gatheringsteveargylesmagic

[gatheringsteveargylesmagic]

Gathering Steve Argyle's Magic turned 10 today!

[gatheringsteveargylesmagic]

What’s this?!

Is the Ascended Minion Project coming back to tumblr?!

GAME SHOW 27!

The Ascended Minion Project Game Show is back for a trial run on tumblr!  (Is anyone still following this blog?)

If so then a few things first:

I have repacks of Steve Argyle cards of all sorts and tons of signatures and prizes.  They are listed on eBay and if you want to buy any of them just email me at ascendedminionprojet@gmail.com and I’ll give you a link to the listing.

Two of those packs are being offered as prizes for this game show.

Eleven years ago today was my first ever email to Steve Argyle.  In it I told him about the Liliana of the Veil cosplay I was working on (the first one in the world he ever saw, really!)

Here’s a picture of it…

So… Game Show 27, part 1: How much did the materials cost to make this?  I have it to the penny.  Price is Right rules… whoever guesses closest without going over wins!

Game Show 27, part 2: How many hours did it take me to make this?  I have it to the half hour.  Price is Right rules… whoever guesses closest without going over wins!

Naturally you will have to provide me with a mailing address to receive your prize.

DO NOT ANSWER HERE!  Send your answers to the email above.  I’ll announce the winner on Sunday, October 16, 2022.

[gatheringsteveargylesmagic]

Long time no see Minions!

It;s been a whole year since tumblr announced its ban on adult content and all of the Steve Argyle blogs abandoned ship in solidarity with so many content creators who were being punished by misguided decision-making.

I had hoped we could rebuild elsewhere, and we did… but so many orphans were left behind.  I just need to check on any Minions who may have been holding candles for us here at home… our first home.

Reblog if you are a Minion who needs us!

[gatheringsteveargylesmagic]

Alright Magic Dad... maybe you have some tricks up your sleeve.  I actually was planning on shutting all of my blogs down today... but in a serendipitous moment, this was on top of my dashboard... so I’ll ask you...

I felt, as a blog mostly concerned with art, that joining the sign-off/shut down protest today was important (I will be logging out after this for at least the day) but... why should I stay?  Not just to help ease the suffering of some of my followers who will miss me, I understand that, but anything else?

If someone can tell me some good reasons to stay then maybe I’ll stick around... even though I fear the idea of @staff thinking “See? I knew they were bluffing...” and what that could lead to.

I’ve been avoiding Tumblr the past couple weeks, because I’m scared

I mean, there are actually several reasons I haven’t been very active on Tumblr lately.

Life has been busy

Work has been hectic

I feel out of touch with my fandoms

I feel like I don’t have anything interesting to say

I worry that I’ve peaked

My work laptop now blocks social media sites so I can only post from my phone

These are all factors, but there’s one major factor that I want to talk about.

I’m scared about what’s going to happen if everyone talking about leaving actually does

Every time I log on, I see at least a dozen posts about the “Death of Tumblr” and how everyone is leaving. And while I doubt that the site itself will actually shut down anytime soon, I do worry about losing the relationships and friendships I’ve built on here when people abandon their blogs.

All of that is scary, and it feels like it’s the primary topic for the majority of posts that I’ve been seeing lately. So I’ve been avoiding logging on and seeing those negative posts, and I’ve been hoping that maybe it will be better and things will start to return to normal after December 17th when the new Community Guidelines take effect.

And maybe it will. But one thing I’ve learned in life is that if I’m feeling something, there’s a good chance somebody else is feeling it too. Which means that I’m probably not the only person feeling scared right now. And if that’s the case, then me avoiding Tumblr or staying silent only compounds the problem, because nobody is standing up to say, “I’m still here, I’m sticking around, and things will turn out alright in the end.”

So if you’re reading this, and you’re feeling sad or scared about everyone leaving, I want you to know that you’re not alone. And you won’t be alone on here in 2019 either. I’m sticking around.

