hard concept. Perhaps we were looking for more of the classic iron pyrite type rock? Unmet expectations have their toll.

[jamfamsam]

#354 - Capital



Not sure Capital deserves being here. A bunch of money sitting out in the town square or perhaps in an open window?

I feel bad for the artists when they get assigned this type of card. What did you get? Chariot Race. I got Capital. You mean Capitol? No, like investment Capital.

[jamfamsam]

#353 - Bridge Troll



It's just too hard to tell what's going on here. When I enlarge the this art, I think it might be pretty cool but it's still too dark. Can't really see any detail on the troll at all.

[LibraryAdventurer]

I completely agree about Bridge Troll. On one hand, it's kindof a shame that the usual way to view all this artwork is in a much smaller form that it's original resolution. On the other hand, if the purpose of the artwork is to be put on Dominion cards, the artwork should be appropriate to view on Dominion cards. And by 'appropriate to view', I mean we can see what's happening in the picture and don't miss significant details. Bridge Troll is a good example of not being able to see the picture well when it's sized for the card, but there are several Dominion cards where it's hard to tell what's going on in the picture by looking at the card.

[trivialknot]

My least favorite Dominion art are actually the ones that are too dark.  Bridge Troll is the worst.  Also don't like Catacombs or Laboratory.  For the longest time I thought Laboratory was a picture of a door with a window until I realized that it was actually an arch with a chandelier.

At least I can make fun of Harem, and that provides its own kind of special joy, but I just can't tell what's going on with Bridge Troll.  379/379.

[ThetaSigma12]

#353 - Bridge Troll
It's just too hard to tell what's going on here. When I enlarge the this art, I think it might be pretty cool but it's still too dark. Can't really see any detail on the troll at all.

http://www.kmistudio.com/blog/index.php/gallery/image_full/338/
It's actually pretty good at this resolution!

[Seprix]

It's too bad about Bridge Troll. I almost think that whoever inserted the image should have just zoomed in so that the troll is easier to see.

[jamfamsam]

#352 - Adventurer



The super-size pink cape is going to be awfully difficult to go adventuring in. The neon green trees fit nicely with the weird colored clouds.

One of my daughters really liked this art and thought it did a nice job of capturing the mystery of adventures.

[jamfamsam]

#351 - Plunder



Another image that is really too dark. Way too much brown here. I'm not sure I would have hauled that statue off into the woods. What caused the big crater back to the right?

[Seprix]

#351 - Plunder



Another image that is really too dark. Way too much brown here. I'm not sure I would have hauled that statue off into the woods. What caused the big crater back to the right?

That good sir, is part of the Roman protocol when it came to building camps, or castra. There would be a wall, and then a moat-like trench surrounding the wall. I don't know what happened to the wall, but there should be one, even if it's a crappy twig palisade wall, a la Age of Empires:



Edit: ...Except there's no moat on the other side. Okay, this is pretty sad then.

[jamfamsam]

#350 - Encampment/Plunder



Once again my thanks to wero for making these images available. Go to the wiki and edit something for him.

A bunch of brown triangles in a brown field. Too brown and too dark. It's fitting these two are next to each other. The question in my mind is, how did Encampment get located elsewhere? Where did the crater go?

This wraps up group Y.

[werothegreat]

The point of an encampment is that it's temporary/portable.

[ThetaSigma12]

I'm starting a spreadsheet where I'll find the average art ranking of each artist and then find the best artist from there. Once all the groups are finished I'll share the results.

[Willvon]

I don't have much disagreement with most of the choices in group Y, though I still feel there are others that are worse than some of these. The 2 that I think don't belong here are Scrying Pool and Capital.

I'm not a big fan of the cartoony art, but Scrying Pool is certainly one of the best of that style.  Much of it is very well drawn, and the Village connection is really cool. I agree about the eyeballs floating around. I have no idea what they are supposed to be.

Capital is actually pretty decent artwork, but rather boring. Of course, as you mentioned, there is not a lot you can do with the subject. Still, the art itself is much better than many other cards.

I can't believe how much better Bridge Troll is in high resolution. I could tell someone was crossing the bridge, but I had no idea it was a horse behind him. I was also wondering why the troll was just letting him pass without stopping him.  The picture shows the troll looking over his shoulder at the noise he hears.  Looks like there won't be peace for long.  What a shame the cards can't show this detail, because it is really quite an amazing picture.

[Eran of Arcadia]

I'm starting a spreadsheet where I'll find the average art ranking of each artist and then find the best artist from there. Once all the groups are finished I'll share the results.

Well we all know who will be in last place . . .

[jamfamsam]

#349 - Count



This is the beginning of group X, 13 cards.

I always assumed the guy on the left was the Count but when my daughters asked me, I wasn't so sure.

Chancellor Palpatine, post-electric shock from Mace Windu, makes an appearance. Either that or Norman Bates pulls out his deceased mother from the backroom. Those are some seriously big hands, particularly the finger.

These two talk while the world burns outside.

[jamfamsam]

#348 - Butcher



It almost looks like this guy has gills even though I know that's the wrinkled skin on the back of his neck. The tattoo around the eye complicates the picture as well as the earring. That's a nice rip in his pants or a nice human skin bag.

My girls thought it might be Voldemort chopping meat while waiting around for his plans to come to fruition but that is certainly not Voldemort's nose.

[jamfamsam]

#347 - Smithy



not much more to say than what jsh had to say "There are two men here, one holding an anvil while the other pounds it. The dwarven smith, with his misshapen face and enormous fingers, looks like something out of a fairy tale. Some say Dominion had no fantasy roots until Alchemy, but here it is. Those people had also never heard of Witch. Something about the details on the two men's skin has always rubbed me the wrong way in this art, but it's hard to describe as a layperson. Yes, the anvil holder seems muscular, but he also appears to be made of marble, ill fitting the darkness of the forge the two reside in. Today is the first day I noticed the smith is wearing a green hat. Go me. The anvil (or is it an axe head?) is drawn a bit crookedly, I think. Whatever the minor details are, at the end of the day this art doesn't please me particularly. I always feel like I'm losing fashion points by adding it to my deck. Let's get out of here before these two start looking at me funny."

I wouldn't be too thrilled holding the item there with the guy pounding closing his eyes as he strikes. Why does the guy on the left have chocolate streaming down his head?

[SirSlugma]

Man I know that dude on County is creepy but that's why it's so good. Top 10 art for me for sure. Sooooooo good.

[J Reggie]

I've always wondered which one is the Count, and who the other person is.

One time I was saying that Smithy was the most vanilla card in Dominion and one of my friends said that what those two guys are doing is definitely not vanilla.

[Seprix]

That Smithy is rockin' that BDSM costume.

[markusin]

#353 - Bridge Troll



It's just too hard to tell what's going on here. When I enlarge the this art, I think it might be pretty cool but it's still too dark. Can't really see any detail on the troll at all.

