There are some mighty fine things about events in Philadelphia; the Reading Terminal Market, Chinatown, Pat’s King of Steaks, and real time taunting of Jon Becker. Chiel among the fineness though is seeing Matt Urban.

Matt is an old time Neutral Grounder who wrote the Celebrity Death Match series on the Magic Dojo, finished 6th at PT: DC with Greg Weiss and Rich Frangiosa as team Urban Housing, and has always had a penchant for a pimped out Magic card.

While he still plays with 40s, Matt doesn’t have much interest in 60 card decks these days. That is not to say he does not play Constructed, he just plays the 100 card variety. Matt has gotten into Elder Dragon Highlander and had a deck built with General Doran and another with General Sygg River Cutthroat.

We sat down to play a quick game. Very quick. I kept a two-lander with Skullclamp, Wall of Roots, and Eladamri’s Call and got blown out by a Stripmine. But that is not even remotely the point of this entry.

As I was fanning through the deck I was stunned by the custom artwork that graced many of Matt’s cards — including his two generals. The cards are a combination of eBay purchases and artist commissions and they are some of the most visually arresting cards I have seen outside of the 3D cards from Japan.

He has binders full of them and I could tax my unlimited data plan uploading them all day but will just try and stick to some of the highlights.