Magic’s Star Trek set hasn’t even fully released yet, and already it’s garnering a huge amount of negative attention. Shockingly low single prices highlight how little mechanical faith players have in these new cards, while widespread criticism of the set’s artwork and aesthetics drives the knife in further.
Adding more fuel to this already raging fire, MTG players are now questioning whether a piece of key Star Trek artwork used to promote the set was created using AI. While Wizards has outlined its anti-AI stance before, this new artwork is highly suspect and could be evidence of an unfortunate misstep.
Was This MTG Star Trek Artwork Created Using AI?
The artwork in question was first seen on the official MTG Online website, in an article on Star Trek coming to the platform. While it can still be seen in the preview image for the article on X, this image has since been removed from the article itself.
Despite this, players have still managed to catch a glimpse of the artwork as Star Trek sealed product became available at Prerelease events over the weekend. As reported on Reddit, this image appears as an insert in the Star Trek Bundle, allowing players to view and subsequently criticize the piece.
While no official statement has been issued yet, many players assume this artwork was created using AI for a number of reasons. Chief among these, and the main subject of the discussion so far, is the bizarre number of decks of cards in the art. There are nine shown in total, and as players like Applestabber have pointed out, this just doesn’t make any sense, especially since only five players are pictured.
Speaking of the players, there are plenty more suspicious signs there, too. The inconsistent Starfleet symbols on their badges are a big hint, and there’s some classic AI weirdness going on with the fingers, too. On top of that, all five characters here are staring off into space in an uncanny manner, which is another telltale sign of AI tech being used.
Though these accusations are all speculation for now, perhaps the most damning thing is that many think the artwork is awful even if it was made by human hands. Fortunately, this piece doesn’t appear on a card in the main set, so players don’t technically need to engage with it. That said, the fact that it exists at all, and has seemingly slipped out despite efforts to stop it, is a bit of a worrying sign.
A Worrying Backstep
This incident is hardly the first time Magic: The Gathering has faced AI artwork accusations. Last year saw similar claims levied against the art for Toph, Hardheaded Teacher, on the grounds that artist Ruwen Liu had worked on AI projects in the past. Said claims against this individual for the particular Toph artwork, notably, proved false.
Earlier this year, an AI-generated commercial for MTG Arena drew similar ire. This time around, the allegations were entirely true.
These issues have all arisen despite Wizards’ official policy, which is actually anti-AI. This was established back in 2024, and prohibits Wizards employees from using it for creative tasks like writing and art, which should theoretically avoid such problems.
Even if Wizards itself is against the use of AI tools, many players suspect Hasbro is putting more pressure on the company to use them. The toy titan is notoriously pro-AI, which was a big part of its recent disputes with the newly formed Studio X union. As Wizards still declines to recognize the union’s existence, these changes could be pushed through without the approval of creatives.
Another possibility here is that this particular artwork wasn’t created by AI-toting MTG artists at all, but rather by the Star Trek team at CBS. Some players have pointed out that a version credited solely to CBS circulated around for a while, implying that it was originally created there rather than at Wizards. While this is impossible to verify at this point, if true, it would allay some of the concerns players have right now.
It’s also very possible that this artwork wasn’t created by AI at all, but by a legitimate digital artist. Some on social media are defending the piece through that lens and cautioning others against piling on right now, given the lack of concrete information. With no artist credit readily available, this is a reasonable approach for now.
With so much conflicting evidence and so many potential explanations in the mix, we just don’t know whether this Star Trek artwork was AI-generated at the moment. The fact that it was pulled from the official Magic Online website is rather suspicious, however, so the possibility is very real, but not guaranteed.
In any case, given how widespread the discussion of the image has become over the last 24 hours, we can likely expect a statement from Wizards clarifying things one way or another in the next day or so.
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