The wonderfully weird history of Magic: the Gathering comics.

 

Magic: the Gathering and comics have had an intertwined history since it's earliest days. Comics artists Kaja and Phil Foglio have been around since Magic's first expansion into the game, and early issues of The Duelist featured a comic called Mezlok's Challenge, a comic drawn and written by Magic's own Mark Poole. 

Recently, a new comic line published by Dark Horse comics has started, and when I saw that, it made me chuckle. Dark Horse had an entirely different comic line through Magic almost thirty years ago, and that made me think, just how expansive Magic's history in both western comics and in Japanese Manga actually is. 

This is nothing new of course. Early on, it was decided that Magic should also try to exist as a IP, and in the early 90's, comics were very much part of the cultural zeitgeist. Yet, thirty years later, were that zeitgeist has ebb and flowed, why does Magic still get comics? Why is this a hill that keeps happening. Is it the natural artistic medium of the TCG compliment the artistic medium of comics? Is it a care about the lore behind the cards? 

Mezlok's Challenge

Looking at those top 3.

Published by WotC in The Duelist issues #2 and #3, Mezlok's Challenge is as far as I can tell the very first MTG comic ever printed and colored. Tagged as a graphic novel, it only has two installments, and ends with the proverbial Mezlok crossing the literary threshold. Unfortunately, there wasn't a third installment in Duelist #4, and as such, very little to be written about this, other than it's the first, and its style is clearly early Mark Poole.

Armada Comics

Most of my usual readers will be familiar with the 90's Armada comics. Armada was a subdivision of Acclaim Comics, which in itself was a subdivision of Acclaim Entertainment, a video game company. A year prior, they had acquired the failing Valiant Comics, and immediately started attempting to diversify.

The Magic: the Gathering line was ambitious, and while only in print for two years, releasing 34 comics, and an art book between the summer of 1995 to the fall of 1996. Several comics were in various degrees of finished when the company was abruptly closed. 

Dakkon Blackblade poster

Most of these comics were your typical paper backs of the day, 20 pages, ads and interviews/recaps in the back. However, a few of these were 'premium' comics, often containing thick wax pages, much higher caliber of art (though all of the art was pretty good in the comics). Some of these pieces the artist was advertised just as heavy as the comics themselves. Fallen Angel advertised original art from Richard Kane-Ferguson and Rebecca Guay drew both Homelands and Serra Angel in its entirety.

These comics often came with additional swag. Booster packs, promo cards, individual cards, tokens and counters, and even a few, small posters. 

The stories it told were just as varied. Touching from legends in the card game, to stories that would tie into larger arc's, to original one shots. This all culminated into the Acclaim video game "The Battlemage", but then nothing. A rather tragic end to something so ambitious (and gorgeous). 

Gerrard's Quest

1 of 4

A miniseries by Dark Horse comics that ran from March to June These comics were drawn by Pop Mahn and Mark Harrison. It was written by the prestigious Mike Grell. It follows the early parts of the Tempest story line. It was clearly designed with four issues in mind, but this issue would have any follow ups, and outside of a comic in Japan, and a few comics in The Duelist/Topdeck, no comics would exist for the next decade. 

Urza/Mishra Manga

Urza, Mishra, and Tocasia.

This manga is a reimagining of the Brothers War in a manga style. It is VERY manga, and it's very interesting for its context. I've actually read this one, but I can't find it at this time. It's definitely very interesting, and at least one fanlation exists of this manga. 

"Kev Walker" comics

Masques comic.

Kevin Walker drew several small comics that tied into sets being released with the Masques block. They are short, but very good looking, and were published in Duelist/Topdeck Magazine. He also drew some of the art for the flash scenes for "MagicInvasion.com" They are easy to digest, and are gorgeous. Definitely worth reading.

Path of the Planeswalker webcomics

A series of webcomics hosted on MagictheGathering.com. These told the stories of the Brady era planeswalkers, and tied both into the novels and sets that were released at that time. Some of these webcomics were printed in the Books "Path of the Planeswalker 1 & 2" while others are left to internet archives and old cache's that somehow have survived the purge. 

Two omnibuses called Path of the Planeswalkers 1&2 were made. Oddly enough, this is one of the few comics that had a direct product related to it. The original Dual Deck: Jace vs Chandra was directly a reference to the original series of the comic, which had Jace hunting Chandra for a scroll Chandra had stolen. It was pretty cool. 

