Based in Nuremberg, Germany, illustrator Dominik Mayer is one of the rising stars of the Magic: The Gathering art world. Beginning his career in 2020 with a contribution to the Zendikar Revisited Secret Lair Drop, his unique style has featured in many sets since, often as part of a Showcase series.
Mayer’s signature style is so bold, so different from traditional Magic art, that every piece feels like a big event. With his striking use of colour and geometric shapes, he presents abstract takes on what would otherwise be by-the-numbers compositions, giving players a fresh look at the characters and worlds they love.
10 Defiant Strike
Created as part of the Strixhaven Mystical Archive series, this piece transforms a simple white pump spell into a powerful scene worthy of a Greek epic. The piece's hero descends, spear in hand, through a shaft of light onto their target: a colossal leviathan swathed in the dark in the corner of the piece.
The subtle details, including the circular waves and writhing tentacles, help the observant viewer place what is otherwise an abstract scene, while the hero’s pose and accompanying ring of swords convey their spiritual radiance, as well as their physical skill at arms. It all comes together to capture a moment commonly seen in fantasy art, though never quite like this.
9 Urza’s Command
The Brothers’ War marked a major narrative milestone for Magic, finally telling the complete story of one of the game’s most notorious conflicts. It’s appropriate, then, that Urza’s Command, one of Mayer’s contributions to the set, contains so much narrative information in a single piece.
The piece is divided in two, with the tranquil blues on the right reflecting Urza’s peaceful past, or perhaps his dreams for Dominaria’s future, while the harsh, burning reds on the left reflect the lengths he’s gone to achieve said dreams, blending with images of the people he’s lost, and the atrocities he’s committed along the way. It’s an elegant, beautiful summary of one of Magic’s most complex characters.
8 Witness Protection
Mayer’s signature geometric shapes proved an excellent match for New Capenna’s angular, art deco-inspired style, leading him to contribute many pieces to the set. Witness Protection is undoubtedly one of the highlights, presenting a uniquely Magic take on a classic crime concept.
The central character here is shown obscuring their distinctive face through some kind of appearance-altering blue magic. This apparently works perfectly, given how the Plane’s everyday citizens stride straight past him, fading into the shadows of the scene. The abstract chunk of black background serves to ground the piece on New Capenna, with its distinctive hard-angled shapes.
7 Shock
It’s hard to make Shock, a card that has been printed more than 30 times over the course of the game, exciting, but Mayer manages to do so in his fresh take on the card for Strixhaven’s Mystical Archive series. The piece really homes in on the lightning element of the spell, making excellent use of rich blues, whites, and purples, rather than the traditional Shock reds, to give it a fresh coat of paint.
The central orb is absolutely stunning, sharp-angled lightning jutting its way out from the strong electric core. The spell’s caster, well-defined in the light of the blast in the middle of the piece, fades into dark, abstract edges towards the piece’s edge. It’s a piece so striking you’ll feel like you’re seeing Shock for the very first time again.
6 Avenger Of Zendikar
Mayer’s first-ever piece for Magic, this reimagined Elemental, immediately put him on the map as an artist to watch. As the name implies, the Avenger is intended as an extension of Zendikar itself, and this piece captured that idea beautifully, letting the Avenger’s vines cover the majority of the canvas.
The central form here is striking, a kind of fragmented take on the nature-aligned Elementals Magic has seen in the past, while the lush surrounding greens, broken up only by the dark edges of the Avenger’s vines, create a sense of beauty that contrasts with the spiked terror of the Avenger itself.
5 Protect The Negotiators
This Story Spotlight piece from Dominaria United makes stellar use of contrast, pitting Urza’s assembled Titans against a shadowy Phyrexian horde. The genius here is in how reactive the piece is: the purple barrier is textured only by the impact of spears thrust out and enemy attacks; the enemies themselves are defined only in the light of the protective shield they’re trying desperately to break through.
This results in a highly dynamic battle scene, the kind rarely seen on a blue spell in Magic. The subtle yet horrific detailing on the Phyrexians, with their skeletal appendages and glowing eyes, makes sure the viewer knows this is a battle with serious stakes.
4 Repel The Vile
Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty was a fairly radical set in terms of Magic’s visual identity, eschewing the game’s familiar fantasy trappings in favour of bold cyberpunk cityscapes. This piece shows us what a classic fantasy battle would look like in this bold new setting, pitting a Nezumi warrior against some kind of colossal skeleton.
The city itself is boiled down to the essentials here, with high-rise buildings and dazzling lights becoming solid bars of black and yellow in the background. The way the skeleton is shown disintegrating into digital squares is an excellent way of reinforcing the futuristic setting, introducing an element of video game logic that makes sense when paired with a giant skeleton, truly a hallmark of the medium.
3 Thirst For Discovery
Mayer gives us a pleasingly literal take on this blue card draw spell here, pairing the title with an aquatic theme to humorous effect. The natural focal points here, the mysterious spiked phial tumbling down into the watery abyss and the hapless alchemist wistfully following its descent with their eyes, actually take a back seat to Mayer’s incredibly convincing portrayal of water.
With just a few scattered splashes of white and a subtle blue-to-green gradient across the entire piece, Mayer perfectly captures how water moves and shifts in response to the disruption of an object passing through it. It’s a feat of artistic wizardry worthy of the Stromkirk name.
2 Ovika, Enigma Goliath
Phyrexia: All Will Be One’s Showcase style was a serious challenge for the artists involved, demanding the use of a minimalist colour palette to capture the complex figures that defined Phyrexia. Mayer made several strong contributions to this series, with his take on Ovika, the Phyrexian Nightmare, being one of the clear standouts.
This version brings the viewer much closer to Ovika than the original, letting his simple but effective design, a hooded darkness teeming with eyes, shine all the brighter. The subtle blue and red tints interspersed throughout are excellent additions too, helping to differentiate the two halves of the pieces and tie in with the card’s colour identity.
1 Curse Of Hospitality
Channelling the vibes of classic Vampire movies such as A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night, this creepy Curse is a brilliant visual metaphor for how kindness is a dangerous virtue to possess in Innistrad. It shows a young girl fading away into nothingness as a horde of swooping Vampires overwhelms her, clearly taking advantage of her having invited them in.
The core composition here is excellent, making great use of the tried-and-true red, white, and black colour palette, with small details like the trees in the background and the girl’s red hood evoking the kinds of childhood cautionary tales the piece is so clearly based on.