This article was originally published on March 28. It was updated on March 31 to reflect the latest comments from Wizards of the Coast and the artist.

On Tuesday, Wizards of the Coast, Inc. suspended work with contract artist Jason Felix following accusations that the Magic: The Gathering cards he illustrated for the new "Strixhaven" set plagiarized official and fan-made art. was suspended; Felix has now admitted to plagiarizing the artwork and has promised to compensate the original artist.

The plagiarism came to light late last week when artist Kitt Lapeña, who calls himself Scarypet, was told online that the Magic card Crux of Fate strongly resembles one of their DeviantArt uploads of fan art from 2016. The similarities between Crux of Fate's depiction of Magic's Elder Dragon, Nicole Borras, and the character drawn by Lapena in 2016 are not subtle. Every detail, like the folds of skin, is imitated.

Most notably, the original fan art contains a fatal error, which is repeated in the final art for Crux of Fate. In almost all of Nicole Borras' contemporary art, the dragon has three fingers, but in Lapeña's rendition it has five. Nicole Borras' fingers in "Crucifixion of Fate" also have five.

Lapeña took the incident humorously, posting a lighthearted video on Twitter showing how similar the images are.

The art for another character on the card, Ugin, also resembles the art on another Magic card depicting that character: Raymond Swanland's "Ugin, the Spirit Dragon.

LaPeña said on Twitter that he was "not looking for a confrontation," but Wizards of the Coast took notice. On Tuesday, the company announced that it would stop working with Felix, a freelance artist who owns 127 Magic: The Gathering card art for the time being.

"Strixhaven: The company stated, "The card "Cross of Doom" from the Mage School Mystical Archive may contain blatant Magic: The Gathering fan art, and the contracted artist does not have permission to use this art. The artist has not obtained permission to use this art. This practice does not reflect the values of Wizards. As a result, we are suspending future work with Jason Felix until we can bring this matter to a successful conclusion.

On Wednesday, Felix acknowledged the accusations on Twitter and apologized.

"I waited to respond publicly because I wanted to contact the affected artists Kit Lapena, Raymond Swanland, and WotC first. 'I was overworked, but that's no excuse. But that's no excuse.

Felix further stated that he intends to compensate the two artists and will insist that their names, not his, be on the card.

"The artists don't deserve this. It's not a lot of money, and I don't expect them to forgive me. But I hope it is a step toward betterment." I am truly sorry that this has happened and that we have disappointed our fans."

Crux of Fate is a variant of old card reprints, added this year as part of the Mystical Archive feature in the Strixhaven set. Wizards of the Coast often works with freelance artists in Magic: The Gathering, who create the majority of the game's art, often retaining limited rights and receiving royalties for their future use.