Honestly these were some of my favorite comics, and I think WotC discontinuing them is one of thier greatest mistakes when it comes to the lore.

The Purifying Flame Manga

Drawn by Yoshino Himori, The Purifying Flame was a one-shot retelling of the story, in manga style, published by Dengeki-Maoh magazine in February of 2010. Not much else to say about this one, as I've never read it, and the original MTG link to it is long since dead.

IDW Comics

After Armada, the IDW (Idea & Design Works) Comics are the most famous. The original series of them starred an original character named Dack Fayden, a planeswalking thief with a tragic back story of survival, and his ultimate need for revenge. The stories followed this dashing rogue as he traveled through many of Magic's more modern planes, including Theros, Innistrad, and of course, Ravnica.

Each of the Dack comics came with an alternative art promo card of the comic's primary cover. These included some powerful cards, including Acquire, High Tide, Arrest, and Turnabout. These were a good way to get people to initially notice the comics, since media promos were always popular. Dack also got the pleasure of appearing on an official Magic: the Gathering card. 

IDW did an additional small series called Chandra, which was about the named planeswalker and her conflict with Tibalt. It was written as a lure to try and get people into Magic: The Gathering, with a much simpler story than Dacks. These comics didn't come with a promo card unfortunately. 

These comics, are both rather well written, and very much well drawn. Officially they are current canon, and until something happens that makes them noncanon, they will continue to do so. 

Boom! Studios comics

Boom! Studios published a series of Magic: the Gathering comics from 2021-2023. Unlike all the previous comics mentioned, these aren't reimagining or stories along the comics. Instead, Boom went in their own direction, using the characters mentioned in their own ways. The comics read more like Marvel super hero flare, with lots of colorful beams, big collaborations and team work.

I did try to read these, but they didn't hold my attention very long sadly.

The First Sin revisited: The Reserve List Policy.

1. 
   

 In April, 2018 I wrote about what I called the first unforgivable sin of Magic: the Gathering. The Reserve List Policy (RLP).

In it, I talked about the nature of the RLP, why it happened, and the nature of its existence in the game. In the seven years since I wrote that initial article, a large number of things have changed. 

One of the first ones was that MOST of the cards originally printed in Alpha was reprinted in a special edition set called Magic 30, to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the set. Not only were all the artists not informed of this, but there was talk of legal action. This is hardly the only controversy involving the set. From removal not only of cards, but of flavor text, the facts cards were giving away for free when they didn't immediately sell out, to even art crops being bad, the set wasn't just controversial, it was outright bad, and hardly justified the 1,000 dollar price tag the packs asked for. While not entirely against WotC policy, it did skate the line really hard, hardly the first policy they've reneged on however (more of that below). 

Since Covid, there has been an exponentially increasing acceptance of proxies. While I personally still dislike proxies, and refuse in almost all cases to use them, I cannot fight the tide for everyone. Proxies are unfortunately here to stay, and I on some level can sympathize with those that do, as card quality has gone to beyond shit. I've even seen at least one Old School tournament that allowed the use of proxies, something that would have been unheard of in 2018. 

WotC has worn a lot of goodwill from the player base. One of the most controversial things was them sending Pinkertons to a man's house who had gotten his hands on some product early.

Sharks have become a major force. While the creepy 'investor' was always there in the back of the store, it has gone main stream, and while a much bigger problem in Pokemon, it does exist in MTG. Nothing is as funny, and as embarrassing, as watching a clout chaser and a boomer who failed at life get into a literal fight over children's cardboard so they both can hope to get the shiny one, the clout chaser for clicks, the boomer for money so the bank doesn't take his house.

Wizards of the Coast (WotC) has started selling products directly to the consumer, capitalizing largely on FOMO and limited availability. They've also since 2018 removed MSRP, but than, brought it back.