Bridge Troll might as well be a black-to-grey color gradient at the playing card sizw. That's basically what I imagine in my mind when I see it.

It's just too dark to make out anything.

[Deadlock39]

#353 - Bridge Troll
It's just too hard to tell what's going on here. When I enlarge the this art, I think it might be pretty cool but it's still too dark. Can't really see any detail on the troll at all.

http://www.kmistudio.com/blog/index.php/gallery/image_full/338/
It's actually pretty good at this resolution!

Wow, that is such a huge difference.  I'd say the problem isn't the resolution, but the crazy darkening of the art when it was transferred to the card.  Who knows what part of the process caused it, but I wanted to see how the card would look with that in it, so I dropped it into GIMP.  Here is the result:

[werothegreat]

See, I tried making the art less dark, but that kept making the orange border blue-ish... :/

[Deadlock39]

I've got the one I made out of the high-res card and the digital image from Kurt's blog if you want it, but I don't know if it is better to have the art look good, or accurately match the card.

He did Hunting Party too and has a similar image on his blog, so I could do that one also.

[werothegreat]

I've got the one I made out of the high-res card and the digital image from Kurt's blog if you want it, but I don't know if it is better to have the art look good, or accurately match the card.

He did Hunting Party too and has a similar image on his blog, so I could do that one also.

I think it's better to have the scan match the card; the full art gets put down in the trivia section, anyway (when I can find it; for Adventures/Empires, I've had to hunt around the internet for artist pages to find some of it, but definitely not all of it).

[jamfamsam]

#346 - Gladiator



This guy's secret to success is apparently eating a boat-load of beets. Maybe that's why they gave him the pickles for winning so he'd have some variety in his diet. It's really nice, pink skin though. Also, his arm seems to be too big to actually fit behind the shield.

[jamfamsam]

#345 - Mandarin



I've never been able to tell if we are looking at a straight-on view of his face or a profile. The weird shadow creatures from the Princess Frog are coming up on the right to grab him.

[jamfamsam]

#344 - Envoy



This guy looks totally befuddled. 'You wanted me to tell him what again?' My daughters say he looks like the messenger in one of the versions of Romeo and Juliet. That's a really nice hat he stole from Legend of Zelda.

[Willvon]

#349 - Count



This is the beginning of group X, 13 cards.

I always assumed the guy on the left was the Count but when my daughters asked me, I wasn't so sure.

Chancellor Palpatine, post-electric shock from Mace Windu, makes an appearance. Either that or Norman Bates pulls out his deceased mother from the backroom. Those are some seriously big hands, particularly the finger.

These two talk while the world burns outside.

I always thought that it was the good Count on one side and the bad Count on the other.  He is holding up his finger to say that you have to choose one.  That being said, I agree about your judgment on the artistic value of the card.

[Willvon]

I have to agree with all of your choices so far in Group X, other than I think there were a few in groups Y and Z that are better than these.

Butcher - This guy has always been really creepy to me.  I wouldn't want that man, or whatever it is, anywhere near my meat.  It looks like he escaped from a lunatic asylum where they did a lobotomy.  And who cuts up their meat with the feet of the animal hanging on a wall and the other end on a table?

Gladiator - Ditto

Smithy - JSH nailed that one quite well.  The guy holding the axehead must be crazy to hold that thing while the other guy pounds on it.  In fact, if he trying to hammer a wedge into the handle in the head of the axe, the wedge doesn't look like it is being put in straight, almost guaranteeing that the axe is going slip in some way.

Mandarin - I have never liked that one.  His face is very misshapen.  His mustache is very long on one side.  Why is he unrolling scrolls all over the ground?  What does that have to do with Mandarin?  Dictionary.com has several definitions, including:
1. (in the Chinese Empire) a member of any of the nine ranks of public officials, each distinguished by a particular kind of button worn on the cap;
6. an influential or powerful government official or bureaucrat;
7. a member of an elite or powerful group or class, as in intellectual or cultural milieus
The other 4 definitions don't apply at all, but this picture doesn't seem to fit any of the definitions.

Envoy - That has to be the most unflattering facial expression in Dominion.  This guy is the last person I would want representing me as an Envoy for my country or government.  And why is his letter or scroll wrapped around the handle of a baseball bat?

[jamfamsam]

#343 - Guide



I didn't mind the art so much, but she's supposed to be a guide not leading a special ops unit.

[jamfamsam]

#342 - Ritual



None of my daughters liked this art whereas I had it as middle of the road. They thought it was too video game-y with the glowing green rocks not only in the pit but also being carried by the people.

[jamfamsam]

#341 - Smugglers



Perhaps another low rating due to unmet expectations. It's hard to tell that there is any smuggling going on here. Just a couple of guys getting a drink. Nothing going on here. I didn't realize that was a boat coming up in the background until just now.

[wachsmuth]

I didn't even know there were two people on Count's art...

[ThetaSigma12]

I'm starting to disagree a lot with your rankings . The last few cards you ranked DEFIENETLY deserve to be way higher. Where is Junk Dealer? That art is miles worse than anything in group X. IMO you should judge more about the quality of the art itself.

[Seprix]

Ritual is fine, what's wrong with Ritual? They can't be all the best video game reenactment ever.

[Willvon]

I'm starting to disagree a lot with your rankings . The last few cards you ranked DEFIENETLY deserve to be way higher. Where is Junk Dealer? That art is miles worse than anything in group X. IMO you should judge more about the quality of the art itself.

Have you seen the hi-res version of Junk Dealer?  It is so much better than I thought from just looking at the card.
http://www.kmistudio.com/blog/index.php/gallery/image_full/337/

[Seprix]

I hate crappy 3D art.

[jamfamsam]

I'm starting to disagree a lot with your rankings . The last few cards you ranked DEFIENETLY deserve to be way higher. Where is Junk Dealer? That art is miles worse than anything in group X. IMO you should judge more about the quality of the art itself.

I would like to take this opportunity to post some notes about the process as I view it now that we are a few groups in.

The 'your' in the rankings is a plural you. I've found that if anyone one of the four of us really liked or disliked a piece of art comparative to the others, it would seriously skew the group it ended up in. That was somewhat by design. However, as we are going through the groups, I can't sometimes get coherent comments about why a piece of art was liked more or less than other pieces of art. It's possible as we ground through all these cards rating them one by one, that not all of the art got equal consideration or that view of one card might be affected by what other cards are near it alphabetically.

I see that the cards that are at the bottom of any particular group are usually the worst cards in that group and that as we approach the end of the group, we are getting some cards that seem to have been skewed by one or two unusual evaluations. There are some things, in retrospect, I could have done to mitigate the issue. However, it would have been time consuming. I currently am having a hard enough time getting my daughters together to comment and put in order 15 cards at a time. I don't think they would have been willing to spend more time on it for better rankings. Also, now that I have ranked some of the cards on my method, I feel I ought to see it through without changing the rules in the middle.

