Image courtesy of Scryfall.com
Exploring Fated Conflagration Art Across MTG Printings
Data can be a dazzling storyteller, especially when it peels back the layers of MTG’s art history. Fated Conflagration, a fiery instant carved into the Born of the Gods set, offers a tidy case study in how artwork travels—or, more often, how it patiently stays put. We’re diving into the numbers, the print history, and the visual storytelling that makes this red spell feel both singular and part of a broader art ecosystem. For the curious collector or the player who loves a little arcane trivia, this is where the flame meets the spreadsheet 🧙🔥⚔️.
Card snapshot: what this red instant brings to the table
- Name: Fated Conflagration
- Set: Born of the Gods (BTG/BNG) — 2014
- Rarity: Rare
- Color identity: Red (R)
- Mana cost: {1}{R}{R}{R} (CMC 4)
- Type: Instant
- Text: Fated Conflagration deals 5 damage to target creature or planeswalker. If it's your turn, scry 2.
- Artwork: Adam Paquette
- Foil / Nonfoil: Both available
- Availability: Print run tied to Born of the Gods; no official reprint flag beyond current printing
In practice, Fated Conflagration rewards aggressive play with a little extra planning—your opponent’s board presence can crumble under the 5-damage blast, and if you happen to cast it on your own turn, you get a touch of scry to smooth the top of your library. The combination of immediate impact and a touch of card quality makes this spell a memorable tempo tool in red-themed decks 🧭🔥.
Art reprints in MTG: why some images multiply while others stay singular
Art reprints happen all the time in MTG, and the conversation around them is part of the hobby’s texture. Some artworks are recycled across multiple prints, sometimes with border changes or new frame treatments, sometimes as promo variants or special editions. Others, like this Fated Conflagration, appear to have a single canonical artwork across its prints. The data snapshot here shows a distinct reality: the card’s reprint flag is false, and the current data points toward Born of the Gods as the sole home for this image, with foil and nonfoil options available but no official alternate-art reprint recorded in standard cycle terms. This doesn’t mean the art will never appear again—MTG loves to surprise—but it does place Fated Conflagration in a category where the image remains tightly linked to a single printing history for now 🧪🎨.
Art often travels in waves: some images become ocean liners with many ports; others stay anchored to a single harbor, waiting for a future voyage or a new format. Either way, the artistry adds texture to the card’s memory and to the player’s storytelling.
What the numbers say about this particular print
Let the data do a little glittering math. Born of the Gods introduced Fated Conflagration as a Rare red instant, featuring a compact but punishing 4-mana cost. The card’s current market signals and historic reception offer a neat snapshot into how art-anchored prints fare in the wild:
- Price snapshot (as of the provided data): USD 0.09 (non-foil); USD 0.19 (foil); EUR 0.12 (non-foil); EUR 0.16 (foil); TIX around 0.02.
- EDH/Commander value signal: EDHREC rank around 22,468, hinting at modest but steady interest in casual formats where a big-damage spell can shine in red-themed pods 🎲.
- Foil premium: Foil versions exist and generally carry a small premium over nonfoil, reflecting the foil’s desirability in display-worthy decks.
- Print history: The piece sits in Born of the Gods with no current, widely documented reprint in other sets, reinforcing its identity as a singular art moment within the Theros-influenced block 🔥.
From a collector’s lens, those numbers tell a story: Fated Conflagration isn’t a chase-card in the same way as some mythic staples from past eras, but the art and its scarcity within a single printing window can still be a source of pride for fans who savor high-contrast red imagery and the drama of a dragon’s-? flame aesthetic (Adam Paquette’s work brings energy to the scene, with that classic 2010s MTG feel 🎨).
Why art choices matter to players and collectors alike
Art is more than decoration; it’s an interface with the card’s personality. A single image can shape how a spell feels when you draw it—do you see a battlefield aflame with reckless abandon, or a more controlled blaze tempered by scrying precision? For red instant fans, Fated Conflagration packs a punch that’s as much about tempo as it is about spectacle. The alignment with the Theros-era flavor—mythic warmth, heroics, and a sun-soaked battlefield—helps the card feel timeless in a way that several border-altered or alternate-art cards do not. The art’s consistency across foil and nonfoil prints preserves that identity, giving players a stable frame of reference as they build around the spell’s 5-damage punch and a touch of card selection on your turn 🧙♂️💎⚔️.
“In a world of constantly evolving artwork and print strategies, a well-chosen image can become a fixed beacon for a card’s memory—one that players return to whenever they recall that moment of payoff.”
Takeaways for savvy collectors and curious players
- Single-arts prints can still look striking in foil, especially when the image’s contrast translates beautifully on the foil foil surface.
- Even without broad reprint history, a card’s performance in casual formats and EDH can influence its appeal—this one sits in a comfortable mid-range for price and playability.
- For those who chase thematic consistency, the Born of the Gods print keeps a strong Theros vibe intact, which matters more than chasing occasional alt-arts for this particular card.
- If you’re curious about actual reprint frequency across MTG, tracking the “reprint” flag and the set history can illuminate a lot about how Wizards disperses artwork over time.
As a window into data-driven card lore, this example shows how a single piece of art can anchor a card’s identity across a decade of MTG’s evolving art language. For fans who love to pair gameplay insight with a love of visuals, the story of Fated Conflagration is a warm reminder that not all flames are fanned in every set—and sometimes the spark is exactly where you left it: in a carefully preserved illustration by Adam Paquette, waiting for your next red package drop 💥🎲.