Just one day after announcing his new hobbit cards for Magic: The Gathering, Wizards of the Coast is responding to backlash and accusations of plagiarism.
Fans online noticed that the “One Ring” card art by artist Dan Frazier shared similarities with previous art by Marta Nael, who made her own “One Ring” art for magic 2023 cross set with the lord of the rings. Both versions can be seen below, which shows that Nael has elven runes and is held by Gollum in the fires of Mount Doom, while Frazier has the ring glowing without runes.
in a statementFrazier and Wizards called this “(unfortunately) not a coincidence.” The former apologized to Nael, saying he felt “especially horrible. (…) In trying to create an iconic version of the One Ring, while searching for references online, I ended up using (his art) as a reference and painted over it.” Frazier went on to say that he would apologize privately to Nael, saying that he was “sorry for letting my fans down.”
Wizards was equally “disappointed” for not catching Frazier’s actions during the review process and apologized. “None of this was intentional,” the company said, “but we’re going to correct it as much as we can. On the digital versions of the card, we’ll credit both Dan and Marta, and we’ll make sure she’s compensated for her work here.” This controversy comes days after the Wizards team Sand The staff formed the company. first unionwhich Wizards has not yet recognized.
A message from Dan Frazier and Wizards of the Coast: pic.twitter.com/4VCM8avcay
— Magic: The Gathering (@wizards_magic) May 2, 2026
Thanking the “eagle-eyed fans” who caught the use of the art, Wizards acknowledged it and Frazier “made mistakes. (…) We neither approve nor accept either, but we still value Dan and his contributions, and are grateful for his place in the game.”
At the time of writing this article, the hobbit The set is still expected to release on August 14.
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