Disagreement is a natural result of this type of effort. I can tell you from what I have seen about where cards are falling in the groups, it's going to get worse before it gets better.

[werothegreat]

I'm starting to disagree a lot with your rankings . The last few cards you ranked DEFIENETLY deserve to be way higher. Where is Junk Dealer? That art is miles worse than anything in group X. IMO you should judge more about the quality of the art itself.

Have you seen the hi-res version of Junk Dealer?  It is so much better than I thought from just looking at the card.
http://www.kmistudio.com/blog/index.php/gallery/image_full/337/

Why the hell are they building a tesseract on the Rebuild art?

[jamfamsam]

#340 - Plan



It's weird that just his face is all washed out. The other people in the picture seem to have a normal level of detail. It looks like his hair is made of the same material as the tent.

[jamfamsam]

#339 - Develop



Why is this guy talking to a statue? I don't think I would build out in that wasteland. The shapes of the sand dunes are funky and make the picture look weird.

The shape of the tower is questionable at best but I won't go into any further detail.

[jamfamsam]

#338 - Salvager



My girls thought that it was Botox boy returning from Pearl Diver but with more of a potato face.

Dissenting opinion: I like this art. I rated it slightly above average. I like the underwater feel. I think it got a raw deal being this low.

[jamfamsam]

#337 - Farmers' Market



Perhaps the market is just opening since it isn't very busy. We have a pile of white rocks there and what is the red stuff in the corner? The way the landscape slants is weird.

Dissenting opinion: This is another card rated low by all three girls but that I thought was much better than group X. Besides the slant I like this art.

That is the end of group X.

[pacovf]

The shape of the tower is questionable at best but I won't go into any further detail.

EDIT: Man, just remembered that jamsamfam's daughters might read this. I deleted the link to a certain thread discussing this very thing.

[Willvon]

I'm starting to disagree a lot with your rankings . The last few cards you ranked DEFIENETLY deserve to be way higher. Where is Junk Dealer? That art is miles worse than anything in group X. IMO you should judge more about the quality of the art itself.

I would like to take this opportunity to post some notes about the process as I view it now that we are a few groups in.

The 'your' in the rankings is a plural you. I've found that if anyone one of the four of us really liked or disliked a piece of art comparative to the others, it would seriously skew the group it ended up in. That was somewhat by design. However, as we are going through the groups, I can't sometimes get coherent comments about why a piece of art was liked more or less than other pieces of art. It's possible as we ground through all these cards rating them one by one, that not all of the art got equal consideration or that view of one card might be affected by what other cards are near it alphabetically.

I see that the cards that are at the bottom of any particular group are usually the worst cards in that group and that as we approach the end of the group, we are getting some cards that seem to have been skewed by one or two unusual evaluations. There are some things, in retrospect, I could have done to mitigate the issue. However, it would have been time consuming. I currently am having a hard enough time getting my daughters together to comment and put in order 15 cards at a time. I don't think they would have been willing to spend more time on it for better rankings. Also, now that I have ranked some of the cards on my method, I feel I ought to see it through without changing the rules in the middle.

Disagreement is a natural result of this type of effort. I can tell you from what I have seen about where cards are falling in the groups, it's going to get worse before it gets better.

As I have mentioned in earlier posts, I personally do not agree with all of the card choices. The fact is though that as jamfamsam states: "Disagreement is a natural result of this type of effort." This thread was not presented as being the judgment of professional art critics. It is a man and 3 teenage daughters spending some time together making a list of which card's art they like and which they don't. To take over 350 images and put them in some kind of order of preference is quite a daunting task. Any of us who are no longer teenagers certainly realize that our tastes as adults differ from when we were teens. On top of that, the fact that people will pay thousands of dollars for artworks that many others wouldn't even want to hang in their bathrooms shows how greatly opinions on art can differ. These girls are taking time from other things that I am sure they would prefer to be doing. So if some of their decisions seem haphazard to us, I think it is perfectly understandable.

All of us have the right to our opinions, and if you read this forum at all, we have no problem expressing them. In this case, though, I don't believe these girls have the same vested interest in this game as most of us do. They are just doing this for fun.  I would imagine that for most of us, our own opinions of the art have been affected to some extent by our view of the functionality of the card from having played it many times.  For example, I know my view of the art of Fairgrounds is definitely influenced by my love for the card in the game.

We therefore should all feel free to express our opinions, but it should be done with civility, perhaps a sense of humor, but never attacking.  As mentioned above there is a long way to go and the likelihood of disagreement is going to become much greater.  If you really don't like the criteria by which they are judging these cards, then start your own thread and see how many people agree with your opinions. Otherwise, let's just be sure to keep it light and fun.  If we don't, this could quickly be derailed. I personally would like to see this go all the way to number 1. 

Thank you jamfamsam and your daughters for taking time to do this and providing an opportunity for interesting discussion.

[ConMan]

I'm starting to disagree a lot with your rankings . The last few cards you ranked DEFIENETLY deserve to be way higher. Where is Junk Dealer? That art is miles worse than anything in group X. IMO you should judge more about the quality of the art itself.

Have you seen the hi-res version of Junk Dealer?  It is so much better than I thought from just looking at the card.
http://www.kmistudio.com/blog/index.php/gallery/image_full/337/

Seprix has at least half of a point. In proper resolution/contrast he looks like a random vendor in a screenshot from a video game. I wouldn't say that makes me actively dislike the art, but it does stand out in a not-entirely-positive way.

[jamfamsam]

Thank you for your words, Willvon.

For the record, I have never felt attacked. The comment just presented me with an opportunity to reflect on the process.

[jamfamsam]

#336 - Alms



Here comes group W, sixteen cards.

The colors are vivid, but the lines are harsh and the faces weird.

[jamfamsam]

#335 - Cellar



This perspective gives the feel that we are looking at this through a crystal ball or something. There are doors going somewhere but no other cues that it's a cellar other than being a bit dark.

[jamfamsam]

#334 - Steward



This guy with the spilt-colored robe looks like the biggest spoiled brat of all time. We could never get past that.

How dare that servant present him with whatever is on that plate!!!

[Seprix]

I think Dr. Spoiled Brat is the Steward, overseeing the meat to make sure it is good enough for you. Otherwise, it gets... trashed.

[jamfamsam]

#332 - Festival



jsh said it all "Festival doesn't have a terrible picture, but it's not an inspiring one either. While the perspective work is better than on Council Room, somehow the elf looks too big in relation to what he's standing in front of. On the bright side, there's some nice variety in color here that keeps Festival out of the bottom four. Geez, that elf has quite the noggin. I'm not sure I'd be paying this con artist to get in to this particular festival. There's some kind of street fight going on inside, and a cop standing by to let it happen. Then again, maybe that's not so different from real life."

My girls thought it looked like Santa's village, elf and all.

[jamfamsam]

#331 - Embassy



The guy is looking up in the sky perhaps at an alien ship. What he doesn't realize is that the alien is standing next to him. The truth is out there.

