Magic: the Gathering
Magical Thinking: The Dark
Welcome back to Magical Thinking, a look at the art and cards of Magic: the Gathering through the eyes of a casual player. Today, we are looking at the fourth expansion for Magic: the Gathering, The Dark.
Released in August of 1994, The Dark takes place after the Brothers War from Antiquities, where the Sylex blast threw debris into the air, causing the skies to darken, a prelude to Dominaria’s ice age. During this time, the climate began to cool and resources dwindled. An anti-magic religion in Dominaria begins persecuting magic users. This lead them to form secret strongholds in the East and West.
This expansion was much darker (ha) than previous sets, as we will see when we get into the cards themselves. So lets get right into it.
The great thing about Magic is that the colors are not really tied to good and evil. A non-player or new player might be inclined to think that White magic is the “Good” color, and Black is the “Evil” color. In some cases they might be right, but not always. The Dark makes it pretty clear that White are not the good guys this time around, and this is the set where we see White at its most brutal and not-good.
Our first example of this is Angry Mobs. Angry Mobs are never good. Angry Mobs usually end with someone dying. Not always someone who deserves it. Unless you’re fighting Frankenstein’s Monster, you don’t want an Angry Mob around.
I really like the art on this one. Drew Tucker has done a lot of Magic art over the years. He has this vague impressionist style which I don’t always like, but sometimes it works really well and this is one of those times. The flavor is nice too, since the mob’s ire is only rallied on your turn, and only if the opponent is dabbling in Black magic. The rest of the time they have no direction and are disorganized and easy to pick off. Sadly there’s no Atticus Finch card.
One of the major themes of White is its ability to lock down enemy minions without actually harming them or removing them from play, a trait they share with their allied color of Blue. The most iconic White card that does this is Pacifism, but this is a nice cheap alternative with that signature nasty Dark flavoring. It basically makes a creature useless as an attacker in the early game (Since most early game creatures aren’t worth spending 3 mana on to attack with), and the flavor is spot on, brainwashing enemy minions to be disobedient to their masters. The flavor text is also suitably creepy.
More disturbing imagery, with this card showing someone being burned at the stake. Flavor wise it seems to imply you are murdering your own creatures in order to gain knowledge (Card draw). Seems a good fit for any token generating deck. Still, I think this one may need slightly different art.
I feel like this was right around the time that Wizards was starting to have trouble with the “Moral Guardians”. I imagine this was their way of taking a dig at them, with a card which is basically a fire and brimstone Preacher. He’s got a neat effect, where he converts one of your enemy’s minions to your side, but he has to keep at the preaching to do it or they’ll fall off the proverbial wagon. Probably not good enough to last long if your opponent is playing any removal, but a neat effect if nothing else.
Oh my God. Gobby. GOBBY NO! GOBBY! HE WAS A BOY! HE WAS JUST A BOY! HOW COULD YOU DO THIS TO HIM? GOBBY! GAAAAAAABY! GAAAAA….
*Ahem* Okay better now. But yeah. The color of chivalry, honor, justice, GENOCIDE. (And land tax and leprosy). This is some pretty brutal art. Apparently they printed a Tivadar card much later on, and he still has his massive hate on for Goblins.
Another creepy White Card, here less is definitely more. We have the Witch Hunter standing there, eyes like burning coals, face full of contempt. We don’t know what scene he’s overseeing or where that light is coming from, but given the rest of this set its probably nothing good.
Whew, that was pretty unsavory, but I don’t think we’ll get much more gruesome than what happened to Gobby.
OH MY GOD. Um, you okay there buddy? You there? Hello? Eeesh, this is pretty unsavory for Blue. You usually expect this sort of painfulness from White or Black. The art and flavor text tells the tale of some poor wizard who saw something unspeakable, and was such a mess afterward they were forced to lobotomize him in the most direct way imaginable. This is pretty much a game ending card as well, since if obliterates your opponents hand. Good card, with a gruesome bit of art.
I believe the Drowned have the distinction of being the first Blue Zombies, something we wouldn’t see a lot of until Innistrad, which introduced the Skaab, a bunch of Frankenstein-a-likes. The art is interesting because it has a lot of interesting allusions in the variety of drowned sailors. We have a pirate up front, in the back we have a more modern looking sailor, and to the right I think we have Queequeg from Moby Dick. Quinton Hoover also did the Preacher card from earlier, and it looks like he had a lot of fun with this piece.
This one amuses me because apparently they have modern artillery in Dominaria, and someone designed a spell that creates one such bomb in the shape of a brain. Also it has a neat effect, where it gives you a choice between damage and discarding. It reminds me of a more recent card Risk Factor, which gives an opponent a choice between taking damage and letting you draw.
I think the statue in the art is a reference to the statue from Call of Cthulhu. The flavor is nice too, since it gives you an option of throwing the artifact away, or keeping it and suffering from its curse.