So back to the original point. In the original post I actually defended WotC decision, concluding it was a reasonable and logical knee jerk decision, but one that wasn't entirely thought out, and as with all policies, one that has been changed numerous times. Since then, every policy Wizards has ever had in regard to Magic has been changed, this list includes:

1. Promo Exclusives (Nalanthi Dragon controversy which left them promising that all promo's would be reprints of existing cards).
2. The policy of not crossing Magic with their own in house IP's, most notably in the west Dungeons and Dragons (D&D), which they've done on both ends, with MTG getting two D&D sets, and every plane getting a setting in D&D 5th.
3. The promise that Mirrodin would be the most "sci-fi" setting. Though I can't find anything on that now, I do remember reading it at the time. Though I'll also put this in the maybe section. "To be clear, it’s the science fiction end of the spectrum of fantasy. It’s as science fiction-y as we let Magic’s fantasy get."--Mark Rosewater, Blogatog

Magic 30 was in its own right, a shit show. It also showed just how desperate Wizards of the Coast could be. Things in the last two years haven't fared super better. The increased need for not only other IP's, but the fabricated controversy around at least one of them to drum up attention, shows that sales aren't in nearly as healthy a place as they let on. 

Dominaria United has a magically appearing Legends box appearing in random booster packs, though that either says WotC is so incompetent they lost a box of one of the most sought after sets ever for 30 years, or they bought a box from a private collector, and fabricated the story. We will probably not know which of these stories are the correct one. 

My dissertation is this, the RLP is on borrowed time. It's only a matter of time before they need a quick sale, and they try another Magic 30, or they go to the previous policy and release the Power 9 as an all foil Secret Lair Drop (with an admittedly hefty price tag). The other alternative is to continue down the path they are on until proxies are so much the norm that the entire game is chinese glossy cardboard with anime girls on them (more so than it is now). 

Blogatog post: https://markrosewater.tumblr.com/post/92310682893/yesterday-you-said-that-mirrodin-was-a-sci-fi

My original article: Gunnarson's Bag: The First Sin: The Reserved List

Article from polygon about Pinkerton incident: Magic publishers sent Pinkertons to YouTuber’s house over leaked cards | Polygon

The Seven Unforgivable Sins of Wizards of the Coast, revisited.

Me looking at MTG in 2025

Seven years ago, I started a series of articles called "The Seven Unforgivable Sins of Wizards of the Coast". At the time, the blog was new and was entirely based on card/deck reviews. A part of me wanted something more though, than just my thoughts on Bog Imps and Pikemen. 

I started the series with what I felt were, in chronological order, sins WotC had committed primarily about Magic: the Gathering (MTG) and its resulting fallout. 

At the time I featured a great deal of sources, quotes, and articles. A lot has changed since 2018, the massive archive of articles on Magicthegathering.com is gone, gatherer comments are gone, a great deal of reddit like and MTGSalvation.com threads are gone. The Internet is in its book burning phase for the sake of saving money, and it sucks. 

I will take each sin, link it to the original article, give a basic overview of my point from seven years ago, and then talk about how much that has changed, for better or for worse. 

I will try to source articles when I can, and I will, as said, certainly like the original article I wrote.

Naturally, this will take time, but I'm hoping to have the series finished by the end of the summer. 

Original article: Gunnarson's Bag: The Seven unforgiveable sins of WotC

EDH and me, A tale of suspense and intrigue

Recent someone of notable prestige made a post about his encounter with a certain ornery EDH player. This reminded me of my encounters with the format, and even my history of the game at large. After a long FB post, I decided I'll post it here, and hopefully make an enjoyable, if not somewhat long read. So sit tight, relax, put on some music, and lets a stroll down memory lane.

Now my history with the format is a mixed bag. Everything from pretentious hipsters to chill tournament winners, to zealous casuals who don't even know the rules of the game. It all started back in the distant summer of 2007. It was my first time in Indianapolis, as my dad had bought a horse ranch in the outskirts of the city with dreams of becoming a prestigious rancher. There was a local shop on the southside and like many, me and my brother would go there to throw down cardboard on a Friday night/ One night, someone asked if we played "Elder Dragon Highlander", and while I hadn't played it before, I was vaguely aware of its existence.

He gladly gave us the basic lowdown of the format and its rules, and that week me and my brother each made a deck from his cards. I made a Teferi theme deck, he built Savra with lots of Golgari themed cards, big green beaters, and ways to produce/sacrifice tokens. The next week we played a round of EDH. It was fun, this was still a few years before it became a formal format. Pods were big, lots of janky throw away cards being thrown down. I made a second deck that summer based around Rosheen Meanderer. This wasn't on a theme, but on a mechanic, trying to end the game with a massive fireball or draw the game with an Earthquake/Hurricane. Lots of Hydra's and mana doublers in the deck too, with a steady supply of Fog effects and removal. 

