The 25 Best Forest Art in Magic Ranked

Forest | Illustration by Hari & Deepti

Magic artists have illustrated over 350 different basic Forest cards at this point, and every one of them taps for the same . So why bother ranking them? Well… the mana may be the same, but the art is certainly different. And while foxes, rabbits, and bears all live in the woods, beauty lives in the Eyes of the Beholder. What follows is my completely biased countdown of the most gorgeous groves ever committed to Magic cardboard.

I tend to like art pieces that tell little stories, hide clever details, or just make me stare for an extra beat before I shuffle. Your #1 might not even crack my Top 20, and you have every right to growl at entries that you wouldn't consider worthy of such high placement. And that’s totally fine! Shout about it in the comments, and we’ll compare tree rings. And maybe make room for more trunks!

What Makes Forest Art Good in MTG?

Forest (Invasion) | Illustration by John Avon

We’re looking only at art that appears on basic Forest cards. There are many other cards that are tagged on as “forest art” on sites like Scryfall if the art depicts trees or forests, like the Fallout Farkseek reprint, but those are outside of our scope today. As of Final Fantasy, there are more than 350 Forest cards with unique art.

Past that definition, subjectivity begins!

I tend to put a premium on art that can tell a story, which is particularly hard with basic lands – they’re usually just landscapes, with not much more storytelling than visually describing the plane. That's why I love some story hooks in there, like Kozilek looming in the distance, or Nicol Bolas’s horns blotting out the sun, but I'm well aware most basic lands just won't have them.

I love it when the symbol is woven into the design somehow. This may actually be a dealbreaker for some, but for me it’s always a huge plus.

And then there's the “Makes-me-feel” factor. Rebecca Guay's Forest for Commander 2016 is calm and meditative; Villeneuve’s Secret Lair fox piece feels to me like the warmth returning after winter. If a picture flicks that emotional switch, onto the list it goes.

Last but not least:

• About 100 of those 350+ Forest illustrations are from before 2010,
• About 150 are from between 2010 and 2020,
• Nearly 200 are from 2020 until the present day.

If this ranking shows a recency bias, it's not just because I like newer cards better: WotC really is printing more of everything in the last few years!

#25. The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth #721

Forest | Illustration by Deven Rue

You really can't go on a journey without a map. Perhaps a GPS these days. But one of the many cool things about fantasy is that you get to travel to other realms.

Like escaping to Tolkien's Middle-earth, and his wonderful maps. Let's start this Forest ranking with Deven Rue's Forest #721 for The Lord of the Rings, which is a map of a forest. And not any forest, mind you: This is where Tom Bombadil roams!

#24. Secret Lair “Full-Text Lands” #258

As you may guess, we like words here at Draftsim. And, yeah, personally I love wordy cards, too!

But, yes, I know, a picture is a thousand words. The Secret Lair #258 is still a great Forest in my book!

#23. Unfinity #239

Forest | Illustration by Adam Paquette

I'll be honest: If it weren’t for the forest itself, I don't think I’d have included Adam Paquette's Forest #239 from Unfinity. But you need mana to play Magic, and Unfinity‘s green mana symbol is amazing enough to include this.

I’ve ranked several of Adam Paquette's Forests here, and I have several entries from Un-sets – for whatever reason, those wacky Magic sets get the best lands!

#22. Avacyn Restored #243, and Innistrad #263

Forest (Avacyn Restored + Innistrad) | Illustrations by Jung Park

Jung Park's Forest #243 from Avacyn Restored is alluring enough all by itself to be among the best, in my opinion. The golden autumn light feels thick enough that you could pick it up with a butter knife and spread it over your toasts. And tucked in that honey light, barely visible, stands a mysterious figure.

When you put the Avacyn Restored Forest beside Park's Innistrad Forest #263, everything gets better. Now there's another story, one of how things were at their darkest and all hope seemed lost, yet dawn and light arrived.

