MLB All-Star Finalists 2019

Yesterday (Monday 6/24/19), MLB reminded us of the results of the first round of the brand new All-Star voting system. This year, in a departure from the tried and true "the player with the most votes gets to start" system, the top three vote-getters at each position from the three-week "Primary phase" become "finalists." Then, in a 28-hour burst starting tomorrow (Wednesday 6/26/19), voters will cast a SECOND ballot to select the actual starters from amongst those finalists. (Because MLB did not learn from US presidential elections in 2000 and 2016 how disastrous things can get when we depart from the popular vote.) While this system seems like a blatant clickbait scheme to entice fans to visit the website with the ballot not once but twice, it does allow for a period of concentrated player analysis, in which I will gladly partake.

Below will follow a position-by-position breakdown of the finalists for each position, organized by fantasy points, rather than alphabetically, as they are arranged in the above-linked article, or by total number of votes, as in this post where they announced the results. MLB's Instagram account already pointed out which teams have the most "Starters Election Candidates" (i.e., which teams' fans are most prone to stuffing the ballot boxes), but I plan to do the same with astrological signs, which are displayed in the far right column.

Would you believe that Aries starting first baseman Carlos Santana has never had an All-Star appearance in his 10-year career? That's even despite averaging 4.1 WAR per year as a primary catcher from 2011-13 and garnering some MVP votes in the last season of that span. He's got a good chance to break that streak this year, despite up and coming Aquarius fan favorite Luke Voit, who has surged since his trade to the Yankees. Over in the National League, breakout Leo Josh Bell got off to such a hot start that I didn't think anyone would catch him, but three-time Virgo All-Star Freddie Freeman has surged into the conversation lately, leading the race by a mere five points (although he does trail by 0.4 points per game). Thanks to Bell's power display, fellow Leo (and also a three-time All-Star) Anthony Rizzo has been relegated to fantasy astrology DH duty, and he should be an afterthought in this election.

It seemed a bit curious when the Yankees signed Cancer second baseman DJ LeMahieu during the offseason, since they already had a full infield. But injuries to Miguel Andujar and Troy Tulowitzki opened up playing time for David John, and all the two-time All-Star has done is lead the league in batting average (like he did in 2016 for the Rockies) and provide his usual brand of sterling defense. The out-of-nowhere breakout of Aquarius former utility player Tommy La Stella has been inspiring, and Taurus mainstay Jose Altuve has made the last five AL All-Star teams (plus one two years before that in 2012), but the choice here should be clear.

Despite his lead in both points and PPG, I might have a hard time voting for the versatile Libra Ketel Marte as a second baseman, since he's spent almost half of his 2019 as a centerfielder for the Diamondbacks. However, the same could be said of three-time All-Star Virgo Mike Moustakas, as he's filled in at third base for the injured Travis Shaw in Milwaukee. In fact, Moose just moved to the keystone this year after occupying the hot corner for the entirety of his career up to this point. Capricorn Ozzie Albies made the All-Star Game in his first full big league season in 2018, despite having lost his rookie eligibility due to a 57-game pot of coffee in 2017.

Burgeoning video producer Alex Bregman has held down both left side of the infield positions for the Astros in the past, due to multiple injuries to Houston shortstop Carlos Correa, and his shortstop eligibility comes in handy for the Aries fantasy astrology team (see below). Hunter Dozier's 2019 breakout has done a great deal to stabilize Leo's infield situation, as they were slated to rely on the oft-injured Zack Cozart at the hot corner according MLB.com's preseason fantasy rankings. It's clear that Yankees nation came out in force to vote for fill-in third baseman Gio Urshela (who didn't even make Libra's season opening fantasy roster); much more than fans of their rivals in Boston, despite the Red Sox having a clearly superior third base candidate in Scorpio Rafael Devers.

