Magic: The Gathering changed up the game yet again in October 2022 by banning The Meathook Massacre from its Standard format, upsetting players who love and rely on the card. On the other hand, many players will be relieved to not have to encounter The Meathook Massacre's incredibly disturbing card art so often anymore.
Lots of Magic cards have amazing and beautiful art, but after 30 years, the game has racked up an impressive array of very creepy imagery for certain cards with horrifying effects. Thanks to Reddit, players have revealed the Magic cards whose art disturbs them most.
Macabre Waltz
Artist: Jim Murray
Macabre Waltz is a common enough card in the game that many people have seen it. And many can agree that the art on the card is extremely creepy.
The card depicts two hideous looking corpses doing a twisted version of the waltz, as depicted by the card title, in a small pool of blood. This matches the card's effect, which allows players to save creatures from their graveyard, but it's still a nightmare-inducing picture to look at. "Everything about the art is unsettling," a Redditor commented.
Thought Scour
Artist: David Rapoza
An effect that people would hate to see in the best movies about magic, Thought Scour's picture shows off a terrifying torture that no one wants to be subjected to.
The image shows a tortured man getting multiple drills to the head, all while screaming. The image is beyond terrifying, as anyone looking at the image can just feel the torture that the poor man is receiving. To add to the horror, the blood leaking from his eyes and mouth looks more like oil. "Magical lobotomies are not cool," Nog64 notes.
Blood Artist
Artist: Johannes Voss
Blood Artist may look harmless enough, but like creepy things spotted in the background of movies, what is up front may not be as innocent as it seems.
The main focus of the image is an artist painting a picture with what at first seems like red paint. But this assumption goes out the window when people focus on the girl hanging upside down in the background. Not only that, but the perspective that people see the card from makes it seem like they're looking through the eyes of another victim on the table. As cheshire26 said, the card is "so majestic and f---ed up and awesome."
Living Wall
Artist: Anson Maddocks
Walls are supposed to be a source of protection for people, but the Living Wall card art takes that sense of protection away.
Instead of a normal wall, this image shows a fleshy mass of eyes, teeth, and, as Folcon noticed, "There's a fetus inside its face!" Living walls are terrifying enough with its eyes and teeth trying to snack on people. Seeing the fetus inside the wall ready to give birth to some new monstrosity really takes the fear factor up to and even beyond what many are comfortable with.
Sensory Deprivation
Artist: Steven Belledin
Horror villains stitching up their victims is something seen all the time, but the Sensory Deprivation card takes that concept to the extreme.
The card depicts someone that has had his eyes and mouth gruesomely sewn shut. Losing access to even one sense is bad enough, but loosing multiple senses at once while being tortured is something else. kisherprice put it best, saying, "I shudder every time I think about something like this."
The Fallen
Artist: Jesper Myrfors
The Fallen, based on the art on the card, would make himself right at home among the scariest Dungeons & Dragons monsters.
The art, while only being that of the monster itself, is creepy in its own right, with a pale face and a creepy smile filled with teeth being the key features. But the monster's eyes are easily the creepiest part about him. Those sunken, red eyes would be perfect for any sort of horror movie. "I had nightmares about this b----," says Redditor squarefan80.
Grixis Slavedriver
Artist: Dave Kendall
Grixis Slavedriver is easily one of the toughest cards to look at, given its context and that, as pointed out by AriDamal, it "has a face stretched over his belly button."
While not quite as terrifying as some of the most nightmare-fueling D&D creatures, Grixis Slavedriver still looks like a nightmare waiting to happen, with its flailed whip ready to strike the skinless creatures it has enslaved. The background weather and landscape only adds to the disturbing nature of the art, as it appears that everyone in the picture is in a boneyard.
Pulling Teeth
Artist: Jim Pavelec
No one likes going to the dentist, a feeling that Pulling Teeth's art clearly shows off and over exemplifies.
This close up shot of a mouth with rope tied to certain teeth ready to pull, is a disturbing image to look at. Reddit user cheesechimp describes this card as "truly grotesquem," and are absolutely right. Everyone can feel the pain that this poor victim is feeling and are already wincing at the overall outcome that this art is leading to. The human mouth is already tough to look at up close as it is, but this disturbing image of it just makes it even worse.
Screeching Skaab
Artist: Clint Cearley
Zombies are scary enough, but the art on the Screeching Skaab card takes that horror further than anything seen before.
The Screeching Skaab art shows the monster emerging from a trapdoor and reaching out for the player, its mouth filled with tongues and fingernails caked in the blood of whatever poor creature it feasted upon earlier. The image is so terrifying that a Redditor commented, "I have 17 copies of Screeching Skaab and I just want to burn them all."
Defang
Artist: Steven Belledin
It's not often that vampires are gotten the better of, but in the case of Defang, a vampire has clearly lost a fight, and the image shown really does put things in perspective.
The art shows a vampire imprisoned, his fangs ripped out, and he's at the mercy of his captors. The card's art is disturbing in the sense that the roles have been flipped: the monster has become the victim, and the victims have become the monsters. As ironprominent points out, "That vampire just looks so terrified that it honestly creeps me out."