There may be other resons that they alter some of the artwork that I am not aware of, but many seemingly innocent images (like basic lands) have unique artwork in Mainland (Simplified) Chinese Magic.

The resulting new artwork varies from the (IMHO) very poor (PO Hulking Cyclops) to the humerous (PO Horned Turtle), to the stunningly beautiful (PO Starlit Angel, above). There are two kinds of Chinese Magic cards - Simplified (Mainland), which are featured here, and Traditional (Taiwan) Chinese. The T-Chinese cards featured here are uniquely collectable, as they are ONLY available in Communist China - not Taiwan, not Singapore, not Japan. The Chinese cards most commonly available through Magic retailers are Traditional Chinese cards. The only way I have found to tell the difference is that the script on the S-Chinese cards appears to be slightly thicker than T-Chinese. Also, S-Chinese portal cards have their expansion symbol colored by rarity (Gold, Silver, Black), while T-Chinese cards do not.

I have also listed below all T-Chinese and Japanese alternate art cards I know of, with an explanation of their origins.

To my knowlege, I have listed every S-Chinese alternate art card that has been printed. If you have info about any that are not listed, here, please contact me at Squt@earthlink.net. Enjoy the list! Thanks!

S-Chinese Portal Alternate Art cards

Below is a list of cards that have altered art in S-Chinese Portal 1. Click on the name to see a larger view of the cards: Black Black is the most commonly altered color in Chinese Magic, for obvious reasons. There are 4 Black Portal 1 cards with new art: Wicked Pact The clearly religious image of a man kneedling in prayer was most likely objectionable enough to get new artwork on this card. Note the gold expansion symbol, showing it to be rare. Raise Dead I'm guessing that it is the religious connotations of the dancing that was objectionable for this, but I'm not certain. Vampiric Feast My guess is that the sleeping women was too scantily clad for China. Assasin's Blade The new image conveys the same act, but is less realistic, and appears to be against some kind of monster instead of an innocent monkey. Blue Horned Turtle Maybe the naked native behind the turtle was objectionable? The resulting new artwork is really goofy, showing a blond, jean-shorts wearin' beach bum (American tourist?) being bitten by the turtle! Taunt I'm really not sure what if anything was objectionable in Foglio's work - the bare-chested ogre? Who knows. The new artwork has some very unusual animals wielding weapons, attacking a monk! Prosperity Again, I'm not sure what was objectionable in this pic. Maybe the smoking? At any rate, the monkeys with plates of food on their heads are pretty silly. Green Fruition It's likely the religious overtones of meditation that made this objectionable. Elven Cache The semi-nude elf is most likely the culprit here. The new artwork is pleasantly absurd - a giant-headed anime baby! Red Hulking Cyclops Perhaps the English version was just too graphic - the Chinese image is the same, only watered-down. White Starlit Angel It's not clear to me why they issued new artwork for this card, but I'm glad they did. The S-Chinese version is beautiful. Lands Basic Lands All portal S-Chinese basic lands have new and unique artwork for all 4 images, except (for no apparent reason) swamps. Swamps have the same 4 images by Romas that are on the English version. Shown here are examples of the new artwork - all four images in each basic land type are similar, and are done by the same artist. I'm especially fond of the bamboo forest and new mountain pics.

Urza's Saga

Urza's Saga was the first stand-alone set to be printed in S-Chinese. Three cards had to be altered because they featured images of skeletons: Diabolic Servitude The background image was fine, but the Zombie in the foreground was just too gruesome for China. So, they zoomed in on the monster in the background, and re-painted over the Zombie. They didn't do a very good job though - it looks like the monster's right arm ends in a stump now! Unworthy Dead This is an unusual choice - they took the same image of the skeletons on Unworthy Dead, and drew flesh on them! They used this same image on the 6th edition "Drudge Skeletons", but unfortnately that's all they changed. The card is still called "Druge Skeletons", and Ian Miller is (incorrectly) listed as the artist! Fire Ants You can't get much more of a graphic image of a skeleton than in Fire Ants. So, entirely new artwork was commissioned from Tom Fleming. Invasion Two Black cards have changes from Invasion: Soul Burn The breasted drider on Soul Burn was modified to cover up her breasts, and the spider's eyes were also painted black instead of red. Urborg Skeleton This guy had to get entirely new artwork done...funny how the Chinese skeleton isn't a skeleton at all? (Thanks Tinxuan)

Odyssey