Nolan Arenado is the reason why it's so important for the above-mentioned Bregman to have shortstop eligibility, which opens up the Aries DH slot for a player with less versatility. Nado is the leading candidate for the starting job, which would make it five straight All-Star teams for the Newport Beach native - heading into the season he's also got four straight Silver Sluggers and SEVEN straight Gold Gloves. Meanwhile, the most accomplished Capricorn batter Kris Bryant has two All-Star appearances on his resume, in addition to an MVP and Rookie of the Year award, so he's also got a good track record to build on. Two Sagittariuses (Sagittarii?) round out the NL third base contenders, with Josh Donaldson narrowly beating out Justin Turner, although the former has had a clearly superior season in his first year with the Braves.

Red Sox fans clearly have been lackadaisical this All-Star voting season, as Libra infield captain Xander Bogaerts has had the best season amongst AL shortstop contenders, yet he didn't earn enough clicks to appear as a finalist. As it stands, Cancer Jorge Polanco (playing for the first place Twins) and Sagittarius Gleyber Torres (who shifted from second base to fill in for Troy Tulowitzki's newest injury) are fairly close in the race for point leader amongst the AL finalists. Meanwhile, Scorpio Trevor Story has had by far the best season of the NL finalists, yet he has received the fewest votes of the three. Not that Sagittarius Javier Baez hasn't had a great, if injury-shortened, year and it's nice to see former number one overall pick Dansby Swanson (an Aquarius) finally start breaking out, but the NL starting infield really should have two Rockies in the mix.

It's fitting that the consensus best player in baseball, Leo centerfielder Mike Trout, is also the American League's leading vote-getter. He should be on track to make his eighth straight All-Star team. Libra should also be well-represented, as defending AL MVP Mookie Betts and Minnesota slugger Eddie Rosario are the next two in terms of total fantasy points on the season. Speaking of the Twins, their fans couldn't get Aquarius Max Kepler into the next phase of voting, despite the German-born outfielder having scored more fantasy points than all but three of the AL finalists. Meanwhile, all three Astros outfielders are in the mix, despite the fact that Virgo George Springer has been out of action since May 24.

Two spots in the NL starting outfield should go to Sagittarius (and defending NL MVP) Christian Yelich and Dodgers star Cody Bellinger (who has taken his game to another level since moving to right field full time). Fellow Cancer Charlie Blackmon also patrols right field for the Rockies this year, moving from center for the first time in his career due to defensive limitations. Yelich's Sagittarius "teammate" Ronald Acuna Jr. has also had a great follow-up to his Rookie of the Year campaign, and it would make a certain amount of sense for him to earn the starting nod, as he is the only one of the top four point scorers who currently plays center field. Speaking of center field, the fact that Albert Almora Jr. is a finalist with over a million votes shows how egregiously Cubs fans stuffed the ballot box in this primary phase. I know he's a good defender, but if he makes this team after not even earning a spot on the Aries fantasy astrology roster, I might boycott the All-Star Game on principle.

It's pretty clear in both leagues who should be the All-Star catcher, as Gary Sanchez and Yasmani Grandal (a Sagittarius and a Scorpio, respectively) have handy leads on their competition. However, you should never underestimate Cubs fans, who have voted in a finalists at every position except second base, so there's a shot that Taurus Willson Contreras will "earn" the nod here. Up in the AL, it's amazing how deep the Gemini catching corps is, and that's not even counting Angels starter Jonathan Lucroy and former fifth overall pick Matt Wieters.

Perhaps the game's best pure hitter, Leo slugger J.D. Martinez has a nice point lead in the AL-only DH race, but this year he does have some statistical as well as intangible competition. Based on his last few seasons with the Giants, it seemed like Hunter Pence's career was over, but a retooled swing for the Aries outfielder earned him an opportunity with the Rangers, and he has more than taken advantage of it. Those two are followed by two Cancers, Nelson Cruz and Shohei Ohtani, a full-time DH while his right elbow recovers from Tommy John surgery. Notably absent from this list is prodigious Sagittarius slugger Khris Davis, whose .248 batting average so far in 2019 has raised his career AVG to the same amount, despite it sitting it .247 for the last four years.