[jamfamsam]

#331 - Gladiator/Fortune



I'm not exactly sure how this got separated from its two related pieces of art, but here it is in group W. Apparently we liked seeing the pink skin and chest of pickles all in the same picture. Maybe it's the advertisement for the local zoo in the background.

[ben_king]

#339 - Develop



Why is this guy talking to a statue? I don't think I would build out in that wasteland. The shapes of the sand dunes are funky and make the picture look weird.

The shape of the tower is questionable at best but I won't go into any further detail.

I'm pretty sure the guy on the left also has a transparent face.

[ThetaSigma12]

I'm wondering about a weighted ranking of the artists. Simply averaging out their art values will penalize artists for early failures. Matthias Carien's art has improved but his ranking will be much worse because his base game art was so bad. The weighted rank multiply each art ranking by 1 + 0.1 for each previous set with art of theirs. This way cards like Farmer's Market will be penalized more. I'm still trying to work out exactly what equation I will use.

On a side note, it would be cool to have a Qvist ranking for art.

[ThetaSigma12]

Fun Fact: Matthias Carien's average art ranking is 354.9, or 355.

[jamfamsam]

On a side note, it would be cool to have a Qvist ranking for art.

I intend to approach Qvist when I get nearer to the end about doing something like that. I think it would be fun.

[jamfamsam]

#330 - Nobles



The straw hair is nice. What's the eavesdropper even doing in the picture? He's an unnecessary distraction. The eavesdropper guy has a goofy look on his face.

[jamfamsam]

#329 - Farmland



The layout is weird with the curvy divisions in the rice patties. They're all going to be destroyed by the volcano anyway.

[jamfamsam]

#328 - Mountebank



This is another card that I thought was middle of the road. My daughters didn't like the faces but that's about all I could get out of them about this card.

[Co0kieL0rd]

Thank you for doing these rankings. While I don't care so much about the particular order the cards are in, I very much enjoy reading the commentary in this thread. Some of your art interpretations are hilarious

I'll just have to add something to Gladiator: The expression on his face keeps cracking me up. "Hey mum, look at me! I've become a Gladiator! Aren't you proud of me?"

I only strongly disagree with the low rank of Count. Yes, the old guy looks weird but the picture is pretty well drawn and the scene depicted makes you wonder about what mystery/history might be going on there. I also used to think Embassy looks really good until I took a close look just now.

The shape of the tower is questionable at best but I won't go into any further detail.

EDIT: Man, just remembered that jamsamfam's daughters might read this. I deleted the link to a certain thread discussing this very thing.

I don't know how old they are but I think it's safe to say they're going to find out soon enough.

[pacovf]

I don't know how old they are but I think it's safe to say they're going to find out soon enough.

jamfamsam asked very politely to keep the language appropriate for a 13 year old, and I assume he knows what's good for his daughters better than I do!

[Aleimon Thimble]

Oh, you conservative Americans. 

[jamfamsam]

#327 - Province



Only comment I got about this was 'bland'.

Dissenting opinion: I am upset that this card appears in group W. Two of the four of us rated this card 5 or better out of 7. The other 2 rated it 2 or worse bringing it way down. I think this is very nice art. It's got a good feel and does a nice job capturing a difficult concept to put into a small piece of art.

[jamfamsam]

#326 - Counting House



The toothless, now retired Captain Hook is leaving the counting house where he keeps his retirement.

[jamfamsam]

#325 - Rocks



The skin is weird on these guys and runs together on the guy moving the rock. This is another card I would not have had this low. I like the rocks.

[jamfamsam]

#324 - Giant



It almost looks like his dark head has been pasted onto his shiny body. The sun rays things they have going is weird as well. We liked the mountain goat.

[jamfamsam]

#323 - Merchant Ship



The ocean part looks like a net. Perhaps not enough emphasis on the ship itself. I had never even noticed the person standing there until one of my daughters pointed him/her out.

[jamfamsam]

#322 - Fountain



It's awfully dark and I had to look again to notice the fountain. Perhaps they should have named this Landmark 'Stray Cat'.

[jamfamsam]

#321 - Settlers/Bustling Village



This looks like the final scene from a play with a nice spotlight on the settlers as they approach their destination in the distance. Fade to black.

This is the end of the very mixed group W.

[Co0kieL0rd]

Settlers/Bustling Village's picture is beautiful. What the heck? How did it end up this low?

[jamfamsam]

Group W was a disaster.

[Seprix]

More like Group Whiff.

[SuperHans]

Settlers/Bustling Village's picture is beautiful. What the heck? How did it end up this low?

Jessi J isn't doing as well as she should. Fairgrounds and Settlers/Bustling Village  randomizer are fantastic. It doesn't seem like the kids are rating her very well.

[trivialknot]

From what I've seen so far, I disagree with a lot of these art rankings.  But I think the problem might not be in the rankings, but in my own perspective: I think most of the art is above average.

This view is perhaps colored by the fact that I really like Dominion.

[Co0kieL0rd]

This view is perhaps colored by the fact that I really like Dominion.

This surprises me. Most people on this forum dislike Dominion.

[Eran of Arcadia]

This view is perhaps colored by the fact that I really like Dominion.

This surprises me. Most people on this forum dislike Dominion.

This may be the only game forum I've ever encountered whose average user will admit to liking the game.

[jamfamsam]

#320 - Soldier



Here we go with group V 14 cards.

We close out the Peasant line early. As with the entire line, the eyes are weird. My daughters didn't like the gray theme although I think I get what the artist is trying to do there. Everything is very square.

[jamfamsam]

#319 - Dame Molly



The apocalyptic sky is very strange. The proportions are very strange including the sword that gets bigger at the point. She seems to be running away from the battle.

[jamfamsam]

#318 - Embargo



Apparently they are putting an embargo on blueberries.

jsh already said about anything else we might say "Ghost Ship isn't the only card in Seaside with an undead theme. Look at that rotten haze over the sea and tell me this embargo wasn't keeping people out for their own safety. The world of Dominion is a terrifying one sometimes."

[ThetaSigma12]

#318 - Embargo



Apparently they are putting an embargo on blueberries.

jsh already said about anything else we might say "Ghost Ship isn't the only card in Seaside with an undead theme. Look at that rotten haze over the sea and tell me this embargo wasn't keeping people out for their own safety. The world of Dominion is a terrifying one sometimes."

Nooooo! I nead to change my avatar...

[jamfamsam]

#317 - Remodel



The light is a little funky and a pencil with no lead. Nothing to see here. Move along.

[jamfamsam]

#316 - Engineer



The shading in this picture is inconsistent and strange. Man Hands.

[jamfamsam]

#315 - Catapult



We can't tell if those are clouds above the green mountains or snow covered peaks on top of or behind the green mountains. If the latter, the transition is very stark. The catapult is nice.

[faust]

We can't tell if those are clouds above the green mountains or snow covered peaks on top of or behind the green mountains. If the latter, the transition is very stark.