Will things be different? Yeah. Things are always changing. Sometimes good changes, sometimes bad changes, and sometimes they’re a bit of both.

Look, I don’t expect anyone to make any promises, and this post isn’t meant to be a line in the sand or broad statement about who is right or wrong. But I’m making a commitment right here that I’m sticking around, and I’m going to do my best to keep making friends and building a community of creative people here on Tumblr.

And if anyone else wants to reblog this and add their support, well… it would certainly help me feel just a little less scared. But either way, I’ll still be here.

[gatheringsteveargylesmagic]

You can always trade it to me...

Speaking of box toppers, I managed to get Liliana for mine, but I'm not sure whether to sell it or keep it. Any helpful thoughts?

Wow, nice!

Well if you have a deck for it, and if you’re like me and love using flashy, gaudy cards, then keep it. It is a really cool card after all. But… that probably isn’t the smart thing to do. The smart thing to do (in my opinion) would be to sell it and use that money to finance a new deck or something. Heck, even if you do plan on using a Liliana, you could easily use that money to buy a normal copy (or two) and still have extra left over for something else.

Unless you’re a collector who likes just having cool and valuable cards, you’re probably better off selling it. It’s not really a card you can easily trade away to others since it’s worth so much (most people don’t carry $300+ cards around with them), so it doesn’t do much good sitting in your binder. Of course, if you do consider yourself a collector, then by all means hold onto it. It is an impressive collector’s item.

[gatheringsteveargylesmagic]

It is my duty to inform you that Brandon Sanderson is the model for a Magic card... in case you guys didn’t know that...

You’re going to want to read the Children of the Nameless Magic: the Gathering novella if…

-you’re interested in seeing Innistrad after the events of Eldritch Moon, as well as seeing some lesser explored religions and segments of the plane

-you’d like to see some demon characters with personality

-you’d like to read about a brand new planeswalker, a human diabolist and demonologist named Davriel Cane

-you just want some good reading material that’s free, high quality, and a significant but manageable length

Link here

[gatheringsteveargylesmagic]

On December 3, 2018 tumblr announced their intention to remove all adult content from any blogs contained therein.  While this decision doesn’t interfere terribly much with my activities there was an avalanche of outcry among the users of the platform that brought some perspectives of the decision that I certainly can agree with.

Most of you who are followers of mine are actually fans of Steve Argyle, like me.  I have been a member of the tumblr community for only the last six years and in that time created a fan club for Steve’s many avid collectors.  It was a lot of fun.

However, I must concede that tumblr has taken a position that is simply against the interests of creative expression and one of the pillars of art.  This simply will not do.  I have decided to join the protest on December 17.  On that day all of my blogs will be shut down for good.

Now I want to point out something important.  Ascended Minion Project will continue.  It does not have a clear future yet (although it seems likely that facebook will be its future home) but keep an eye on the Sketch ‘n’ Skotch group on facebook for updates.  Activities for Ascended Minion Project will not be taking place their but there is a lot of fan overlap so I will make the occasional announcement there.

The Gathering Steve Argyle’s Magic blog may be recreated in another platform in the future, but it will probably be a wiki instead of a blog.

It has been a lot of fun.  Thank you to Steve, Kat, and all of the Minions who helped me make something special.  I hope it will live on!

[gatheringsteveargylesmagic]

So, this blog may lose (or may have already lost) what few posts contain Steve’s nude work.  In the interests of public safety I guess it is a concession I simply must abide with.

A better, more positive Tumblr

Since its founding in 2007, Tumblr has always been a place for wide open, creative self-expression at the heart of community and culture. To borrow from our founder David Karp, we’re proud to have inspired a generation of artists, writers, creators, curators, and crusaders to redefine our culture and to help empower individuality.