…Okay, maybe we WILL need that Angry Mob. I like the flavor on Frankenstein here, plundering your graveyard for creatures to build him out of, but I feel like having three different forms of counters to put on him would be very confusing. I think there are later cards that do basically the same thing but are more sensible.
The only thing I have to say on the Nameless Race is that when they reorganized creature types and consolidated them, Nameless Race became the only creature without any creature type.
One thing I really like in fiction are monsters which seem to be in-universe urban legends or horror story figures. There are two such creatures for Black like that in this set. One of them is the Rag Man, a mysterious figure who snatches people on the street in the dark of the night, illustrated by his ability that makes you discard a minion at random. He doesn’t kill anyone on the board, he just…. snatches them away from your hand. It’s very Slenderman-like, decades before Slenderman existed.
This may be one of the creepiest pieces of Magic artwork I’ve ever seen. And we had a guy earlier who had a hole drilled in his head. The artist here is Jesper Myrfors, and they have done a lot of creepy Magic art. Some personal favorites of mine include the Atog, Boris Devilboon, and Evil Eye of Orms-by-Gore.
Here is the other Urban legend/Horror movie character I was talking about. Uncle Istvan is Magic’s answer to a slasher villain. Stat-wise he isn’t very impressive at 1/3, but do keep in mind most humans in Magic are 1/1’s, so he’s more than a match for the average slasher movie victims. And like most good slashers, he can’t be easily killed since he’s immune to physical damage.
The thing that gets me though is that he’s not a legendary creature. Apparently every forest in Dominaria has an Uncle Istvan. Maybe there’s something in the woods, driving these hermits to become deranged killers. Maybe there’s an Uncle Istvan in the woods just outside your house. Maybe he’s watching your right now……
Ball Lightning really is one of those cards that is emblematic of its color. It has all the markings of Red; it’s fast, it’s reckless, it deals tons of damage, and then it’s gone in a flash, leaving your opponents wondering what the Hell happened. Not a lot at three mana that can stop six damage, so at the very least you are taking out a minion. At most you are dealing six damage to the face.
Hey Ali Baba, I know you had a rough time of it last time with all those crazy walls but good news! We got a replacement for you this week so you can take the day off and *CRASH*, Oh dear. Um, Ali, we might need you to come in after all….
Oh MTG Goblins, you have no idea what the Hell you are doing, do you? It’s delightful. *Sniff* Rest in Peace Gobby. *poors one out for Gobby*
What I love about Magic is how they tell a story using the bare minimum of game mechanics. Here the story is this: The Goblins can’t use the sled unless the opponent is near a mountain (So they can slide down the mountain on the sled), they have Trample (Since anything they hit will only slow them down), and if they deal damage, they don’t untap next turn (Because they have to spend a turn climbing back up the mountain). I mean, it’s not a GOOD card because of all these limitations, but it’s a very flavorful card.
Elves of Deep Shadow is, as near as I can tell, the first Golgari card we’ve seen, AND the first time we’ve seen opposition colors working together (In this case Green and Black). This card takes a Green mana dork, and adds Black’s penchant for pain-for-power to it. A nice card and a good mixing of the two colors (Unlike a lot of the Legends Legendaries, which were just a mess. This shows that WOTC is learning).
…….I NEED AN ADULT. I NEED TWO ADULTS. I NEED ALL THE ADULTS. I mean, I get from the flavor text and ability they were going for a hippie type peace and love creature, but that is a smile that says “I just ate a puppy and I am very excited by that fact”. Also I’m like 80% sure that guy is stoned off his green leafy butt. I mean, are you gonna smoke with the old boy Niall Silvian?
This is an interesting card because of the effect. It’s pretty clear this is meant to simulate an animal which is some kind of death omen, which is actually the case in some real world folklore. When the Whippoorwill makes its call, a creature is going to die, and nothing will save it. Pretty hardcore for a little bird.
Okay, I feel like Christopher Rush (who also did the Black Lotus, probably the most famous card in all of Magic) had a little fun with this card. I mean when you say “Heart of the woods” you don’t mean a literal heart in the middle of the woods. That’s just goofy.
This card is interesting because A) the artwork is, once again, extremely creepy, and B) this is the first Scarecrow card, which would, believe it or not, go on to eventually become a creature tribe in Magic. Flavor-wise, it keeps flying creatures away, like Scarecrows do. Six Mana a turn is a bit pricey, but considering how annoying flying creatures are, it’s usually worth it.
And to close out our look at the Dark, we look at what may be the worst card ever printed for Magic. Sorrow’s path allows you to slightly control which creatures block which by swapping two of your minions’ blockers, but at the cost of damaging your entire board. That can potentially wipe your board. This is widely considered the worst card in magic, and virtually no one has ever or will ever use it.
Well, that concludes our look at The Dark. Join us next time when we take a trip to Sarpadia. Yes, it’s time to talk about Fallen Empires. Until then, stay Magical.