Winter is coming.

[jamfamsam]

#314 - Dame Josephine



Her beauty mark is leaking. What's with the pool of blood? I thought Donald said no gore. Oh, it's a banner.

[jamfamsam]

#313 - Moneylender



Something is off with the shadows and that feather is way too white for the lighting. A face only a mother could love.

[jamfamsam]

#312 - Great Hall



I'm not sure Great Hall deserves to be this high on the list. It looks more like Haunted Great Hall, +1 Card, +1 Action, each other player with 5 or more cards in hand puts one on top of their deck. It's a lot of green and a little blurry.

[jamfamsam]

#311 - Black Market



Why the long face? My daughters said it is ghostly.

I really like the feel of this card. It captures the shadiness of the black market and the type of creepy people you would expect to find peddling their wares.

[Co0kieL0rd]

#311 - Black Market

I really like the feel of this card. It captures the shadiness of the black market and the type of tin people you would expect to find peddling their wares.

FTFY

[jamfamsam]

#311 - Black Market

I really like the feel of this card. It captures the shadiness of the black market and the type of tin people you would expect to find peddling their wares.

FTFY

I do feel some obligation to present my daughters' comments even if I don't agree with them.

[Co0kieL0rd]

#311 - Black Market

I really like the feel of this card. It captures the shadiness of the black market and the type of tin people you would expect to find peddling their wares.

FTFY

I do feel some obligation to present my daughters' comments even if I don't agree with them.

And that's just fine. Children have a lot of interesting things to say.

[ThetaSigma12]

I don't get how Ritual got rated so low because it looked like a video game, but Junk Dealer still hasn't turned up?

[jamfamsam]

It's still going to get worse before it gets better.

[jamfamsam]

#310 - Oracle



The leg of the tub makes it look like her leg is bent funny. That scarf is really long.

I actually like this art as well.

[jamfamsam]

#309 - Patrician/Emporium



What is everyone looking at? Those clouds are weird. We have either leaves falling out of nowhere or a bunch of deformed birds falling out of the sky.

[jamfamsam]

#308 - Merchant Guild



There is way too much red going on here. That's a nice xylophone he's wearing on his head, some kind of hazing ritual.

[jamfamsam]

#307 - Rabble



More weirdness with hand proportions here. Normally the mob would be going after the vampire woman in the back, but she has somehow found a way to mingle. The lady in the bottom left is apparently having a heart attack from all the excitement.

Edit: This was the end of group V.

[markusin]

#314 - Dame Josephine



Her beauty mark is leaking. What's with the pool of blood? I thought Donald said no gore. Oh, it's a banner.

Where did Donald say that?

Because, you know, Conquest.

[jamfamsam]

#314 - Dame Josephine



Her beauty mark is leaking. What's with the pool of blood? I thought Donald said no gore. Oh, it's a banner.

Where did Donald say that?

Because, you know, Conquest.

Reply #1989 in Interview with Donald X. "Treasures often say "no people" because some of the Prosperity ones showed people and I didn't like that as much. A few times I've pointed out things not to do like "no New World crops" or "no gore." Sometimes I've noted the frame color or that something is an attack; I stopped doing that eventually but probably should have kept it up. In rare cases there has been something special to communicate, like the Ruins being ruined versions of things, or the Hermit/Madman connection."

[Co0kieL0rd]

#309 - Patrician/Emporium



What is everyone looking at? Those clouds are weird. We have either leaves falling out of nowhere or a bunch of deformed birds falling out of the sky.

What the shackles? This is a really well drawn picture! The clouds look like clouds and the leaves look like leaves.

[jamfamsam]

As was stated previously in this thread, Dominion contains a lot of good art. I did a little averaging this morning and this is what I found.

Based on our scale of 1 to 7 (1 being worst), the average for group Z was 2.4. The average for group W was 3.3, nearly 1 point difference.

Average in group T was 3.7, group Q 3.9, and group N 4.1. So the difference between Z and W is greater than the difference between W and N. As we move into the large group of pretty good art, the slight change in a single vote could move a card several groups up or down. There is going to be a lot of head scratching in the next 200 cards or so. Teenage preference is going to weigh heavily into where any card ranks.

By the way, the average of all cards was 4.2 which is very close to the center of the 1 to 7 scale.

[jamfamsam]

#306 - Donate



This is the start of group U, 15 cards.

This looks more like he is putting in his ante at a gambling table. He could probably do with a little extra fiber in his diet. The hair dominates the picture.

[jamfamsam]

#305 - Tax



These soldiers have been busy. After they finished guarding the lady salting the earth, they are back around shaking people down for taxes. Everything seems squarish.

[Accatitippi]

#306 - Donate



This looks more like he is putting in his ante at a gambling table. He could probably do with a little extra fiber in his diet. The hair dominates the picture.

That's surely a she...?

[jamfamsam]

#304 - Possession



Can't figure out the gender of the main character in this picture but he/she has run into the closed sliding glass door a few times too many. Those are some creepy fingernails.

[jamfamsam]

#306 - Donate



This looks more like he is putting in his ante at a gambling table. He could probably do with a little extra fiber in his diet. The hair dominates the picture.

That's surely a she...?

I guess we called it like we saw it. On 2nd look, it could be either.

[2.71828.....]

#306 - Donate



This looks more like he is putting in his ante at a gambling table. He could probably do with a little extra fiber in his diet. The hair dominates the picture.

That's surely a she...?

That looks more like an 18th century wig than a she to me. But possible

[singletee]

#306 - Donate



This looks more like he is putting in his ante at a gambling table. He could probably do with a little extra fiber in his diet. The hair dominates the picture.

That's surely a she...?

That looks more like an 18th century wig than a she to me. But possible

I hadn't looked closely until now; I'd thought it was a turban.

[Seprix]

We could just say that's a woman and boost the diversity numbers. I think it's a woman anyways. Women could own property in the Roman times and sometimes did. Heck, even former slaves could own property; they just couldn't run for office. Their children could.

*edits edits everywhere! I'm trying to remove comma splices from all of my writing.

[jamfamsam]

#303 - Conspirator



Nice job with the feel of the art. The one guy has a serious beak for a nose and the hands are weird. One daughter thought these looked like the guy from the opening scene of Aladdin.

[jamfamsam]

#302 - Doctor



Doctor, doctor, give me the news....

I know you're sick, but let me autograph this ball for you.

This guy has the worst beard in all of Dominiondom. The scene is tilted funny and the doctor got all he wanted for Christmas, his two front teeth. Too bad those are his only teeth.

[jamfamsam]

#301 - Sea Hag



She looks like a cross between Fiona as an ogre and Meredith from Brave. She looks about how a sea hag ought to look.

For some reason the moon bothers me a little.

[SuperHans]

#302 - Doctor

Doctor, doctor, give me the news....

I know you're sick, but let me autograph this ball for you.