Over the past several months, and inspired by our storied past, we’ve given serious thought to who we want to be to our community moving forward and have been hard at work laying the foundation for a better Tumblr. We’ve realized that in order to continue to fulfill our promise and place in culture, especially as it evolves, we must change. Some of that change began with fostering more constructive dialogue among our community members. Today, we’re taking another step by no longer allowing adult content, including explicit sexual content and nudity (with some exceptions).  

Let’s first be unequivocal about something that should not be confused with today’s policy change: posting anything that is harmful to minors, including child pornography, is abhorrent and has no place in our community. We’ve always had and always will have a zero tolerance policy for this type of content. To this end, we continuously invest in the enforcement of this policy, including industry-standard machine monitoring, a growing team of human moderators, and user tools that make it easy to report abuse. We also closely partner with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and the Internet Watch Foundation, two invaluable organizations at the forefront of protecting our children from abuse, and through these partnerships we report violations of this policy to law enforcement authorities. We can never prevent all bad actors from attempting to abuse our platform, but we make it our highest priority to keep the community as safe as possible.

So what is changing?

Posts that contain adult content will no longer be allowed on Tumblr, and we’ve updated our Community Guidelines to reflect this policy change. We recognize Tumblr is also a place to speak freely about topics like art, sex positivity, your relationships, your sexuality, and your personal journey. We want to make sure that we continue to foster this type of diversity of expression in the community, so our new policy strives to strike a balance.

Why are we doing this?

It is our continued, humble aspiration that Tumblr be a safe place for creative expression, self-discovery, and a deep sense of community. As Tumblr continues to grow and evolve, and our understanding of our impact on our world becomes clearer, we have a responsibility to consider that impact across different age groups, demographics, cultures, and mindsets. We spent considerable time weighing the pros and cons of expression in the community that includes adult content. In doing so, it became clear that without this content we have the opportunity to create a place where more people feel comfortable expressing themselves.

Bottom line: There are no shortage of sites on the internet that feature adult content. We will leave it to them and focus our efforts on creating the most welcoming environment possible for our community.

So what’s next?

Starting December 17, 2018, we will begin enforcing this new policy. Community members with content that is no longer permitted on Tumblr will get a heads up from us in advance and steps they can take to appeal or preserve their content outside the community if they so choose. All changes won’t happen overnight as something of this complexity takes time.

Another thing, filtering this type of content versus say, a political protest with nudity or the statue of David, is not simple at scale. We’re relying on automated tools to identify adult content and humans to help train and keep our systems in check. We know there will be mistakes, but we’ve done our best to create and enforce a policy that acknowledges the breadth of expression we see in the community.

Most importantly, we’re going to be as transparent as possible with you about the decisions we’re making and resources available to you, including more detailed information, product enhancements, and more content moderators to interface directly with the community and content.

Like you, we love Tumblr and what it’s come to mean for millions of people around the world. Our actions are out of love and hope for our community. We won’t always get this right, especially in the beginning, but we are determined to make your experience a positive one.

Jeff D’Onofrio CEO

[gatheringsteveargylesmagic]

Welcome to the Ascended Minion Project Clearance Event!

I need to clean up.  There’s just too much of a good thing in the Ascended Minion office.  Thousands of cards and dozens of other things in bags and boxes and binders and shelves.  I’ve spent a few weeks organizing and counting all of the surplus I’ve collected over the last seven years and now I’m ready to share it.

Get your packs here!

I am offering the Steve Argyle Collection Booster to the world.  For $8 (USD) you get 12 cards illustrated by Steve Argyle from across MtG, L5R, Warlord, and others.  There are tokens, binder candy, commons, uncommons, rares, mythics, foils, promos, alters, signatures, artist proofs… and one of those cards (odds - 1:4 packs) could even be like the one pictured above and can be redeemed for some larger item that just can’t be stuffed into a card pack.

