Flavor is one of our favorite aspects of Magic: The Gathering and while it is sometimes superficial, flavor is at its best when it spills over into gameplay. Adventures in the Forgotten Realms had players rolling d20’s and Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty has players piloting hulking mechs. Some of the best moments are when players feel the connection to the world represented on the battlefield.
But what happens when the flavor of cards begins to impact the player’s world outside of a game of Magic: The Gathering?
If our sources are to be believed, Wizards of the Coast is planning on exploring this in a new Universes Beyond release based on the world of the massively successful game, Elden Ring. In it, players traverse a mythical land filled with dangerous obstacles which can easily end a player’s life if they’re not careful. Once felled, the player must fight back to the location where they died to collect that which was lost.
WotC has purportedly decided to implement this new mechanic by employing a little magic of their own which teleports a player’s deck back to their nearest LGS in the event Elden Ring cards are present in the deck at the time of defeat.
“I see this as a total win,” Markus Garrett, owner of Sportillas n’ Tortillas in Toronto told us Tuesday. “Players are getting out to LGS again now that covid’s effects are dwindling, and this will give them more incentive. I mean they kind of have to after all. Plus, it’s an easy way sell people on new singles or some more product.”
Not all players see this as a “flavor win”.
“Like most MTG products this benefits the people with the most money. This is great if you have a car, or live in a place with ample public transportation. But I’m not going to play a game where I have to go twenty miles to pick up my deck. The fact that I basically have to announce I lost to the entire store when I go pick up my deck is just too much for my anxiety.”
At time of press, an individual wearing nothing but a loincloth and a pot their head has been heading to LGSs to pick up decks for other people, giving this stranger a ton of cred in the community.