#21. Zendikar Rising #280

Forest (Zendikar Rising) | Illustration by Tianhua X

Zendikar is an adventure world where the land itself never sits still: Giant vines climb cliffs, floating islands drift overhead, and ruins pop up like treasure maps. And in this Zendikar Rising Forest, Tianhua X plays with the lights and colors to make the trunks and canopy more than , adding to the sense that the land here is a lot less still than on other planes.

#20. Unhinged #140

Forest (Unhinged) | Illustration by John Avon

For a set called Unhinged, John Avon‘s Forest is pretty tame. Meditative, even. Although that thorny underbrush in the foreground adds something twisted to the scene. And the glow right in the middle hints a bit that something may be off here.

John Avon is one of the most prolific MTG artists, and he’s specifically prolific when illustrating lands.

Sadly, John Avon retired from painting in May 2025, due to health reasons.

#19. Shadowmoor #300

Forest (Shadowmoor) | Illustration by Chippy

I'm neither a botanist nor a biologist, so I'm never too sure of the exact limit between a swamp and a forest. The level of moisture in the ground, I think?

In Magic, the difference tends to be the lighting and a sense of dread: Magic forests are often cheerful and lively, while swamps are where darkness and rot live. But on some planes, like Shadowmoor, swamps and forests are pretty similar to illustrate the setting's twilight theme. Chippy's Shadowmoor #300, with its crooked tree tops and claw-like silhouettes, is one of my favorites in this category of “Forest art that you could slap onto a Swamp card.”

Little bit of trivia: Chippy illustrated more around 120 MTG cards, including the original printings of Lotus Cobra, Gitaxian Probe, and Mishra's Bauble. But he illustrated very few lands, and this is his only Forest to date.

#18. Unfinity #244

Forest (Unfinity) | Illustration by Adam Paquette

This is kind of cheating because that’s not a forest – that's a whole planet!

Adam Paquette's world-covering Forest for Unfinity reminds me of Ursula Le Guin's “The Word for World is Forest,” one of my favorite sci-fi stories. So yeah, maybe that's a lot of cheating. But, hey, it's an MTG Forest!

#17. Kaladesh #262

Forest (Kaladesh) | Illustration by Christine Choi

Everything in Kaladesh is vine-y and swirly, as though inventors are always trying to copy Mother Nature and engineering schools have paid more attention to botany classes than algebra and calculus.

Christine Choe's Forest #262 seems more worried about wonder than survival: Arched branches spiral into shifting concentric rings, and each curve echoes Kaladesh’s trademark filigree scrollwork. It's hard to know if engineers get inspiration from nature on this plane, or if nature is trying to impress the engineers.

#16. Hour of Devastation #189

Forest (Hour of Devastation) | Illustration by Yeong Hao Han

Yeah, there aren’t many trees here, and in that way Yeong-Hao Han's Forest from Hour of Devastation is a bit of a cheat like Paquette's planet-forest.

But the absence of something is a powerful way to tell a story. Hour of Devastation depicts the end of time arriving on Amonkhet. Sandstorms engulf the skies; crumbled obelisks litter the valley while monuments crumble; rivers run red. There's little green and few trees to be found in this world.

Causing and filling that absence, the twin horns of Nicol Bolas engulf the sun and dominate every horizon like a corporate logo from hell.

#15. March of the Machine #290

A bit like with Amonkhet in Hour of Devastation, New Capenna isn’t a plane that has room for real forests – but that's because there's literally no room. The only inhabited place on the plane is the city of New Capenna. In a way, everything has to do what trees do best: Grow upwards, and fight for light, air, and space.

And they do like the trees that inhabit this tiered city, as artist Grady Frederick shows here: Trunks and tall buildings intermingle, and the greenery now grows on cliff ledges and balcony gardens.

This land isn’t from the Streets of New Capenna set, but rather from March of the Machine, which revisited (as in, invaded!) pretty much every known plane. And, in my opinion, Frederick's version is more Forest-y than the ones in SNC.

#14. Unsanctioned #96

Forest (Unsanctioned) | Illustration by Adam Paquette

This the third Un-set Forest by Adam Paquette I’ve included, this time for Unsanctioned. The golden frame is gorgeous, and the green mana symbol is superb. The point of view is practically ankle-level, so every tree feels like an ancient skyscraper. Or maybe they are as tall as skyscrapers, making us feel like little ants.

