Black Lotus (4 x 4 Repaint)

For the original Black Lotus painting, Alpha artist Christopher Rush implemented an experimental painting technique using acrylic paints and a plastic grocery bag for the background image, leaving a void area to paint the foreground lotus figure. Black Lotus is hands down the single most powerful, iconic, and valuable piece of cardboard ever printed. It has only been printed in Alpha, Beta and Unlimited (1993). As a 0-mana artifact, its simple ability to add three mana of any single color for zero cost makes it arguably the strongest card in Magic’s entire history. Some of the most famous plays in Magic history- turn one wins, infinite combos, or game breaking tempo swings all start with this card. Early tournaments in the 1990’s were dominated by decks using it (e.g. 1994 World Championships Zack Dolan’s “The Deck”). The card is so powerful that every top-performing deck in Vintage that can play it, does. It’s considered an auto-include, regardless of the archetype in every format its legal. Black Lotus is restricted in Vintage and Old School (93/94). It’s banned in every other sanctioned format (Standard, Legacy, Modern, and Commander) because of how broken it is. Black Lotus is on the Reserved List; Wizards of the Coast has officially stated that it will never be reprinted, not even in promotional or digital sets.