Mountain - Basic Land Reprints

Well, I've just gotten back from some traveling, and what better way to welcome myself back home than by continuing my analysis of the pieces of art on Basic Lands that have been reprinted the most times in the game of Magic: the Gathering? This time, rather than going around the color wheel, I'm skipping to Red, because I had already taken screenshots of the most commonly-reprinted Mountain arts before my trip. As always, below is a chart of all the Mountain artworks that have been reprinted more than once (including a quick correction). Also, if you've already read my Basic Lands Reprints "Hub world" post, you will have already seen the first paragraph... but you could always read it again as a little refresher.

Not only is Karl Kopinski's artwork on Magic 2010 #244 the most frequently reprinted piece of art on a Mountain, it's the most frequently reprinted piece of art on any basic land in the history of Magic. I don't know if it's the snow-dotted peaks, the mist in the valley below, the flock of winged creatures to the right, or the band of adventurers to the left, but something about this gorgeous landscape got it reprinted a whopping 14 (fourteen) times! And that's only counting paper sets in English - a search on Scryfall will show you a Spanish version (Montaña) from Salvat and a Magic Online theme deck version, in addition to the original printing. Next on the list for Mountains, and tied for third overall amongst basic lands, is Magic 2012 #242, whose majestic yet topple-worthy rock formation by Cliff Childs has been reprinted ten times. Maybe the folks who decide which lands get reprinted really like traversable mountains from Core Sets, as this one also features a staircase. Mountain is the only Tierra básica not to feature art from an expert level expansion in its top three most reprinted artworks, as we have yet another entrant from M10 finishing in third place. The most stereotypical of landmasses, Nils Hamm's #242 shows a plethora of jagged red-orange peaks, which have appeared nine other times throughout Magic's illustrious history of sets.

The next four examples on the list of most common Mountain arts are tied at seven reprints apiece. You'll recall from the many times I've explained this situation that Magic's first print run (Alpha) had two pieces of art for each basic land, while the second print run (Beta) added a third (or rather, included the one that was mistakenly left out of Alpha). The first of the two above Mountains illustrated by Douglas Schuler (his name was misspelled on the actual paper cards) is from Alpha, while the second one was added in Beta (note the slightly more vibrant colors, especially in the white text). Speaking of printing errors, it's interesting to note that the Beta Mountain made its way into the Arabian Nights expansion by accident, even though that set was not supposed to include any basic lands, making "Basic Land - Mountain" the most-printed card amongst expert-level expansions. This doesn't explain why one Alpha Mountain was printed more times than the other, but the computer I used to create this database won't currently start up, so I can't exactly show my work.

Moving to the left, we see a good chronology of the evolution of rules text on basic lands. John Avon's art on Urza's Saga #344 - a haunting pastel depiction of a mist-enswirled range - features the "Tap" symbol followed by a colon, replacing the worlds "tap to" that appeared up until Fourth Edition. By the time we get to Magic 2014 (which was released in 2013), the game's designers had long since replaced any rules text on basic lands with an overlarge mana symbol; the change actually happened in 1999's Sixth Edition, the set immediately following Urza's Saga. However, you might also notice a difference in the type line between the third and fourth images above - up through mid-2003, all basic lands were denoted simply as "Land," but in Eighth Edition, they were changed to the more descriptive "Basic Land - [TYPE]" as is the case with Jonas De Ro's semicircular mountainous valley on Magic 2014 #243.

