Brainstorm Playmats

Our Brainstorm playmats span three illustrators across the card's history — Christopher Rush's original Ice Age art, including two hand-drawn pieces, DiTerlizzi's Mercadian Masques version, and Justin & Alexis Hernandez's Strixhaven Mystical Archive illustration from three MagicCon events — plus a Creature Collection parody piece. Most are signed, several stitched, and one is a numbered Limited Edition from Grand Prix New York 2016.

One of Magic's most reillustrated cards

Brainstorm debuted in Ice Age (1995) with art by Christopher Rush — the same illustration used on several playmats in this collection, including two hand-drawn originals — and it's still legal in both Legacy and Pauper today. Neither that printing nor Fifth Edition (1997), which reprinted the same art, was ever available in foil. DiTerlizzi's Mercadian Masques version (1999) changed that — it's the first Brainstorm printing to offer a foil option, part of why some collectors prefer it to the original. Justin & Alexis Hernandez created a newer illustration for Strixhaven Mystical Archive (2021), represented here across three different MagicCon events. In the decades since its debut, the card has been reillustrated by seventeen different artists in total, including several Secret Lair drops.

What's in this collection

Most playmats here are signed, and several are also stitched. The Grand Prix New York 2016 edition is a numbered Limited Edition. The three Hernandez playmats were each released at a different MagicCon — Philadelphia, Barcelona and Minneapolis — and a separate Grand Prix New Jersey 2014 playmat carries DiTerlizzi's Mercadian Masques art. There's also "Feline Focus" (Andrea Radeck), a cat-themed take on the card from Star City Games' long-running Creature Collection line, and a Paupergeddon 2017 edition.

Condition and photographs

Because these are signed, individually finished pieces — one also a numbered Limited Edition — condition matters as much as the artwork. Every listing uses real photographs of the actual playmat, so you can check the surface, the signature and (where relevant) the edition number before buying.