Steve Argyle has been a professional artist for over twenty years.  The first few years of his career were primarily spent being part of a computer animation team working on Sony Playstation games.  Possibly the most popular game he worked on was Twisted Metal: Black, and more importantly he created the artwork that was used to illustrate the packaging for both the regular game and the online version.  There are copies of both versions of the game available among the redemption items!

Steve also made cover art for the packaging of two games created by his brother Mark; a card game called Dying Lights and an RPG rulebook for a game called Star Thugs.  There is a copy of each of these games among the redemption items!

During his tenure working on video games he was inspired to finally pursue a career as a freelance fantasy illustrator, the career most people know him for today.  The first client he did work for was a company called Alderac Entertainment Group.  AEG was the producer of a popular collectible card game called Legend of the Five Rings.  Since 2004 he produced nearly 180 different illustrations for the game.  Since this game represents the greatest volume of his published work it also is represented highly in these packs.

There are at least five cards from this game in every pack, and every rarity is represented.  There will be a Ring, common, uncommon, and rare in every pack, as well as either a card of fixed or promotional rarity.  There are signed copies of his very first commissioned illustration, Setai Sensei, among the cards in these packs, and not only that but there is a sealed copy of the Wrath of the Emperor Crane Clan deck among the redemption rewards which is the earliest example of Steve’s art on the packaging of such a product, and the L5R redemption items do not end there!

Between 2004 and 2008 Steve was doing cool stuff like getting published in “d'artiste”, illustrating for Dungeons & Dragons and the Everquest online CCG Legends of Norrath, playing guitar in the band Allyptic, and even getting married to Kat Oertli!

During this time he also began illustrating the second physically-printed CCG in his career, Warlord: Saga of the Storm.  The game did not enjoy significant popularity in this part of the world and was discontinued in 2011.  Singles of this game are hard to come by, but there are as many among the cards in these packs as I could get my hands on.  They are not guaranteed, but maybe you’ll be lucky enough to get one!

In 2008 Steve began illustrating Magic: the Gathering, and chances are very good that this is where you first heard of him.  Most of his fans are already avid collectors of this game so it is not heavily represented in these packs.  You are guaranteed to get two non-rare, non-foil MtG cards.  There are some other Magic cards floating around in the pool, including foils, signed copies, and even an altered card or two.

Liliana of the Veil and Chandra Ablaze are, being planeswalkers, perhaps still the most popular pieces he has made for the game to date, and while there are no copies of those MtG card in these packs, the illustrations do show up here and there, including a signed Liliana of the Veil print and the promotional Jones Soda “Purifying Fire” bottle where Chandra Ablaze first appeared, among the many other redemption items bearing MtG illustrations!

There are a few other interesting, and even hard-to-come-by items in the packs as well as in the redemption items.  I don’t want spoil all of surprise but there is one specific item in the redemption item pool I want to mention.  A game that Steve worked on that never made it to mass-manufacture.  A few demo versions of the game were made in 2011 but they are very rare.  A sealed copy of one of those games can be found here, and maybe you can be among the few Steve Argyle collectors to possess the cards he made for Crossroads!

(Redemption cards expire 7/1/19.  You are responsible for shipping of redemption items)

[gatheringsteveargylesmagic]

Probably.  WotC works about three years in advance so it would make sense that three years after Steve was unable to work for a while sets were completed that were releasing the following year.  Also the game has been adding more artists to their pool which dilutes it and makes every artist appear a little less often... at least I hope that explains the lower numbers to the right...

Another decent year for @steveargyle… here’s hoping for a climb for 2019!

[gatheringsteveargylesmagic]

Here’s an article that explains this conversation fairly well... and, of course, it mentions Steve Argyle as an example of the many digital artists in Magic...

(By the way... I do look at every piece... try it, it takes months.)

Ultimate Masters

Vengeful Rebirth by Seb McKinnon

Ultimate Masters full visual spoiler appeared on Wednesday.  It is full of tasty reprints and lovely alternate artworks of favorite spells, but one caught my eye more than any other.