The above image is a little confusing in terms of number of reprints - the artworks on the entire top row and the one on the bottom left have been reprinted six times, while the last three on the bottom row have five reprints apiece - but I just couldn't resist a nice 2x4 grid. The silvery-white snow-covered peaks at the top left is the second Douglas Schuler Alpha Mountain I mentioned above. Next to it is yet another piece by John Avon, a sunset-inspired study in yellow, dark red, and black from the African-themed set Mirage. Seventh Edition was the second Core Set to include new art on lands (Fifth Edition did it first, but Classic Sixth Edition went back to reprints), of which Rob Alexander's starkly vertical slope rising above the clouds is one. I already mentioned the specifics of the basic lands from Shards of Alara in my post about Plains, but Aleksi Briclot's lava-soaked chasm in front of a red sky on #244 is one of two Mountains representing the Black-Red-Green shard known as Jund. Andreas Rocha's view down on some excessively sharp peaks in Magic 2014 #245 is the second entrant from that particular set in the top-12 of most-reprinted Mountain artworks.

Mercadian Masques #346 features another mountain by Rob Alexander, only this one is shown from a much longer distance away, such that you can clearly see its pointy top against a red-orange sky. I went over some of the blue tribes from the MMQ expansion in my post about Islands, but you would most likely find Goblins inhabiting the mountains in this set. We'll see more about the Onslaught expansion (set on the Dominarian continent of Otaria) when we get to Swamps, but suffice it to say, Sam Wood's art on #344 continues the theme of Mountains with footpaths on them, as this one has both a foot bridge in the foreground and a carved-in switchbacking ramp further towards the back. Speaking of Swamps, the most commonly reprinted art on which comes from Ravnica: City of Guilds, Richard Wright's #302 from that set rounds out our five-times-reprinted Mountains. Based on the Magic Premiere Shop watermarks on the RAV lands, this from-the-bottom view of jagged buildings resembling mountain peaks represents the militaristic Boros Legion.


MLB All-Star Game Season is coming up in the near future, so I will likely take a break from art for tabletop games for a moment to focus on that, but when I come back, the next land type featured will be the murky Black mana-rich Swamp.

Island - Magic Basic Land Reprints

If you've ever countered your opponent's potentially game-winning spell, or bounced their best creature with an expensive Aura on the stack, then you know the importance of having Islands in your deck. If the only word you recognize from the previous sentence is "Islands," then you still might enjoy the rest of this post, which details some of the artistic representations of said watery landmasses that have been reprinted the most times in the history of Magic: the Gathering. Here's a comprehensive list of each piece of art on a Basic Land - Island that has been reprinted more than once:

If you read my post about Magic's most reprinted Plains artwork, you'll likely notice some similarities with the situation regarding Islands. The first is that there is a tie atop both the leaderboards for most reprinted artworks, although while the two top Plains checked in at seven reprints apiece, each Island you see here was reprinted nine times. The second similarity is that the earlier of the two most reprinted lands are both from the Invasion set, and what's more, they were both illustrated by the great John Avon. This one in particular (Island #336) features a beach, with waves gently lapping against the shore, which is strewn with sharp hooked poles, sticking out of... dark rocks, with a foreboding giant outcropping looming in the distance. The other similarity is that the second of the two most frequent art reprintings is from a Core Set, although Island's co-leader was from Magic 2012 rather than Magic 2014. Cliff Childs's Island #235 depicts a somewhat different beach, the orientation of which is the same, only this time the waves aren't gently lapping at the shore: they're spilling over from a humongous bowl-like rock formation that towers over you, seems to have its own weather patterns, and obstructs all view of the horizon.

The arts on the above three Islands are tied for second most among that basic land type, having been reprinted seven times each. Harkening back once again to my Plains post, I talked about how Limited Edition's Alpha print run left out one of the three planned basic land arts, which was added back in the Beta print run. As you might recall, the two Alpha Plains were reprinted the same amount of times, once more than the Beta Plains, which makes logical sense. For Islands, however, one of Mark Poole's Alpha artworks - the numbering varies for Limited Edition, but it's the one with the lush green vegetation and a sparse beach, depicted during the daytime - ended up being printed once more than its Alpha counterpart... which itself was printed once more than the Island added back in Beta. Both of those two pieces of art appear below in the next section.

