So, this seemed like a fun idea. Some walkers have had a number of cards, and of those, there are a fair few whose art has stood out. For better or worse.

So, taking into consideration all depictions of walkers, from not just their cards, but also cameos, who do you think does THE absolute version of the various walkers?

For my money, Michael Komarck is the guy to go to for either Gideon or Sorin. So much so for Gideon that... look, can we just agree Ally of Zendikar feels like he should be rounding up humans from horseback and stumbling across Charleston Heston?

The person who did Attune with Aether captures the nuNissa fairly well.

Ajani: Chris Rahn
Chandra: Steve Argyle. For images that have actually gotten on cards? Eric Deschamps. Runner Up Winona Nelson
Daretti: Dan Scott
Elspeth: Volkan Baga
Garruk: Tyler Jacobson
Gideon: David Rapoza but there's a ton of room for him to be done better
Jace: Jason Chan... damnit.
Liliana: Steve Argyle, but there's a TON of competition.
Nissa: Willian Murai, but a close second from Peter Mohrbacher
Sarkhan: Daarken
Sorin: Michael Komarck
Tezzeret: Aleksi Briclot

Edit: Yes, I know these are all 'walker cards, but to me I just haven't found a cameo that's more impressive or iconic than the 'walker themselves. Close are Dark Dabbling, Unholy Hunger, and Tezzeret's Ambition. Scrap Mastery might be better than Daretti 1.0 for showing off the character but it's also by Dan Scott, so...

I prefer Wayne Reynolds' Ajani Vengeant and Mohrbacher's Nissa, Worldwaker

Re: Ajani
ooooh... tough one. Wayne Reynolds* does an extremely strong piece, but Chris Rahn has that brilliant mood piece.
Suffice to say at least, raymond swanland shouldn't do it. I'd be interested in seeing Chris Rallis give it a go.

* Actually, Jason Chan does a damn good one too.

Garruk: You know, I still like Aleksi Briclot's Garruk best. He just loves that helmet so damn much.

My preference for Reynolds is odd. Usually he does this weird thing with his subjects' chests that puts me off.

I mean, you aren't wrong. They're all pretty much pulling the 'come at me bro' pose.
His color and line work are superb and that style is really iconic, but... yeah, he's got a comfort zone.

I don't really like any of them except tibalt so whoever did that.

If it could be, I'd rather that neowalkers from here on would be given to these artists whenever they appear, add Chris Rallis, Carla Ortiz and Anna Steinbauer to the mix.

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Anyway, sort of along the topic, considering Commander's throwback-y nature, if given the chance, which possible Oldwalker (who's going to be given a card in Commander) would you give to which artist?

For me, I've always wanted Mark Zug doing a Serra Planeswalker card (but the possible challenged of getting old timer MTG artists... this is dwindling by the year)

Mark Zug seems like a fitting choice for Serra, but I could also see Rebecca Guay doing it, especially if we also got Feroz along with her. Sure, her style is unlike anything we've seen on a 'walker card, but she has illustrated Serra a couple of times on cards, she did the Homelands comic and it would go with her From the Vault Serra Angel. It really comes down to which direction you want the style to go in and which phase of Serra's life you want to evoke. I think Donato Giancola would also work really well for Serra.

I really want to see a Leshrac card with splashy artwork in a modern Magic art style, I don't care much for who does it. I could definitely see Peter Mohrbacher nailing Leshrac, but he doesn't really work for WotC anymore, so maybe I'd pick Karla Ortiz or even Aleksi Briclot to do Leshrac.
Freyalise really needs better artwork than the one she got on her card, but I don't have a strong preference about who should give it a try.
Given the fantastic job Donato Giancola does with metal surfaces, I wouldn't say no to him doing the next card for Karn.

Guay or Zug would be perfect for Serra. I don't care which -- Zug perfectly captured the artistic style of Serra's Sanctum in his work in Urza's block, while Guay has already formed the image of the character with her work on the Homelands comic.

