Glimpse the Unthinkable for overall beauty and how it works with the flavor text.

No basic lands you say? I guess I would have to go with Clifftop Retreat . The way the sun shines through the clouds sets the perfect scene for the plane of innistrad

My personal vote would go to Dark Depths . The artwork is gorgeous, as well as intimidating and gives me a feeling of dread.

Especially when there is a Vampire Hexmage nearby too.

Soul Warden

She's just so beautiful. The embodiment of everything White is.

hmmmm its hard to choose..... id have to say the FTV:R Dryad Arbor . I think it conveys that it is both a land and a creature perfectly with the human figures set in the trees of the forest. I think it looks beautiful and the artist did a great job of remaking the only land creature =)

Honestly, I have to vote for Kaalia of the Vast . Not only does Kaalia look awesome, the artwork clearly conveys the same message as the flavor text. She's a determined badass who will do any damn thing she has to so she can kill you.

Dragonmaster Outcast

I vote Mind Funeral . It's perfect!

FTV: Progenitus the art shows how massive and powerful the soul of alara is, and the symbols on his necks each representing one of the five colours is pretty awsome. Plus he looks like he's explodig out of a volcano. the art clearly shows he's on Naya (volcano: red, flatlands in the distance: white, Jungle: green). (the flavor isn't very good though).

Guise of Fire Because the artwork provokes a funny question, After all these years living in a zombie infested world, people still don't know that fire + zombie =/= dead zombie. Not to mention the fact that the flavor text shows the funniness of the card. Also the contrast the color has with the background is very eyecatching, Foil Guise of Fire s are even more eyecatching.

I think that the first printing of Progenitus from conflux takes the best art. The scale of it is simply awe inspiring. It it just unbelievable huge. The art really does the creature itself justice.

My second pic is Wurmcoil Engine . If you look at the detail on it, the creature is quite amazing.

Since it is a contest about art, Blood Artist needs a spot on the list. It is art within art.

I will take anything by Eric Deschamps or Raymond Swanland as the best artwork in magic because they are my favorite artists(im a bit of an artist myself so the art is one of the things I pay great attention to; I have literally not taken a promo card over a non foil regular just because I liked the original artwork better(restoration angel and glissa for examples of what I've done this for)) in magic, but if I have to choose I think I will probably go with Garruk, the Veil-Cursed  ^{Flip  Flip}. There is so much flavor in how he presents garruk in this new form, it has amazing tonality, and the way he's posed, the tattered clothing, the cracks all through his skin... just simply awesome. Plus I just enjoy the card(its in my standard deck right now).

if i have to vote for one of these cards i go with Mind Funeral , but i have to admit that none of these cards woulld have made my top 50 best artworks...

you don't have to vote for the ones up there. He's keeping a tally of whats been voted so far.

I'll go with Omniscience . Just seeing Jace planeswalking is cool.

Not sure about the best but I really enjoyed the Preordain artwork from the Venser vs. Koth Duel deck.

Pacifism but not the one you see on the link. The art on pacifism from Onslaught, and the Duel Decks: Divine vs. Demonic, is my favorite card art. The art is well detailed, has feeling, and has a cool style & color scheme. Plus Akroma is very beautifully rendered.

Murmuring Bosk

its beautiful and john avon is my favorite artist =)

Plagiarize gets my vote. It is one of the oddest card arts ever, and it really makes you stare. Not a whole lot of cards, even the most beautiful ones, capture your attention quite like this card does.

oh im a bit confused i guess... when you count votes i hope you can delete my post above then, and add this answer instead...

Somberwald Dryad got a cute thing going onand Vampire Hexmage are asking for it...

but

Earthbind have allready done all the dirty work for me... HOW CAN MY VOTE GO TO ANYTHING ELSE!!!

(no, im not the twisted one, YOU like dragons)

I'm picking Desolation Angel as my favorite card. My only regret is that it does not have any flavor text. I actually made a deck around Desolation Angel only because I liked the illustration (and, let's be honest, it's a great card).

From the same artist, I also like (but am not voting for) Mageta the Lion . This one has great flavor text.

My favorite artists are John Avon (I have a mono-green deck for which I carefully picked mostly John Avon forests), Brom and Rob Alexander.

Rob Alexander does great things, too. He really has an eye for lands : his Island from M13 makes me want to bathe in its sea, and he did most shock-lands from the Ravnica block, which are all superb (and I really hope they are reedited in RTR with the same art).

I also very much like almost all the basic lands from Avacyn Restored, they're really gorgeous.

I think the general art quality has greatly increased in the last years. Computer imaging has allowed for better contrast, better details, better colors, better everything. Of course, most of the time, it's a matter of opinion, but some early artworks really stink of "quick done", like the Ironroot Treefolk from Alpha, especially when you compare to what the artist can really do, like the Elves of Deep Shadow -FNM-promo, or Crumble from Fifth. Of course, back then, printing did not put the arts in their best, and many cards feel like they could use more contrast.

HAVE PEOPLE NEVER LOOKED AT Nimbus Maze ?!

(obv that's my vote)

Pillage from Alliances for sure. Richard Kane Ferguson's technique creates such amazing and ethereal textures and detail to any surface. Also the foul grimace on the barbarian pillaging the lands of the innocent is perfect for the flavor. The flavor text just makes you love Lovisa Coldeyes and her barbaric ways.

Second choice... Draining Whelk . Just a very nice mechanic referring to one of the most powerful counterspells ever printed (Mana Drain of course). The art and function of the cards have been expertly transferred from "interrupt" to creature. It's a perfect fit for the Time Spiral set I feel

without a doubt my favourite art card is Moonveil Dragon , it is absolutely gorgeous dragon artwork its ellegant and sleek and the wings are incredible splices between like a moths and a dragons its looks serene as well as lethal somehow. It is also back set by an awesome moon for its name and really captures the feel of the innistrad block well as well as its set dark ascension. this narrowly beats a few honorable mentions i would like to share with you guys n gals, my 1st runner up is the Ebon Dragon . Its there for a few reasons really, the art for me is just down right awesome, its menacing and its one of the very few dragons that aren't red or green and it also shows a really awesome black/silver laser kinda beam coming from its mouth which looks really cool, abolishing the standard yawn red fire kinda thing. next runner up is the FtV Dragons art for Nicol Bolas this can be described as nothing short of epic IMO. hes the biggest and baddest of dragons (and perhaps of all characters in MTG from the minimal story i know of) and this art projects that really nicely, hes huge in size and scale theres a cool back drop with a mountain or volcano with a dragon minion there too. he just looks aggressive as hell! and for my last runner up (sorry to blab on i bum dragons pretty hard i know lol) is Skithiryx, the Blight Dragon . This guys art is wicked, i love how it just looks like it will infect you with a stare, his devastated wing remnants are really well imagined and the back drop is just wasteland and he looks like the lord of the wasteland standing proudly on a cliffs edge looking for the next victim

right i'll be quiet now i really enjoy these competetions thanks deck:stg :-)

I will also have to go with Moonveil Dragon . When i first saw it i just really loved how it stuck out compared to all the other cards and i couldn't wait to get my hands on a foil version of...the other card i have to say is card:Commander's Authority, just a beautiful piece of art with the sunlight and the silhouette of the characters is just amazing.