The middle Island above is from Seventh Edition, which was the last Core Set to use the old fashioned card frame, but it would be two more "Advanced-level" sets before they would abandon the white border. John Avon's art for #334 has a similar color scheme and perspective to his tied-for-the-most-frequent piece from Invasion, except the beach is replaced by tide pool-laden rocks, and there is a flat-top landmass in the distance instead of a tall thin pillar of rock. Even though there are no actual Islands on a plane-wide urban landscape such as Ravnica, Richard Wright's art for #294 from the set that introduced us to the City of Guilds shows a cluster of buildings and waterways that is rife with Blue mana. According to the Magic Premiere Shop versions of the Ravnica: City of Guilds basic lands, this particular Island corresponds with the Blue/Black milling guild House Dimir.

The top three Islands in the above image were each reprinted six times, the first of which being the other Alpha Island illustrated by Mark Poole, this one with decidedly less green, but more pink and yellow, given that it takes place during the sunset hour. The Mercadian Masques expansion takes place smack dab in the middle of the Weatherlight Saga, of which the Invasion block is the culmination. I'm not sure whether Scott Bailey's jagged swept-back mass of rocks on #336 represents a specific place on the plane of Mercadia, but based on context clues, it must be an area near the dwellings of the Rishadan Pirates or the Saprazzan Merfolk. I've said before that Magic 2010 was the first Core Set to receive new art for basic lands, and that's actually incorrect: what I meant to say is that it was the first BLACK BORDERED Core Set to receive new art for basic lands. One of these is Rob Alexander's tranquil cove (but not an actual Tranquil Cove) on #234. On the second row, we get the only Island art that has been reprinted exactly five times: Mark Poole's Beta Island - which is a near copy of one of the Alpha Islands, except the landmass is slightly larger and the sky is slightly less yellow.


It's going to be a little while until my next post, but when it arrives, it will be the tallest of all Basic Lands, and the only one that produces Red mana: the mighty Mountain.

Magic Basic Lands Reprints - HUB

I wrote an untruth in my last post: I said that my next post would go clockwise around the color wheel and profile Islands next in my series on the most frequently reprinted pieces of art on Basic Lands. Instead, I've decided to create another one of those "hub world" posts I like so much, including a blurb about the top reprinted lands of each type. I've already published the one about Plainses, and I'll repeat that one at the very end, since here I'll go in descending order of most reprinted land arts. And that distinction goes to the always Red...

Mountain
(47 arts reprinted more than once)

Not only is Karl Kopinski's artwork on Magic 2010 #244 the most frequently reprinted piece of art on a Mountain, it's the most frequently reprinted piece of art on any basic land in the history of Magic. I don't know if it's the snow-covered peaks, the mist in the valley below, the flock of winged creatures to the right, or the band of adventurers to the left, but something about this gorgeous landscape got it reprinted a whopping 14 (fourteen) times! And that's only counting paper sets in English - a search on Scryfall will show you a Spanish version (Montaña) from Salvat and a Magic Online theme deck version, in addition to the original printing. Next on the list for Mountains, and tied for third overall amongst basic lands, is Magic 2012 #242, whose majestic yet topple-worthy rock formation by Cliff Childs has been reprinted ten times. Maybe the folks who decide which lands get reprinted really like traversable mountains from Core Sets, as this one also features a staircase. Mountain is the only Tierra básica not to feature art from an expert level expansion in its top three most reprinted artworks, as we have yet another entrant from M10 finishing in third place. The most stereotypical of landmasses, Nils Hamm's #242 shows a plethora of jagged red-orange peaks, which have appeared nine other times throughout Magic's illustrious history of sets.


