Card Illustration

Card Illustration is the artwork that features on the Card Frame.

Details

For most cards, such as Creatures, Spells, Cross Gear and Castles, the illustration is printed on the upper half of the Card Frame.

As with Flavor Text, it isn't tied to gameplay, but it provides an illustrative look into the Story of the Creature World.

• Some artists have art for various groups of characters. Ittoku has done the Ballom family, Toshiaki Takayama has done the NEX name category, and TUBAKI HALSAME has done various Katsudon.
• Many of the artworks have carefully drawn details in the background behind the main focus of the art, but this can sometimes be hidden by the foil process. The full artwork of a card can be seen on the artists website or Pixiv.com account.

While Duel Masters is aimed at a low/juvenile age group, there are some artworks with a serious theme. However, after Dreammate and Great Mecha King in the Phoenix Saga, various comical things are also increasing. There are many cards with a "grotesque" appearance in the Darkness Civilization cards in the past, as well as on aliens.

The card illustration of cards with a Victory Rare, Super Rare, Very Rare card rarity after the Revolution block have an illustration that extends beyond the frame. After the Sengoku Saga, various sections of the art had also protruded over the frame, leading to misalignment with sections of the card frame such as the race.

In the Super Deck Cross series of Theme Decks, a Full Frame Foil card frame appeared where the illustration was featured over the entire card.

Unlike the first printing of the card, when being reprinted in a theme deck or reprint set with a different or extended artwork, it is known as Alternate Artwork.

The illustration area of reprinted cards has been extended slightly due to the New Frames that were introduced in DMR-01 Episode 1: First Contact as well as DMRP-01 Here Come the Jokers!!. Objects in the background of the art have become more visible.

More humanoid female characters (outside of Snow Faerie) were released in other races after the Episode 1 block. This was seen in the Outrage, Oracle and Human races.

While most cards have a card illustration, there are exceptions with the DMX-22 Super Black Box Pack printing of Faerie Life and Ultimate Man.