Rest in Peace by Jarel Threat

The original painting to Magic: The Gathering’s Rest in Peace, from the Amonkhet Remastered set for Magic Arena is from Jarel Threat. Painting is: Oil on canvas, 15" x 21" (38.1cm x 53.34cm)
--
Rest in Peace is one of the very few amazing sideboard cards in nearly every format.

When this came out, it changed the before/after ability of cards and graveyards. While Leyline of the Void does handle graveyard matters things like reanimator and dredge, it does not affect ones already there. Likewise, Tormod's Crypt is great, but once used, cards can hit the graveyard after. Rest in Peace changed that. It hits the before and it hits the after. Also, do not overlook that tokens too cannot even hit the graveyard for triggered things at all! Undying creatures aren't undead at all, they gone.

The low cost makes it highly splashable into many formats, especially as it it 1W instead of WW. It's very strong and yet, not banned because it is not a mainboard card. If you play dredge though, you sure wish it was banned.

I've seen this in the legacy format a plenty since Dredge is played there heavily. Esper Vial builds with Death and Taxes will have it sure, with modern having it in Azorius Control builds. While I don't know a ton on the pioneer format yet but I have seen Mono-White Devotion decks with this card fairly often.
--
As for the art, Jarel sure did come in strong, didn't he?
This is the artist who was recommended by Donato to art directors and when you see talent meet skill, you get them working with the right folks.

His playful light reference allows for the Amonkhet weapons to be lit without adding obvious and glaring rimlighting or other tricks to make them stand out. He has a great eye for composition which you can see in his personal work.

And yes, that is a wrapped lotus on the mummified character's face. After you look at it, check out the skirt he integrated into the wrappings. They're seamless and details like this is what you'll see when you frame this on your wall.

His muted color palette will lend itself to Magic well, being able to have a ton of depth and perspective with minimal tools. That will lend itself everything from elves in forests, merfolk in water and demons in shadow. He gets it and I'm utterly excited to see what he makes for us next.

Jarel has an incredible amount of detail from cartouche to the weathering of stone beneath them. That attention to detail moves the art from good to great. Add in a highly playable card, and you have an incredible strong artwork as an introduction to Magic.

—

I was so impressed with this being Jarel’s first piece I had to support!