Forest
(46 arts reprinted more than once)

Boy, there was just something about those basic lands from Magic 2010, wasn't there? Steven Belledin's classic nature scene that found its way onto #248 in that set - with its single large-trunked tree dominating the right side of the frame, flanked by several smaller varieties (including a fern!) on a leaf-strewn floor - leads all Forests (the same set that leads all Mountains), and comes in second overall in basic land art reprintings with 12 instances. Next, we have a two-way tie with eight reprints each. The earlier of these is Glen Angus's bird-swarmed treetop village from #350 in the Invasion expert level expansion. Not only is Invasion from the pre-modern era (notice the older card frame?), but it's also very important to Magic lore, having been the culmination of the iconic Weatherlight Saga. Like Mountain, Magic 2010 lands occupy two of the top three most commonly reprinted artworks on Forest cards: the second one being Jim Nelson's single giant tree from #249.


Swamp
(45 arts reprinted more than once)

The most-reprinted Swamp artwork - tied for third most amongst all basic land reprints with Cliff Childs's M12 Mountain - is from a set that takes place on the same plane as Magic's most recent expert level expansion, War of the Spark: Ravnica: City of Guilds. While it's not explicitly stated in the set itself that Richard Wright's sprawling, towered, bridged, underground cityscape on card #298 represents one of the city-plane's ten two-colored guilds, there is evidence that it depicts a dwelling place of the Black/Red Cult of Rakdos. Like Forest, we have a two-way tie for second place in Swamp, and also like Forest, they are tied with eight reprintings apiece. ALSO like Forest, the earlier one is also from a pre-modern expert level expansion, this one from the second Otaria-focused block called Onslaught. Dan Frazier, the artist of pale, pink-flower-including pale bog on #341, has the distinction of also being the illustrator for the very first ever printed Swamp. Like Mountain, there is also a Magic 2012 land art in Swamp's top three, and it's the third land so far to feature a flock of birds, this one flapping over some green brackish water and in front of some dead gray trees. I'm assuming that Jung Park, the illustrator of #240, pronounces his name like Jung Ho Kang (or, more appropriately, as in Jund), rather than Carl Jung, given that both Park and Kang are Korean names, but I might be making an ass out of you and me by jumping to that conclusion.


Island
(45 arts reprinted more than once)

Picture a beach, with waves gently lapping against the shore, which is strewn with sharp hooked poles, sticking out of... dark rocks, with a foreboding giant outcropping looming in the distance. That's the scene on John Avon's #336 from the above-mentioned Invasion set, which I didn't mention before focuses on the Phyrexian invasion of Dominaria. Now imagine you're on a somewhat different beach, the orientation of which is the same, only this time the waves aren't gently lapping at the shore: they're spilling over from a humongous bowl-like rock formation that towers over you, seems to have its own weather patterns, and obstructs all view of the horizon. That's what you'd be seeing if you imagined Cliff Childs's artwork from #235 from the Magic 2012 Core Set. Also, both of those pieces of art have been reprinted nine times.


Plains
(43 [REALLY!? SKIPPING ONE!?!?] arts reprinted more than once)

We're here at the end, because the co-leaders in Plains art reprints are the smallest among all basic land types, appearing in just seven sets each beyond their original printings. The earlier of the two aforementioned original printings was from Invasion, a set that featured top-two art reprints for three of the five basic lands. John Avon's art for Plains #331, depicting a low angle shot of a field of wheat, conjures up images from the film Gladiator. However I imagine this is merely a coincidence, since the Ridley Scott-helmed Best Picture winner was released just five months before Invasion's print run, which means the artwork must have been commissioned long before that. While the overly-represented Magic 2010 was the first ever Core Set to include new art printings of basic lands, it wasn't until four years later that we got a Core Set Plains with real sticking power. Plains #233 from M14 features art by Andreas Rocha, which does a great job of conveying the expansiveness associated with prairie, steppe, and grassland, while also giving us a sense of perspective of the surrounding landscapes.

