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.
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.
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.
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