I don't remember much from that summer, but when I got home to NY I told everyone I knew about the format and it grew in popularity, I even made some cash by renting out my 5 color legends to people (in those days no 2 generals could be in the same Pod and Reaper King was unusually popular). However our format remained 60 card "casual", adhering to the Vintage ban list. Rorabacks was a common place to play in those days, and even in my earliest days, casual was trial by fire. One of the first casual games I ever played that wasn't with a family member involved a dropping of power 9 and a first turn kill. Academy decks were notorious as well, which forced me kicking and screaming into good deck building. It's actually how I learned how to build Stasis as a budget conscious alternative to many more expensive decks.

 Of course, at this point, this was a distance memory, and I was a decent player, even if I wasn't exactly super hardcore (I was building a car in my teen years and enjoyed other hobbies as well). In 2012 I moved to Indiana full time, at that point EDH was an official format, called 'Commander', and I was just out of college age. I met two teens at a game store playing that other card game, and a week later they called me, asking if I could teach them how to play Commander, not Magic, but specifically Commander. I agreed, we had pizza, it was a fun time, and one of those brothers would remain my best friend for a few years after. This honestly is where the change comes in, as EDH over the decade usurped the main game. More people getting into the game would get BTFO at a FNM and decide to just stick to EDH. Where in times past they would ask "well how can I make my deck better" it was become more and more "no, I'll just play this instead". 

Standard and modern definitely trudged on, but crowds slowly dwindled, at least in my experience, some of this brought on by some utterly atrocious formats, and some by the increased popularity of EDH. Modern Horizons was the death knell of casual and brewer modern players, and covid finally killed off Standard. In fact, my last standard deck I actually played standard with was built in 2019 right around the time I sold 90% of my collection (boy did I pick a bad time to do that!) 

Now I enjoy my old cards. I use to be extremely active in 93/94, and I like to pretend I still am. I occasionally will pick a commander and try to keep the rest of the deck as old as possible, usually having Homelands or Alliances be the cut off. Sometimes however, I'll continue into the larger premodern pool. I've tried a deck with almost every non-vanilla legend in this experiment. Mid-range Jacques le Vert where every creature in the deck was green. Dakkon Blackblade voltron, Merieke ri Berit control, so on so forth. I even once used Jerrard of the Closed Fist as a pauper EDH commander.  I'll also use newer commanders, forcing me to utilize cards I'd otherwise never run to get the most advantage out of the commander's mechanics. A few notable ones included a Tergrid deck, Satoru Umezawa deck called "Anything can be a ninja, even a cosmic horror", and my favorite, Judith burn.

These decks are usually seen with suspicion when I sit down in a random pod, and even less so with irate anger. One very flamboyant man said in response to my comment about no card in it being newer than 97 said "Oh so all your cards are ugly as shit". I was legitimately insulted, both because of what he said, and for him not understanding the usefulness of Glacial Chasm (especially in a burn deck). Later that game I discarded his entire hand with a Mind Twist. He responded with a "do I at least get to draw a card?" I replied "this isn't baby Magic man."

Another person on Spelltable once gave me an extra turn in hopes I'd be able to beat the fourth person on the table before his turn rolled along and he won. When I failed to do so (by no means a fault of my own, he just had answers) the guy yelled "I can't believe I wasted that on you! You have a bunch of cards printed in 1978, why do you even play with cards like that?" before disconnecting from the game. The worst in recent memories from Spelltable, came when I snuck my Mindstab Thrull into play attacking with a mechanic called Ninjitsu. He argued its ability was an attack trigger, which I repeated and even cited how all it cares about is its attacking, and it's not blocking. After 15 minutes of back and forth of circular logic, I conceded and went on with my night.

Despite all these, and more, I've also met some cool rando's in EDH. While few and far between, they were there so I can't entirely hate the format. I can say, something about the game, brings out the worst players in the game. I would deal with a thousand bitter grinders before having to deal with a "rule 0" conversation. 

The most disheartening conversation I had involving EDH involved a previously unmentioned friend of mine. He was an old hold out who due to his age, can't do much physical activities anymore, but he can play Magic. Just last month I asked him to bust out some 60 card casual which he replied "I don't have many of those anymore man, all I really play is EDH now." It really put things into perspective. Like I have some 20 casual 60 card decks, and if I can't play them, why have them?