#13. The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth #722

Forest (The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth) | Illustration by Deven Rue

Deven Rue's second Lord of the Rings Forest is another map, but one that marks a much darker moment than the sunny beginning.

Let's avoid spoilers here for those among you who haven't read the 70-year-old trilogy yet and just say the smaller forest shown here, Lórien, is one of the most important locations in the story.

#12. Secret Lair #1403

The huge majority of Magic Forest are either inspired by high fantasy settings like Lord of the Rings (big-trunked trees, probably cold weather) or are from an MTG plane that has very different forests from our own, like New Capenna.

That's why this Secret Lair Forest from artist JungShan feels so fresh to me. It’s not just the East Asian ink painting style, but this is the type of forest that nobody in Middle-earth has ever seen, so it stands out from the pack.

JungShan wasn’t the first to think about bamboos, of course – artist 李铁 did four different bamboo Forests in Portal, and other renowned MTG artists followed that same path through the bamboo forest, like Tomasz Jedruszek did in Jumpstart, and Piotr Dura did in Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty. But JungShan's Forest is the best rendition of this concept, in my opinion.

#11. Modern Horizons 3 #308

Part of the challenge of illustrating fantasy worlds is that they sometimes have a completely different scale from real life. How do you show something that is impossibly huge, even for the fantasy world's parameters? What do you compare it to, and what do you use as reference?

I love how Vance Kovacs does the exact opposite here: At first glance, this is a fairly normal Forest, with one weird tree in the background….

Wait, that's not a weird tree! It's got hands, and it's standing in the middle of some ruins, so maybe it's an abandoned statue… holy ****, that’s Kozilek! They're super far away, that's why it doesn't look taller than a tree!

It only works if you know who the big, grumpy Eldrazi is, of course, and how impossibly huge It is. But if you don't know, Kovacs' forest works even better: That “Aha!” moment you'll have later when you see Kozilek on some other card and realize: “Whoa, wait, it's the same card from that Forest!”

#10. Universes Beyond: Fallout #325

Forest (Fallout) | Illustration by Samuele Bandini

Absences can tell a powerful, gripping story. As with Yeong-Hao Han's Forest from Hour of Devastation, it’s the lack of a dense, lush forest (along with the gritty palette of rust, sand, and dusty sepia) that shows the sort of radiated wasteland that Fallout is.

But even in this post-apocalyptic slum, there's hope – and that's what forests are about. Life clenches its teeth and refuses to go quietly into the night. Every line in this picture, from man and dog to the angled roof beam, converges on that radiant treetop, making the oak a literal beacon of, “Maybe we don’t all die down here.”

#9. Wilds of Eldraine #266

Forest (Wilds of Eldraine) | Illustration by Hari & Deepti

Eldraine’s second visit trades castles and courts for untamed woods – dark, perilous places where the candy cottage might eat you.

Hari & Deepti's art for Wilds of Eldraine‘s Forest #266 illustrates this shift with a dark tunnel that sucks your gaze toward a lone, back-lit tree glowing in the distance. If you follow the breadcrumbs and venture down this path, you leave the sunny part of the fairytale behind… but there's adventure, treasure, and rewards for those brave enough to start the journey and shrewd enough to finish it.

#8. Commander 2016 #349

Forest (Commander 2016) | Illustration by Rebecca Guay

Few MTG artists have such a unique style as Rebecca Guay. This is the lone Forest that she has painted, and she somehow makes the trees look flat while the whole picture has depth at the same time. Everything's quiet and peaceful, and it feels like a place you’d visit at the end of a long walk.

#7. Dominaria United #281

Forest (Dominaria United) | Illustration by Magali Villeneuve

For the Forest #281 from Dominaria United, Magali Villeneuve integrates the mana symbol into the illustration itself by turning the jungle into a cathedral's stained glass window. Everything radiates from the center: the light, the branches, even the roots.