I have heard many times that fans of the game would like to see Magic return to the charming art style that attracted so many people to the game twenty or more years ago.

This illustration is a step in a good direction.  I would like to see more of this less-cinematic art direction a lot more often.  The game needs to be infused more obviously with this sort of fine work.

@wizardsmagic never listens to me… but if you agree then maybe boost this sentiment.

[gatheringsteveargylesmagic]

Steve Argyle - Magic: the Gathering Ultimate Masters Reckless Charge, card # 143/254

[Overall release #151] - [Regular release #72] - [Alternate Art #17]

Ultimate Masters releases on December 7, 2018.  Steve Argyle illustrated three of the cards in the set.  All of the cards in this set are reprints but some have new illustrations.  Steve provided a new illustration for this card.  These cards are available as foils and non-foils in English and Japanese.

This card was first released in Odyssey, illustrated by Scott M. Fischer in October, 2001.  This is the fifth printing of this card and the first time it has been re-illustrated.

With loads of scars, a blind eye, and a few replaced teeth it is obvious that this character does this fire-himself-out-of-a-cannon thing often.  Steve can be counted on for his little details that carry the narrative.  Here it is a little more obvious than most.

I love how this illustration calls back to his work with the ogre-like Nothrog race of the Warlord: Saga of the Storm CCG.  Sargok, from 2006, is a good example.

I think Steve broke out his custom Kresh-hair brush for this piece, but that’s nothing compared with the complexion of this creature.  Go ahead and take a second look at those arms and just try and count the colors.  Remember, if you study the shadows you see everything.

[gatheringsteveargylesmagic]

Steve Argyle - Magic: the Gathering Ultimate Masters Liliana of the Veil, card # 104/254

[Overall release #150] - [Reprint release #59]

Ultimate Masters was announced on November 5, 2018.  The forty cards within the Ultimate Box Topper packs that were distributed by surprise in early November, as well as their regular release counterparts.  Liliana of the Veil was one of those forty cards, so this regular Ultimate Masters version was shown in the announcement.  It was revealed that the set’s release date was merely weeks away on December 7, 2018.

The set packaging was also shown and Liliana of the Veil appears as one of the booster pack wrap illustrations.  This is the second time that this artwork was used for booster packs, the first being the first release of the card in Innistrad.

Ultimate Masters will only be available in English and Japanese.

The set will have a preview event at PAX Philadelphia starting on November 30, so these cards will become available for the first time at that event.  Pastimes Games also announced four different versions of special "Magic PAX Unplugged" Liliana of the Veil playmats that will be available for sale to event registrants.

This is the fifth printing of this card.  For more information and my discussion of the artwork please see my post about the original Innistrad printing.

[gatheringsteveargylesmagic]

Steve Argyle - Magic: the Gathering Ultimate Masters Whirlwind Adept, card # 082/254

[Overall release #149] - [Reprint release #58]

Ultimate Masters releases on December 7, 2018.  Steve Argyle illustrated three of the cards in the set.  All of the cards in this set are reprints but some have new illustrations.  Steve provided a new illustration for one card.  These cards are available as foils and non-foils in English and Japanese.

These reprints have no watermark and have no reminder text for Hexproof, leaving room for some new flavor text.

This is the first reprinting of this card.  For more information and my discussion of the artwork please see my post about the original Khans of Tarkir printing.

[gatheringsteveargylesmagic]

Welcome to the Ascended Minion Project Clearance Event!

I need to clean up.  There’s just too much of a good thing in the Ascended Minion office.  Thousands of cards and dozens of other things in bags and boxes and binders and shelves.  I’ve spent a few weeks organizing and counting all of the surplus I’ve collected over the last seven years and now I’m ready to share it.

Get your packs here!

