After several days of speculation from fans and fellow artists alike, Wizards of the Coast has released a statement confirming that the recently revealed The One Ring artwork, which is set to release in the upcoming Magic: The Gathering set The Hobbit (Universes Beyond), was “unfortunately” plagiarized by renowned MtG artist Dan Frazier.
The controversy surrounding The One Ring artwork has been rapidly building for a few days now, bolstered in part by this thread on the r/magicTCG subreddit. It’s pretty obvious when you put the cards side by side, but Dan Frazier’s artwork (on the left) for the card from the new The Hobbit set bears a striking resemblance to Marta Neal’s version (on the right) from the Tales of Middle-earth set.
Once you flip Neal’s artwork, it’s easy to see. In fact, the runes from Neal’s version of the card can still be partially seen on the artwork from Frazier’s version. Both artists have been working for Wizards of the Coast for quite some time now, but Frazier worked on the very first MTG set, Limited Edition Alpha, which was released in 1993.
Frazier’s artwork is featured on some of the most iconic Magic: The Gathering cards of all time, including Ring of Ma’rûf, Berserk, the first version of Swamp, and, of course, every single original Mox and Signet card. As a result, some fans assumed that the cards were merely very similar, and that Fraizer hadn’t intentionally plagiarized his fellow artist’s work.
As spotted by Polygon, this was reinforced by the fact that Frazier’s agent replied to a post on Facebook by fellow Wizards of the Coast artist, Donato Giancola, which stated: “After several changes requested we never saw this version.”
However, Wizards of the Coast and Frazier put out a joint statement on Bluesky this morning confirming that the similarities between the two artworks “are not coincidental.”
“I made a mistake, and I feel awful. I especially feel for Marta, whose work I adore,” reads Frazier’s part of the statement. “In trying to create an iconic version of The One Ring, while looking at references online, I ended up using Marta’s Ring as a reference and painted over it to try to depict the item the fans hold dear to their hearts. In doing so, I didn’t make it my own. I’m reaching out to Marta privately to apologize artist to artist.”
While Wizards of the Coast notes that Frazier’s mistake was not “intentional,” it did state that the company plans to compensate Marta Neal and credit her on “digital versions” of The One Ring card. Wizards of the Coast closed out the statement by saying, “Thank you to the eagle-eyed fans who noticed this, and for all of you for being strong advocates for amazing art and artists.”
The MTG maker said it still appreciates Frazier’s contributions. “This is a good moment to recognize that we are all humans who make mistakes,” the company wrote. “Dan made a mistake. We made a mistake in our process to not catch the error. We don’t condone or accept either, but we still value Dan and his contributions and are grateful for his place in the game.”