Plains - Magic Basic Lands Reprints

Last year, I did a deep dive into an aspect of Magic: the Gathering that has always fascinated me: new art reprints. If you don't want to click the link and read my previous post(s), the general idea is that I covered the top five cards (in terms of frequency) that have been reprinted with a piece of artwork that's different from its original printing. When I say "cards" above, I'm referring to spells and nonbasic lands; while Basic Land is the card type that has the most new art reprints, with four to five different versions of each appearing in many sets, they're also fundamentally different from any other card in Magic, given that a player can have as many as they want in their decks. What's more, each basic land type (Plains, Island, Swamp, Mountain, Forest) features many pieces of art that appear in multiple sets, sort of the opposite of a new art reprint. Considering this distinction, it's much more interesting to look at which lands' art pieces have been reprinted the most amount of times. At least that's what I kept telling myself when I put together the database from which the following excerpt has been taken:

The above image is a list of every Basic Land - Plains that has had its artwork reprinted more than once. Plains is a good place to start, not just because white mana sits at the top of the color wheel, but because the leader - or rather, co-leaders - in Plains art reprints is the smallest among all basic land types, appearing in seven sets beyond their original printings. The earlier of the two aforementioned original printings was Invasion, a very important set in Magic's history, it being the culmination of the iconic Weatherlight Saga. John Avon's art for Plains #331, depicting a low angle shot of a field of wheat, conjures up images from the film Gladiator. However I imagine this is merely a coincidence, since the Ridley Scott-helmed Best Picture winner was released just five months before Invasion's print run, which means the artwork must have been commissioned long before that. Magic 2010 (released in 2009, like new car models) was the first ever Core Set to include new art printings of basic lands, but it wasn't until four years later that we got a Core Set Plains with real sticking power. Plains #233 from M14 features art by Andreas Rocha, which does a great job of conveying the expansiveness associated with prairie, steppe, and grassland, while also giving us a sense of perspective of the surrounding landscapes.

Another reason why Plains is a good place to start this feature is that its next-most-common group of same-art-reprints (with six reprints each) includes a good reason to talk about the mistakes in Magic's first ever Core Set. Originally released in August 1993, the Alpha printing of Limited Edition included only two of each type of basic land, the Plains versions of which (illustrated by Jesper Myrfors) appear above. While they look very similar in terms of color and composition, notice the subtle addition of trees in the second one. In the Beta printing (October 1993), a third basic land of each type was added, after being mistakenly left out of the first print run. See the next section for the third "original" Plains.

2008's Shards of Alara expansion - which is based on three-color combinations known as "shards" - had a fun gimmick regarding the art on basic lands: one artist was assigned to illustrate four lands per shard, two from the central color and one each for the two flanking colors. Michael Komarck got the lands for the Bant shard (Green-White-Blue), which means he illustrated two Plains, one Island, and one Forest. The second of these two Plains (#232, depicting a tree-dotted hill with a castle in the distance and a tranquil stream in the foreground) is the third card pictured above. In an even more fun basic land gimmick, the following year's Zendikar expansion featured full art lands (a concept that debuted in 1998's parody set Unglued). Our old pal John Avon provided the pillar-esque art for Plains #230, although every subsequent reprint of the image featured a cropped version with the traditional card frame.

Rounding things out, five Plains have pieces of art that have been reprinted five times, three of which are from expansion sets we've seen before. First on the list (i.e. the earliest to be released) is the aforementioned Beta Plains that was unintentionally left out of the Alpha print run, this one with a flat foreground, as opposed to the U-shaped ones from Jesper Myrfors's two Plains from Alpha. Number two is the first of Michael Komarck's Plains from Shards of Alara (#231), which leans more into the Green mana side of Bant (hence all those trees). And number four is another full art land from Zendikar, and unlike John Avon's above installment from the same set, this hedron-filled one by Vincent Proce (#233) has been reprinted in its full art version, for 2015's return to the plane, Battle for Zendikar. Speaking of John Avon, his art for Plains #231 in the Magic 2010 Core Set shares many elements of his above-pictured Invasion Plains, most notably the overall burnt-umber coloring and its placement in a field. The main differences are that the path is emphasized, the point of view is slightly wider, so we see more of the sunset in the distance, and the vegetation looks more like tall grass than crops. The final Plains on this list is also from a Core Set (#232 from Magic 2013), and while Nils Hamm's artwork doesn't feature much in the way of details in the landscape, the color scheme and gentle lines present a very pleasant-seeming environment indeed.