Raymond Swanland for Leshrac, IMO. Yeah, I know, Captain Spiky Things On Fire, but hear me out. I know Leshrac from the armada comics and his appearance there is sharp. Spiky even. He's got long limbs, sharp fingernails, sharp-cornered tatters on his robe, sharp jagged fireballs orbiting him, crazy hair that would turn Grandmother Sengir green with envy, even his wrinkled skin looks not so much withered as jagged. And while Swanland misses a lot (at least for me), when he hits, he really hits. And I think Leshrac is primed for his style.

I mean, Leshrac is spiky and on fire.
And honestly, Swanland does have substantial artistic chops. He's very capable, but I think they really just keep getting him to do the same stuff. Or he phones it in.

Guay for Serra for me, no question. As to the issue of her style, it wouldn't be THAT different than Kiora. Therese did the duel decks too, so there's more to that stack too.

Taysir by Chris Rahn could be interesting.
John Avon for Manatarqua.

One of Swanland's Black Company paintings:



Based on this, he'd do fine with Leshrac.

*

Commander decks based around the Nine Titans. They should get on that ASAP.

They'd never be able to do it, too much overlap in colors for a commander product.
Plus, power armor sucks.

Michael Komarck actually did a pretty good Chandra for TPF.

Going back to the overarching list, I'm actually sort of impressed how many cards Ral is on considering his limited appearance to date.

Jaime Jones has done a number of good walker pieces, some enough that I'd choose those as the quintessential depiction. Unfortunately, I don't have my folder in front of me, so I'm not sure which they were.

Tiresse Nielson Tamiyo should be a thing

I don't like Nielson nearly as much as everyone else, but I'd love a guay tamiyo.

Trigger warning

Can I vote for both? Because I would vote for both.

Actually, the planeswalker I would love to see most from Terese Nielsen would be Jaya Ballard. I would pretty much give my eyeteeth for that.

I feel like Matt Cavotta has a grandfather claim to any Jaya.

Well, looking at the cards Swanland has done so far in Gatherer, I could see his style being surprisingly appropriate for Leshrac. My original train of thought was that I'd like him to be done in a style that looks as realistic as possible, given his appearance already looks kinda stylised to begin with. Karla Ortiz did a great job with Ashiok, and Ashiok is the closest thing to Leshrac we have visually. I could also see Leshrac being done in the style Peter Mohrbacher used for those angels in the other thread. Aleksi Briclot would be a great choice because he's good with fire and weird otherworldy light as well as with cloth and can nail a dark and menacing expression. Then again, his style is even a bit reminiscent of Swanland sometimes.

I think I'd slightly prefer Nielsen over Guay for Tamiyo, but I wouldn't really say no to either. I'd also love to see Tamiyo done by Scott M. Fischer in the style he used for his Kiora (which I consider Kiora's quintessential art btw).
Yes to another Jaya Ballard by Matt Cavotta! I really hope she'll get a planeswalker card some day, preferably one with the commander clause. Being a commander alone would help her carve out her own niche next to Chandra. And they could do fantastic things with the art, too, I loved how her appearance was described post-ignition in The Shattered Alliance.
I think Terese Nielsen would also be a good choice for Freyalise, especially if it's the old-school depicition with the silly hat and the feathered cape from The Eternal Ice and the comics.

I'm also a really big fan of Chase Stone, especially his Feldon of the Third Path. He's just really good with realistic portrayals of people but also with light and magic effects. I think he's one of the people who could do justice to pretty much any 'walker. I also really want him to do Jodah should he ever get his freaking, long overdue card...

I'm with Barinellos there, I think that would be really hard to do in a commander product and would probably turn out to be a mess if they tried it. But an amazing thematic approach I could see working would be mono-colour commander decks based on Ulgrotha and the factions in the Homelands story. I suggested the idea of a Sengir themed deck to Ethan a while ago, though, and he said there were all sorts of problems with reusing the Sengirs that he couldn't really talk about, so, meh. Or they could base a future Conspiracy set on Homelands and let the players re-enact the conflict and intrigue that were going on there with better cards (they wouldn't even need to resolve the cliffhanger of the original story if they didn't want to), but of course that's not happening because life is cold and dark...