Anyway that's rehtorical, obviously. This has been my experience of the game, and the format as a whole, a rather brief one at one. I could sit here all day listing all the EDH decks I've built, especially before 2019. I'll probably continue to have a few EDH decks (which is more than I can say about Standard), but it does make me ponder of the future of the community as a whole.

Format Review: Four Horsemen.

 Formats change the way we play Magic. Every time a set is added, or removed from a format, they game changes. I often like to say how much different each OS Format is, because of the different banlists and how they need to be played because of this. 

In this new series, I wish to explore the extremely wide and varied formats that litter retro Magic: the Gathering. Whether it be Fallen Empires, A40, 9340, 95, Scryings, Middle School, ect. I wish to explore them all over the course of the year, giving my honest, unbiased opinion on each of them. 

As of writing the current ban list, and potential prizes to the top 8. As well as contact info. 

Legality: Four Horsemen is a format consisting of the infamous 'Four Horsemen' sets of Old School, which are Arabian Nights, Antiquities, Legends, and The Dark. In addition to the cards legal to these sets, basic lands and the Limited Edition Duals are legal in the set as well. 

The set allows proxies, and all reprints, and over the course of several years has had a dynamic ban list, with a number of problematic cards being banned slowly over it. The format is mostly stable now, though a recent restriction to Sylvan Library and Dark Heart of the Woods shows the committee is willing to put a damper on long term strategies. 

There was something nice about the proverbial 'Wild West Days' when the banlist was only ante cards, however 5 hour games get boring fast. 

The Rules use modern MTG rules with the exception of mana burn. Falling Star has special errata common in other retro formats. 

Currently on its 18th tournament, there have been variants, including pauper, "Legends Spice", and Highlander to mix up the mixture up the otherwise tedium of the format and keep it exciting. These are often done to a vote. 

The Good

Prize Support: Not just for bragging rights, prize support has been given out to tournament winners in the past. This includes Tokens with art from Ken Meyer Jr, playmats, custom made proxies by John Ekleberry, and I even got an art book and poster for winning the Spice Award one time (though what deck won the spice award I forget). 

Community: The community is rather small, as is with most of these niche formats, so it's very (sometimes I'd say to) relaxed. Though, you are expected to play with tournament decorum, since these are tournaments. There is currently a dedicated Website, Facebook, YouTube page, and discord.

Deck options: There is a surprising number of deck building options despite its relatively small card pool, and the four classical archetypes all have decks that can be built and played. For combo you have Land Tax, control has stax and tempo strategies, aggro has a number of decks, and midrange include Ernham/burnem, suicide black, and blue skies. 

My current deck for tournament 18. A 4 color midrange build.

Tron deck, older, but after Strip and Mine restricted. Still has multiple Factories.

"They Might be Giants" a red \white experimentation of banding.

Legends from a previous tournament, before the restricting of Strip Mine and Maze of Ith. 

Although I admit these are my personal decks, and I'm not as varied as other players, this shows an example of the variety of cards that can be used, which wouldn't be playable in other formats.

The Bad

Enchantments are extremely powerful in the format. In fact, you need to build around the fact that options for removal are limited. While The Abyss can be answered to with other Enchant worlds, few options exist for destroying other global enchantments. Presence of the Master and Desert Twister infact are the only generic hard removal for them. Remember this when designing the deck. 

Removal: Very few instant speed removal exists in the format. While I do enjoy this, if you're coming in from a faster format like Old School proper, it can be a big adjustment. This however, does inspire creativity, which I feel is a net positive in the long run. 

The Ugly

Creatures: While many good creatures exist in the format, there is an extremely wide variety of just unplayable ones. While this is true in almost every retro format, giving the smaller card pool and lack of core set it becomes more noticable when designing a deck. Most of these however, are from Legends, which luckily, is easy to overlook. 

Simplicity: No text change effects exist in the format, nor (with the exception of Blood Moon) are there ways to change land types. One of my favorite casual strategies is gone with the wind, but alas, I live with it. 

Set Hosers: The Set Hosers are banned (City in a Bottle, Golgothian Sylex, and Arena of the Ancients). I always felt they added an interesting dynamic to both this, and old school, but for the health of the format, they are banned.

Links: Website - https://www.fourhorsemenmagic.com/ YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@4HMOSMTG/?sub_confirmation=1 Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/groups/fourhorsemenmtg Discord - https://discord.gg/wyXFHtgsar Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/fourhorsemenmtg/ Etsy - https://thefourhorsemenshop.etsy.com/