This guy has the worst beard in all of Dominiondom. The scene is tilted funny and the doctor got all he wanted for Christmas, his two front teeth. Too bad those are his only teeth.

That dutch angle.

[jamfamsam]

#300 - Copper



Eh.

[jamfamsam]

#299 - Stash



Nothing wrong with a bag of coins. We were thinking a stash probably ought to be hidden under a floorboard or in the fake bottom of a drawer or something.

[jamfamsam]

#298 - Wild Hunt



The art is pretty cool but we couldn't quite figure out the choice of the ghost hunters flying over the tops of the trees. Ghost hunt?

The moon reminds me of the one from Legend of Zelda Majora's Mask.

[LostPhoenix]

The art is pretty cool but we couldn't quite figure out the choice of the ghost hunters flying over the tops of the trees. Ghost hunt?

According to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wild_Hunt:
The Wild Hunt is a European folk myth involving a ghostly or supernatural group of huntsmen passing in wild pursuit.

[jamfamsam]

OK. Then we dropped the ball on this one.

[jamfamsam]

#297 - Emporium



All alone it's hard to tell what this is.

[jamfamsam]

#296 - Swamp Hag



This is another card, like Bridge Troll, that looks pretty good when enlarged.

The first time I saw it, I wondered what the deal was with the floating head. The clothing blends in with the background. The bird looks like a big blur and I can't tell what she's holding in her hand. In fact I still look at it and wonder what the deal is with the floating head.

[jamfamsam]

#295 - Necropolis



A nice depiction.

[LaLight]

Maaaaan I SO LOVE the art on Necropolis! It tears my heart apart to see it in group U

[trivialknot]

#297 - Emporium



All alone it's hard to tell what this is.

The thing that really draws the eye in this art is the little arch in the building on the left.  I think it's because the roofs of the buildings make a bold line pointing directly at the arch.  The composition of this art leaves something to be desired, since I think the true focus is supposed to be the people standing under the thing that looks like a giant beast's mouth.

[jamfamsam]

#294 - Chapel



I don't know why two of my daughters rated this so low. It is a little dark but I think the art is great.

[jamfamsam]

#293 - Settlers



Once again a little dark and some of the features are obscured, otherwise quite nice.

[jamfamsam]

#292 - Encampment



The super-skinny guard is a little odd. Another one that is a little dark. We thought the eyeball shields were interesting.

That's the end of group U.

[Seprix]

#294 - Chapel



I don't know why two of my daughters rated this so low. It is a little dark but I think the art is great.

The chalice looks a little fake if you look closely, but besides that.

[jamfamsam]

#291 - Baron



This is the start of group T, 17 cards.

The most interesting man in the world is past his prime. He's looking a little gray and, the most ironclad proof, instead of having a piece of eye candy on each arm, the two women are just whispering behind his back.

[jamfamsam]

#290 - Remake



Why does it look like everything is on fire in this picture?

[jamfamsam]

#289 - Prince



My daughters wanted to know which was the prince. I always assumed the younger guy, but the current crown prince of England isn't so young. Maybe it's the old guy.

Whoever it is, he isn't going very far with a chocolate bar as the door for the palace.

[LostPhoenix]

For a long time I never noticed the trees and mountain in the background of remake.

Other than to add to the "Intrigue" theme, I don't get the point of adding the whispering women behind the baron.

[Accatitippi]

For a long time I never noticed the trees and mountain in the background of remake.

Other than to add to the "Intrigue" theme, I don't get the point of adding the whispering women behind the baron.

Yeah, but I for one think it's great that they tried to link so many of Intrigue's card arts with the set flavour. It gives a very distinct feeling to its cards.
Cornucopia does it to some extent as well, Prosperity doesn't even try (but it would have been harder), Dark Ages does it pretty well. Seaside, well, you'd have to try hard not to depict the sea on most cards there.

I think Chapel's art benefits from its role in the game. I also love it, but from an outsider's perspective, I understand how it could be meh. But it's iconic, and fits well with the card's effect, and one ends up loving it.

[jamfamsam]

#288 - Princess



I never noticed the bird before. She really ought to be riding side saddle and I'm not sure how that small neck supports the head. My girls thought her hair looked like it was about to strangle her.

[jamfamsam]

#287 - Quarry



This is a government quarry. Not a worker to be seen. How are they going to get the rocks out of the quarry with that wheelbarrow?

[jamfamsam]

#286 - Pawn



What happened to Aragorn's hands? They are tiny.

The previous discussion about him being constipated made me laugh. I can never un-see that now.

[mail-mi]

#286 - Pawn



What happened to Aragorn's hands? They are tiny.

The previous discussion about him being constipated made me laugh. I can never un-see that now.

[Co0kieL0rd]

#288 - Princess



I never noticed the bird before. She really ought to be riding side saddle and I'm not sure how that small neck supports the head. My girls thought her hair looked like it was about to strangle her.

I also never realized the black thing was a bird but for some reason thought she was carrying a lance. I know, makes a lot of sense.

[jamfamsam]

#285 - City



The gold stones are an interesting choice.

We are now approximately 1/4 of the way through all the cards.

[jamfamsam]

#284 - Survivors



The baby Lord Voldemort survives this catastrophe in the arms of a faceless woman.

[jamfamsam]

#283 - Caravan



Not sure if that is a rock formation or a crumbling tower. My daughters that it was weird that you could see the ocean.

[faust]

#286 - Pawn



What happened to Aragorn's hands? They are tiny.

Look at those hands. Are they small hands? And do you imply that if the hands are small, something else must be small? I guarantee you, there's no problem. I guarantee you.

[Co0kieL0rd]

#286 - Pawn

What happened to Aragorn's hands? They are tiny.

Look at those hands. Are they small hands? And do you imply that if the hands are small, something else must be small? I guarantee you, there's no problem. I guarantee you.

That's just what a person with small hands would say.

[jamfamsam]

#282 - Pirate Ship



What self-respecting pirate is going to join a ship with pink sails?

[jamfamsam]

#281 - Forum



Good art but a little bit too much of the same color.

[jamfamsam]

#280 - Spoils



This is the 100th card so far.

The pitcher is weird. Look! There's the masterpiece candlestick. They must have left a fake on the Masterpiece card.

[jamfamsam]

#279 - Enchantress



Not sure this card belongs here. One of my daughters rated this 1 out of 7. The rest of us 4 or higher.

In such a foggy locale we wonder where she got the sun flowers.

Why the pig? I love it but I wonder why it's there.

[Accatitippi]

#279 - Enchantress



Not sure this card belongs here. One of my daughters rated this 1 out of 7. The rest of us 4 or higher.

In such a foggy locale we wonder where she got the sun flowers.

Why the pig? I love it but I wonder why it's there.

It's a reference to Homer's Circe, who turned Odysseus' companions into pigs.

[ThetaSigma12]

Those last 3 ranks ngs really tick me off. Junk Dealer is WAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY worse then all of the last 25 cards. Forum is better than baker as well.

