Telling A Personal Journey Through Trading Cards

Magic the Gathering’s designers and writers face some fairly unique narrative challenges every set they release. They have to tell a story almost entirely through the art, flavor text, names, and mechanics of trading cards. They have no guarantee that the average player is going to look at any supplementary writing and they have little control over which cards any given player is going to see. Every booster pack of 15 cards contains a small vignette and that vignette needs to be compelling enough to motivate a player to buy another. Yet, in spite of these constraints, MTG consistently manages to tell stories that have moved me. For me, the key to strong stories in MTG is in tonal shifts and juxtaposition.

The current MTG block, Khans of Tarkir, tells the story of the world of Tarkir and its journey from a dragon-less land full of warring clans ruled by mortal Khans (think Genghis Khan) to a dragon-controlled land full of warring clans ruled by dragons. This transition from no dragons to dragon-infested is made via a time travel story. The first set occurs in the present day in a world where dragons have been eradicated. The second set, Fate Reforged, takes place 1000 years in Tarkir’s past and it shows how one small change to the past can change everything, Back to the Future style. The third set, Dragons of Tarkir, takes place in an alternate future where the dragons have taken over and subjugated all of the clans that used to be ruled based on their own unique customs and rituals. This story is fairly straightforward to understand, but the way that it is told via mechanics and cards is worth studying.

I want to break down one cycle of cards that exemplifies the type of tonal shifts and juxtaposition that MTG excels at: the Khan cycle. Each of the clans in the first set of the block (the Abzan, Jeskai, Sultai, Mardu, and Temur clans) is ruled by a Khan and those Khans also exist in an altered form in the third set. In the first set, each of the Khans is represented by a powerful mythic-rare card with abilities that clearly align with their clan’s core values. However, they do not use their clan’s central mechanic. For example, the ruler of the Abzan clan is a human woman named Anafenza. Her card in Khans of Tarkir is a 4/4 creature for 3 mana that places a +1/+1 counter on another tapped creature whenever she attacks and exiles creatures that would go in your opponent’s graveyard. This card is already very efficient as a 4/4 for 3 mana, but it also plays very well with the Abzan mechanic, Outlast. Outlast requires you to tap your creatures to give them +1/+1 counters, effectively disabling your creature for one turn to power it up forever. So Anafenza can power up creatures that are Outlasting and spread +1/+1 counters to creatures that are attacking (+1/+1 counters are a big Abzan theme as well). Anafenza exiles creatures from your opponent’s graveyard because she is dogmatically devoted to her ancestors and the dead. She prevents opponents from defiling their dead via necromancy or other types of black magic. Her card and the cards of the other Khans manage to be great leaders of their fellow kinsman, while not being reduced to using their clan’s common mechanic.

In Dragons of Tarkir, each of the clans have been destroyed or co-opted by a draconic leader; yet, the former Khans still exist. But, oh, how the mighty have fallen. Two of the former Khans are dead, two of them are foot soldiers, and one of them has ascended to become a Planeswalker (a person who can literally walk between the different worlds of the MTG multiverse). While each of the Khans used to be above their fellow clan members, in Dragons of Tarkir each of them use the draconic abilities that took over their clans. For example, Anafenza is a ghost in Dragons of Tarkir because her reverence for the dead violated the beliefs of the draconic brood that took over her people. While she used to be a 4/4 for 3 mana across 3 colors, she is now a 2/2 for 2 white mana. While she used to boost creatures by attacking, she now utilizes the mechanic Bolster to distribute +1/+1 counters whenever a non-token creature enters the battlefield. And that’s all she does! She went from a powerful and multifaceted creature capable of bending whole games to a nice, role-playing ghost. Somehow her fall isn’t even the biggest! One of the other former Khans is a zombie and one shrunk from a rampaging mauler to a bell-boy. Even Narset, the Khan who became a Planeswalker, utilizes a draconic ability and takes orders from a dragon (taking orders from a dragon is a downgrade in status despite how cool it sounds).

While the actual plot of Khans of Tarkir block is a bit hard to follow just from reading cards, the meta-narrative of the Khans falling to disrepair is clear and moving. MTG is outstanding at showing broad, sweeping changes throughout a world and even a person. By juxtaposing two cards that represent the same character, MTG is capable of effectively communicating changes that could take chapters of exposition and character building.