#6. Onslaught #349 (Art by John Avon)

Forest (Onslaught) | Illustration by John Avon

Rows of tall pines stand like pillars in a hallway, their trunks so dark they almost melt into each other. A path cuts straight down the middle, lit by warm, golden light that pours in from a single glowing point far ahead.

John Avon's Forest #349 from Onslaught is very likely the fan favorite among Forests. It's not my personal top choice, but it's probably the one Forest that comes up near the top of most players’ rankings.

#5. Secret Lair #1472

By the time Magic was born, pixel art was a necessity. Nowadays, it's a conscious choice (unless you’re an indie game dev on a shoestring budget, in which case you're still in the early ‘90s).

Here Jubilee goes full throttle on the time machine, framing the whole scene inside a faux-Windows 95 window: title bar, minimize/max close buttons, the works. The 16-bit nostalgia and the limited palette whisper of simpler, more naïve times; an invitation to enjoy the journey and touch (digital) grass.

#4. Tarkir: Dragonstorm #291

Forest (Tarkir: Dragonstorm) | Illustration by Ron Spencer

Yes, yes, guilty as charged, your Honor. I'm cheating again. This isn’t an illustration of a forest. It's a dragon‘s eye, a dragon who's not even looking at a forest as far as we know.

But, your Honor! Just look at the mana symbol! Inside the eye of a dragon!

Ron Spencer illustrated all the “Dragon Eye” basics in Tarkir: Dragonstorm. Like Chippy, Ron is an extremely prolific MTG artist (more than 250 pieces!), but this is his lone Forest.

#3. Theros Beyond Death #254

Forest (Theros Beyond Death) | Illustration by Sam Burley

Theros is Magic’s take on ancient Greece, and Theros Beyond Death dives into its starry spirit world called Nyx. Many cards, like this land, show normal things—trees, mountains, even the gods—made out of glowing starlight. Sam Burley's Forest #254 for Theros Beyond Death captures this perfectly. Part dark cloud in a cloudy sky, part swirling stardust, the mana symbol floats like in a dream, weightless and ethereal.

#2. Judge Gift Cards 2023 #10

Forest (Judge Gift Promos) | Illustration by Jorge Jacinto

Rabbits and squirrels are cool, and bears and wolves are awesome (if seen from a very safe distance… like in a painting!) but as far as I'm concerned, owls are the coolest of forest denizens. And it's not even close; don't try to argue, you'll lose.

In this extremely rare Forest (“Judge Gift Cards” are exactly that: special cards that WotC gives to Magic judges, as a gift, during high-profile tournaments), artist Jorge Jacinto goes deep into the greens, trunks dark against a bright glow that saturates the center of the picture. Tiny fireflies float in the air, as they should when Magic's in the air, and the forest's coolest dweller sits on a branch halfway up: The wood’s always-vigilant guard stares straight at us.

#1. Secret Lair #690, and Secret Lair #476

Like Jung Park's illustrations for Avacyn Restored and Innistrad, these are two different versions of the same Forest (Secret Lair #690 and Secret Lair #476).

One looks like a forest scene carved into an old temple wall. Everything is done in shades of gray, like pencil on stone, except for thin streaks of bright gold that flash through the clouds and tree trunks. Those gold lines point to a round forest symbol in the middle, making it feel like sunlight breaking through a crack. A fox sits on a ledge, watching the light. Swirling clouds and curling branches frame the scene, giving it a calm, story-book feel even though the colors are muted.

In the full color version, Magali Villeneuve lets browns and greens return to some leaves, and the butterfly with bright reds.

The fox hasn’t moved; it calmly watches as color returns to the forest, as it always does, like warmth after winter.

Wrap Up

Forest (Guru Lands) | Illustration by Terese Nielsen

And that would be it, folks! The handful of cardboard forests that, to me, have the most beautiful illustrations. Subjective and makes-me-feel-y, to be sure; such is the nature of beauty!

I hope you've enjoyed this stroll through the woods (and that none of the inclusions or omissions made you want to punch your screen!). If you have comments or questions please drop a comment below or stop by the Draftsim Discord for a chat.

And good luck out there!