[AJD]

#279 - Enchantress



Not sure this card belongs here. One of my daughters rated this 1 out of 7. The rest of us 4 or higher.

In such a foggy locale we wonder where she got the sun flowers.

Why the pig? I love it but I wonder why it's there.

It's a reference to Homer's Circe, who turned Odysseus' companions into pigs.

And, indeed, Enchantress's effect can be interpreted as turning your Action cards into pigs.

[AJD]

#283 - Caravan



Not sure if that is a rock formation or a crumbling tower. My daughters that it was weird that you could see the ocean.

Of course you can see the ocean. Otherwise, this could scarcely be a Seaside card.

[jamfamsam]

#278 - Poor House



Very brown.

[jamfamsam]

#277 - Catacombs



We were kind of hoping for some skulls in the walls.

[jamfamsam]

#276 - Training



The hair color of these guys stands out too much. The skyline reminds me of the movie set thing at Disney's California Adventure park.

[jamfamsam]

#275 - Delve



Let the outrage of Junk Dealer not appearing yet continue.

I liked this art. My girls weren't fond of the predominance of gray.

That is the end of group T. It won't be long before Junk Dealer shows up.

[Seprix]

Apparently crappy 3D art is better than Fairgrounds.

[faust]

This thread convinced me that Qvist needs to start making community-approved art ratings.

[2.71828.....]

This thread convinced me that Qvist needs to start making community-approved art ratings.

With weighted and unweighted results. Jsh, jamfamsam, and others who have delved into the art ratings business should be the "pros" while the rest of us just get counted like normal

[ThetaSigma12]

This thread convinced me that Qvist needs to start making community-approved art ratings.

With weighted and unweighted results. Jsh, jamfamsam, and others who have delved into the art ratings business should be the "pros" while the rest of us just get counted like normal

Not really, by that logic anyone who votes will be a pro. I don't think it's right to have a weighted ranking for this.

[jsh357]

This thread convinced me that Qvist needs to start making community-approved art ratings.

With weighted and unweighted results. Jsh, jamfamsam, and others who have delved into the art ratings business should be the "pros" while the rest of us just get counted like normal

Not really, by that logic anyone who votes will be a pro. I don't think it's right to have a weighted ranking for this.

Too bad your opinion on this has less weight than my own.

[jamfamsam]

#274 - Jack of All Trades



This is the start of group S, 12 cards.

The pile of rocks/half wall in the middle of nowhere is a little odd. And Will, nice hat.

[jamfamsam]

#273 - Dame Anna



This is one of the cheesy portraits you'd expect to find in the home of a noble. There's some very nice hedge work there.

[jamfamsam]

#272 - Junk Dealer



Here it is finally. One of my daughters rated this 6 out of 7 which raised it out of the depths it otherwise may have had.

This guy looks like he's been smoking something or perhaps had a few too many drinks. He does seem to look like what you'd expect from a guy carting around a bunch of junk and trying to push it off on other people.

[Seprix]

#273 - Dame Anna



This is one of the cheesy portraits you'd expect to find in the home of a noble. There's some very nice hedge work there.

That's like, Top 20 Dominion Art!

[Roadrunner7671]

Yeah, Dame Anna looks like a photograph to me.

[Deadlock39]

That's like, Top 20 Dominion Art!

Yeah, Dame Anna looks like a photograph to me.

You guys just think she's cute, don't you.

[Awaclus]

Yeah, Dame Anna looks like a photograph to me.

So it makes sense that it'd be ranked lower than things that look better than photographs.

[Seprix]

That's like, Top 20 Dominion Art!

Yeah, Dame Anna looks like a photograph to me.

You guys just think she's cute, don't you.

Some Dominion Cards are just Dominion Cards.

[jamfamsam]

#271 - Upgrade



I really like the pastels here. They really shouldn't be letting those children play up on the scaffolding.

[jamfamsam]

#270 - Bank



Welcome to the local pub. Oh, we are a bank as well. The green shadows are weird here.

[jamfamsam]

#269 - Relic



This isn't Relics. The 2nd one doesn't belong. There can be only one.

[markusin]

#273 - Dame Anna



This is one of the cheesy portraits you'd expect to find in the home of a noble. There's some very nice hedge work there.

Yeah, Dame Anna looks like a photograph to me.

Now I can't understand the image of this being a picture of someone sticking their head through the hole of one of those big roleplay picture boards.

Oh and if you had asked me before, I would have never guessed that there are two gems on Relic.

Edit: I meant I can't unsee the image. Would you believe my phone auto-corrects "unsee" to "understand"?

[Awaclus]

Edit: I meant I can't unsee the image. Would you believe my phone auto-corrects "unsee" to "understand"?

What has been seen cannot be understood.

[markusin]

Edit: I meant I can't unsee the image. Would you believe my phone auto-corrects "unsee" to "understand"?

What has been seen cannot be understood.

Now I'm wondering if my phone is trying to reveal to me a universal truth.

But I'm sure your quote applies to some of these Dominion cards.

[jamfamsam]

#268 - Save



This is some nice art and she has a little glow about her. If we didn't have the name Save on the card, I'm not sure we would know what she is doing.

[jamfamsam]

#267 - Temple



The sky is beautiful but distracting. My daughters think the temple looks more like a gazebo. The temple is leaning one way and the trees the other.

[jamfamsam]

#266 - Catapult/Rocks



These aren't just regular rocks; they are explosive rocks. I don't think the bombardment of a castle by a catapult normally caused it to catch fire.

[Co0kieL0rd]

#267 - Temple

The temple is leaning one way and the trees the other.

That's just the earth's curvature playing tricks on your eyes.

[Aleimon Thimble]

These aren't just regular rocks; they are explosive rocks. I don't think the bombardment of a castle by a catapult normally caused it to catch fire.

You have clearly never played Age of Empires.

[Co0kieL0rd]

These aren't just regular rocks; they are explosive rocks. I don't think the bombardment of a castle by a catapult normally caused it to catch fire.

You have clearly never played Age of Empires.

We've learned from AoE that literally everything will set a building on fire eventually, even a villager attacking it with a club. I guess it's just friction heat.

[Seprix]

Age of Empires was the bomb. I miss it so much.

[faust]

Age of Empires was the bomb. I miss it so much.

Especially the Gunpowder units.

[jamfamsam]

#265 - Crumbling Castle



Almost looks like petrified castle. There are a lot of yellow tones here.

[jamfamsam]

#264 - Archive



I really like archive. Two of my daughters thought the main scroll dominated the picture too much.

[jamfamsam]

#263 - Wall



The gate looks like some really large wooden blinds. This could have gone in as Haunted Wall as well. It's pretty bleak. Just to the right of the gate it looks like the artist has caught a rock mid-fall.

That is the end of group S.

[jamfamsam]

#262 - Saboteur



So begins group R, 13 cards.

The Michelin man strikes again! The gloves he is wearing make his hands look really long and gross and the smoke doesn't seem very natural.