I'm kind of bummed they're doing alternate dimension/timeline stuff after going to all the work to ground Planeswalkers and spacetime in the multiverse in Time Spiral. I liked it because it made Planeswalkers relatable, whereas reading Urza is like trying to relate to Hindu mythology.

I remember when Odyssey came out after Apocalypse and it was like "is this a different plane, or just an unexplored continent of Dominaria?" I hope they don't wind up with like "is this Tarkir-616 or Tarkir-619?"

@brodehouse: I think the Dragons timeline is going to be the permanent timeline going forward. The next set is Battle for Zendakar and one of the key players from Khans block needs to be alive for that block. He is only alive in the Dragons timeline so that has to be the "real" one.

The Time Spiral reset was one of the best things to happen to MTG. Having a stable of recurring characters really does a lot for the story in the game.

I really enjoyed the lore of MTG before this block, but god, this set has raised the bar. I'm really happy with how it turned out, and I'm really looking forward to pretty much every announced set yet to be released. I do hope they find room in their hearts to give us another Sorin in Battle for Zendikar, though. He's easily my favorite Planeswalker.

@brodehouse: Wizards has actually explicitly stated that the effect of the time travel in Khans/Fate/Dragons is only going to affect Tarkir. I mean, it doesn't make too much sense, considering that a very influential planeswalker (Ugin) has had a thousand more years to do stuff, and could theoretically do so on any plane, but arbitrarily putting that "Tarkir Only" boundary on it does spare us from dealing with a kajillion alternate timelines.

@generic_username: I believe they are explaining the Ugin being alive for 1000 more years thing by saying that he was wrapped in a healing cocoon until the modern day Tarkir. So while he was alive, he didn't do any impactful stuff in that 1000 years.

I'm really not an MTG lore guy, so this article was pretty informative from my point of view. I am always surprised at how much some people are really into the lore of the game, when - as a newish player still - just see it as flavour on the edge of the game.

@bollard: I was definitely that way when I started out, but then I wound up reading some of the lore of Innistrad (the set I started playing during) and thought it was super awesome. (Do check it out if you have the time. Sorin is awesome.) The creative team does a hell of a job, especially considering what they've got to work with. It's crazy that the story of a trading card game fascinates me far more than the stories in most video games do.

@generic_username: @bollard: I'm not really that into the core story itself. I'm mostly into the way MTG tells its story through mechanics and setting. It is one of the most impressive forms of game storytelling I've seen, but no one seems to study it or recognize it outside of people deeply invested in MTG. The stories of Mirrodin falling, Alara rejoining, Lorywin/Shadowmoore, and Zendikar are pretty cool if you think of them as setting and tonal shifts. I just wish MTG would do a story where a plane rose to prominence instead of constantly showing worlds falling apart.

Transistor did something like flavor text with its functions and their stories, but that's the video game example I can think of that uses some of MTG's tricks.

Yes! I love when someone gets it! This is why I'm so drawn to games like Demon's and Dark Souls, where the bulk of the lore is not jammed down the player's throat or spelled out in a boring codex, but inferred through item descriptions and NPCs' world placements and attitudes.

@shishkebab09: I've actually thought about writing about Dark Souls in a similar manner to how I wrote about MTG in this piece. That game tells a lot of story without saying anything and it does a lot of its best work through tone and setting. I would say that the stories that move me in DS are centered more on how that game treats death than what happens to any single character, but I know that there are people who appreciate the DS story as a linear narrative.

This is a good write up.

@shadowswordmaster: Thanks!

Just wanted to say that this was a pretty interesting piece. Good work!

@m1m1c: Thanks! I have another MTG piece in the works that is a little more GB focused. Stay tuned!

Really interesting read. I had not realized how many of the same tricks dark souls uses to set its world and tell its story

@eladren: Dark Souls is another game that does a lot of its work with juxtaposition and flavor text. A lot of the stories in those games are inferred and I think the game is stronger for it. Dark Souls embraces the strengths of video game storytelling and I think it really helps the game craft a tone without disrupting play. It also shows a remarkable economy of exposition. Dark Souls doesn't forcibly tell you story points unless it is absolutely necessary, so you can choose to engage with the story or ignore it. When you compare that with something like Metal Gear, a game whose story holds you hostage for hours, Dark Souls's subtlety stands out even further.