Next time I'll continue around the color wheel and take a journey into Magic's most-reprinted artwork for Islands.

Fantasy Astrology 2019 Memorial Day Update

Two weekends ago, a lot was made about Memorial Day serving as the approximate quarter pole of the MLB season. And yet I still haven't posted anything baseball related since Spring Training. That's because of two video game-related reasons: 1) I have been editing Let's Play videos of the 2018 smash hit Red Dead Redemption 2 - you can view the first four episodes here, with no timetable for future releases. And 2) I have been using MLB 19: The Show to simulate a full season based on my patented Fantasy Astrology rosters. The results are in the books (no spoilers, since I'll likely try to post some highlights on YouTube, if I can tear myself away from the wild west), and I've since moved on to updating the rosters as of the said Memorial Day milestone.

This exercise has brought into focus the differences between setting a traditional fantasy lineup (which follows how real life major league players perform in actual games) and building a roster for a simulation (which uses computer models of each player based on quantifiable skillsets). To set the former, fantasy team owners must rely on Rankings (at least until they have a large enough sample size of statistics in the current season), whereas to build the latter, video game players can go off the game's displayed Ratings for various attributes (e.g. stamina for pitchers, contact/power hitting for batters). For Rankings, lower is better (i.e. Mike Trout is the #1 ranked fantasy player), while for Ratings, higher is better (i.e. Mike Trout's overall rating is 99 out of 100).

With these general parameters in mind, I tallied up the Ratings for each player in the Fantasy Astrology landscape in an effort to gauge the general talent level of the 12 Fantasy Astrology teams/signs. The results might shock and surprise you... or then again, they may not!

One thing that should come as no shock: when adding up the ratings from every player in a particular sign's talent pool, the sum total of ratings directly correlates to the number of players in that sign's pool. Thus Virgo, with its 137 players, predictably towers over signs with a player pool that numbers in the low 100's, or even the 90's, as in Aquarius and Scorpio. Where things get interesting is when you calculate the average rating across each player pool. The range is not very wide at all, with all but three signs averaging some fraction of 70, but there is a somewhat clearer hierarchy that emerges. Using the averages, Aries comes out on top, as the only sign with an average player that tops 71, despite having 16 fewer players to work with than Virgo. Following them, we have last year's surprise champion Gemini (70.94), then the always dangerous Leo (70.82), before we get to the league leading sign (70.73).

Next, to try and even the playing field, I added up the ratings over each sign's top 40 and top 25 players, since that's the maximum amount of players an MLB team can have on its expanded and active rosters, respectively. Keep in mind that I didn't go through and construct full rosters, balanced for positions and all that, but rather just sorted the Rating column best-to-worst and tallied up the appropriate number of players. Doing this causes the totals and the averages to line up (which is logical, since we're dividing by the same number of players each time), but it also causes Virgo to jump back into the lead across all metrics. In fact, there are only two changes when moving from the 40- to the 25-player selections: Libra and Gemini swap positions between #4 and #5, and Scorpio leapfrogs Pisces and Capricorn, moving from #11 to #9, and pushing the other two down correspondingly. It's a very small margin (especially where the 25-player sample is concerned, with just 2 numbers separating 1st place Virgo and 2nd place Aries) and the average range is quite narrow (although not nearly as narrow as when you look at the entire player pool), but again, it's a good snapshot of what the most powerful signs in the sky are.

It's anyone's guess if/how these video game-based analytics correlate to what's actually going on in the fantasy astrology landscape as it applies to the actual major leagues, but consider this a baseline to start with as we head into the summer.