[jamfamsam]

#261 - Council Room



Aside from noticing the hieroglyphics on the wall for the first time, what jsh had to say on the card is more than we could have said:

"Despite what some think, Dominion is a very socially progressive game. Here we see that the Council Room has chairs of various sizes; trolls, dwarves, and men of all shapes and sizes can unite to discuss council. There's no human height privilege here. From a distance, this card looks like a chocolate bar. If you don't believe me, try looking at it for yourself. Jokes aside, perspective is the only thing that actually ruins this picture for me, but it's hard not to notice once you're aware of the issue. Boy, these terminal draw cards are unfashionable. It's almost like the artists don't want me to win."

[jamfamsam]

#260 - Estate



We can't figure out what that fountain is supposed to be. Presumably what are lily pads in the fountain look more to us like giant amoebas.

[jamfamsam]

#259 - Workshop



Thor left his hammer on the table and Hannah Montana left her wig on the wall. Seriously, what is that wig thing on the wall?

[jamfamsam]

#258 - Diadem



There is a lot of orange tone in this art. What gem is that anyway?

[jamfamsam]

#257 - Secret Chamber



There is an awful lot of stuff going on here. We've got a guy coming in through one door, a trap door in the ceiling, a staircase going up underneath the picture of Salazar Slytherin, and a weird beast hiding in the bookshelves (one of my daughters picked that up, I had never noticed the eyes there before), and a floor made of glass or some standing water causing a reflection.

[werothegreat]

#258 - Diadem

picture

There is a lot of orange tone in this art. What gem is that anyway?

Probably a peridot

[jamfamsam]

#256 - Trash



This is a nice collection of junk. The rocks look like they are attached to the pillar.

[jamfamsam]

#255 - Taxman



It's pretty cool that the artist got Telly Savalas to pose for the card art. The eyebrows are a little heavy. My daughters say this guy is on fleek but I don't know what that is.

[jamfamsam]

#254 - Bonfire



Here is the medieval Woodstock. The purple ground is groovy man. You've got the drugged up lady dancing in the background. The fire is so big that I'm pretty sure the nearby tent and banner will be bursting into flames shortly.

[jamfamsam]

#253 - Margrave



Chong poses for this art. I like it but wonder why everything is tilted slightly.

[jamfamsam]

#252 - Dungeon



This is a very roomy dungeon. Nothing but the best for my prisoners.

[jamfamsam]

#251 - Bustling Village



Didn't quite capture the bustling part. First time I've seen a goose on a leash.

[jamfamsam]

#250 - Windfall



Snakes! Why does it have to be.... I mean....

Lava! Why does it have to be lava?

This is cool art but until I really scrutinized it I had no idea what was going on here. With the striped pants I thought it was part of a circus act and I couldn't figure out what that had to do with windfall. I see it all now, but it was confusing for a long time. I still don't get the striped pants.

That is the end of group R.

[jamfamsam]

#249 - Hunting Grounds



This is the start of group Q, 12 cards.

There appear to be horns growing out of the back of the one deer. The guy in the foreground has some serious eyebrows and his right arm is much smaller than his left. I wonder why he isn't getting ready to shoot at the two animals. The hunt must be so good that he has other things to shoot at.

[jamfamsam]

#248 - Swindler



He's got something in his eye. There also appears to be a face in the tree.

[jamfamsam]

#247 - Mint



This is a solid piece of art. We weren't sure if the log was going to be a hard enough surface to mint coins on.

[jamfamsam]

#246 - Hoard



This is a nice big pile of treasure.

[jamfamsam]

#245 - Gardens



I'm starting to think that's a peacock and not a flowering shrub.

[jamfamsam]

#244 - Treasury



This would be a seriously dangerous place to enter and try to remove anything from. You'd be buried under a mountain of metal and gems.

[jamfamsam]

#243 - Expand



The sky and hills are psychedelic.

[jamfamsam]

#242 - Humble Castle



This art has a nice feel to it. My daughters think it looks more like a monastery than a castle.

[jamfamsam]

#241 - Moat



With this much gray it makes the water look more like sewage. I'm sure water in a moat wasn't all that clean to begin with.

[jamfamsam]

#240 - Governor



I don't think the window is square. If my daughters knew this was supposed to be a promo to celebrate Puerto Rico, they probably would have rated it higher.

[jamfamsam]

#239 - Sprawling Castle



This is another really yellow scene for castles. Other than that, I think it is really well done.

[jamfamsam]

#238 - Baths



The giantess gets her turn in the bath. My daughters think the woman on the left looks like Moaning Myrtle but I don't see it.

That is the end of group Q.

[jamfamsam]

#237 - Walled Village



This is the start of group P, 14 cards.

There is a lot of Dominion art.

I certainly wouldn't want to cross that bridge. The last incline on the path leading to that bridge is killer. How could you possibly get a cart up that?

[jamfamsam]

#236 - Treasure Map



This is the remedial treasure map. Not only does X mark the spot but, to make sure you didn't miss it, there is a big arrow pointing to it.

I have taken to calling this card Treasure Trap.

[jamfamsam]

#235 - Orchard



We have the nice fairy-tale style cottage. They have their trash out to be picked up. It looks more like a hedge and a vineyard, but hey.

Whenever I post an Empires card, I get bitter because I have the set but have only played one game with it. All my Dominion players have moved.

[jamfamsam]

#234 - Counterfeit



If I were counterfeiting, I would make sure all my coins were the same.

[Limetime]

#234 - Counterfeit



If I were counterfeiting, I would make sure all my coins were the same.

?

[jamfamsam]

#233 - Lookout



It looks like this guy's legs are missing. This guy either just came on shift or he's not a very good lookout. This ship is in some serious trouble.

[jamfamsam]

#232 - Trading Post



This has always been one of the most confusing pieces of art in Dominion to me and my daughters thought the same. Another set of large hands.

jsh enjoyed that: "I think this is a pretty great picture, not just because it looks nice, but since it's open to interpretation. Is the person hiding behind the tree waiting for an opportunity to steal something? Planning to trade in that sword? Admiring the view but being super-cautious about it? You can never be too safe in Dominion Land. It could be that this person's story is only a small sub-story of the overall daily routine at this trading post, and I like that. We're getting a peek at a larger world with subtle implications. Of course, it could also be that the art was submitted for another card name, but that doesn't lessen what we have here. Score another point for Intrigue having art that fits its overall theme if my interpretation is right."

[jamfamsam]

#234 - Counterfeit



If I were counterfeiting, I would make sure all my coins were the same.

?

I'm glad somebody is still paying attention.

The coins in the picture are all different. Now that I think about it, the person could be counterfeiting something other than money.

[faust]

Whenever I post an Empires card, I get bitter because I have the set but have only played one game with it. All my Dominion players have moved.

What aout your daughters?

[jamfamsam]

Alas, they don't play. They think I am a Dominion freak.

[Burning Skull]

Burning Skull

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