I am offering the Steve Argyle Collection Booster to the world.  For $8 (USD) you get 12 cards illustrated by Steve Argyle from across MtG, L5R, Warlord, and others.  There are tokens, binder candy, commons, uncommons, rares, mythics, foils, promos, alters, signatures, artist proofs... and one of those cards (odds - 1:4 packs) could even be like the one pictured above and can be redeemed for some larger item that just can’t be stuffed into a card pack.

Steve Argyle has been a professional artist for over twenty years.  The first few years of his career were primarily spent being part of a computer animation team working on Sony Playstation games.  Possibly the most popular game he worked on was Twisted Metal: Black, and more importantly he created the artwork that was used to illustrate the packaging for both the regular game and the online version.  There are copies of both versions of the game available among the redemption items!

Steve also made cover art for the packaging of two games created by his brother Mark; a card game called Dying Lights and an RPG rulebook for a game called Star Thugs.  There is a copy of each of these games among the redemption items!

During his tenure working on video games he was inspired to finally pursue a career as a freelance fantasy illustrator, the career most people know him for today.  The first client he did work for was a company called Alderac Entertainment Group.  AEG was the producer of a popular collectible card game called Legend of the Five Rings.  Since 2004 he produced nearly 180 different illustrations for the game.  Since this game represents the greatest volume of his published work it also is represented highly in these packs.

There are at least five cards from this game in every pack, and every rarity is represented.  There will be a Ring, common, uncommon, and rare in every pack, as well as either a card of fixed or promotional rarity.  There are signed copies of his very first commissioned illustration, Setai Sensei, among the cards in these packs, and not only that but there is a sealed copy of the Wrath of the Emperor Crane Clan deck among the redemption rewards which is the earliest example of Steve's art on the packaging of such a product, and the L5R redemption items do not end there!

Between 2004 and 2008 Steve was doing cool stuff like getting published in "d'artiste", illustrating for Dungeons & Dragons and the Everquest online CCG Legends of Norrath, playing guitar in the band Allyptic, and even getting married to Kat Oertli!

During this time he also began illustrating the second physically-printed CCG in his career, Warlord: Saga of the Storm.  The game did not enjoy significant popularity in this part of the world and was discontinued in 2011.  Singles of this game are hard to come by, but there are as many among the cards in these packs as I could get my hands on.  They are not guaranteed, but maybe you'll be lucky enough to get one!

In 2008 Steve began illustrating Magic: the Gathering, and chances are very good that this is where you first heard of him.  Most of his fans are already avid collectors of this game so it is not heavily represented in these packs.  You are guaranteed to get two non-rare, non-foil MtG cards.  There are some other Magic cards floating around in the pool, including foils, signed copies, and even an altered card or two.

Liliana of the Veil and Chandra Ablaze are, being planeswalkers, perhaps still the most popular pieces he has made for the game to date, and while there are no copies of those MtG card in these packs, the illustrations do show up here and there, including a signed Liliana of the Veil print and the promotional Jones Soda "Purifying Fire" bottle where Chandra Ablaze first appeared, among the many other redemption items bearing MtG illustrations!

There are a few other interesting, and even hard-to-come-by items in the packs as well as in the redemption items.  I don't want spoil all of surprise but there is one specific item in the redemption item pool I want to mention.  A game that Steve worked on that never made it to mass-manufacture.  A few demo versions of the game were made in 2011 but they are very rare.  A sealed copy of one of those games can be found here, and maybe you can be among the few Steve Argyle collectors to possess the cards he made for Crossroads!

(Redemption cards expire 7/1/19.  You are responsible for shipping of redemption items)

[gatheringsteveargylesmagic]

Another decent year for @steveargyle... here’s hoping for a climb for 2019!

[gatheringsteveargylesmagic]

Steve Argyle - Alternate Art Magic the Gathering re-releases

Steve has done alternate artwork for seventeen different Magic cards during his career (approximately one piece out of five for his portfolio.)  One of those, Briber’s Purse, was his own work to begin with and was originally a regular release card.  Twelve of these were promos or some other non-traditional release, the other five were regular release cards.