​In the name of the moon

By Ben Haugmo

In the world of Innistrad, the state of affairs has always been grim. Human settlements struggle to hold back an ever-present darkness in the form of vampires, werewolves, ghosts, ghouls, and demons. The only hope against these supernatural threats has been Innistrad’s guardian, the archangel Avacyn. At least things couldn’t be any worse, right? Out of the frying pan…

This week marks the prerelease for the Magic: The Gathering trading card game’s new set, Eldritch Moon. Paradox Comics-N-Cards will be hosting events all weekend, allowing players to get an early taste of the new cards that will be officially released next weekend, and an early taste of how things have gone from bad to worse for Innistrad.

Richard Early opened Paradox the summer that Magic was first published, back in 1993. He started running Magic game nights and tournaments soon after trying the game out for himself, and he believes prereleases are a good way for both the Magic old guard and new players to come together and enjoy the game.

“It's perfect,” said Early, “whether you are a first-time player or a 20-year veteran, because each person receives a unique kit containing booster packs of Eldritch Moon and a promo card exclusive to the event.

“Normally in Magic, players can use their collections to build decks and participate in tournaments, but at a prerelease, everyone is limited to the contents of those kits, leveling the playing field for all involved as well as challenging everyone's imagination and Creativity.”

Prerelease events are also low on competition. “It's not about winning and losing,” said Early, “it's about playing cards for the sake of playing cards and celebrating the gaming hobby. There are prizes offered for wins, but there is no ultimate prize so the competition level is low and instead it's all about the experience.”

The story of Magic: The Gathering centers around interdimensional-traveling magic users called Planeswalkers. In playing the game, each player takes the role of a rival Planeswalker battling for supremacy over different worlds, summoning creatures and casting spells to achieve victory.

The original Innistrad set premiered in 2011, introducing players to a world designed specifically with classic horror tropes in mind. Werewolves, vampires, and all flavors of zombie ran rampant, and the setting proved to be popular enough to merit a return.

Shadows Over Innistrad, released in April of this year, brought players back to Innistrad to find the world afflicted by a growing madness. Even the world’s guardian, Avacyn, was affected, plummeting the powerful archangel into a murderous frenzy.

With the coming of Eldritch Moon, Avacyn has been destroyed, lowering Innistrad’s defenses and allowing the source of the madness to arrive on Innistrad and wreak new horrors.

The Eldrazi titan Emrakul, a world-devouring cosmic entity, has been lured to Innistrad to fill the void left in Avacyn’s absence.

With new horrors come new mechanical innovations. Emrakul has the power to warp living things into lesser Eldrazi spawn, twisted servitors and extensions of her will. This is represented on the new cards in several ways, the most dramatic of which is the new meld mechanic. When the original Innistrad set was first released, it introduced double-faced cards to Magic. A double-faced card could be put into play and then flipped over when certain conditions were met, “transforming” it into something new. The best example of this are the werewolf cards that were prevalent in the set, switching from human to beast and back again, depending on how the game was played. Meld adds a new twist to double-faced cards, letting two different cards “merge together” when they’re flipped over. The two original cards are flipped, and then placed together to form the larger melded card.

The unlucky victims of this aspect of Emrakul’s influence range from two of Avacyn’s angelic subordinates to the entire population of a small village.

The introduction of meld means that it could appear in other Magic sets, allowing the theme of two opposites merging to represent themes other than Emrakul’s gruesome transformations.

“Meld is an awesome idea,” said Early. “It's an exciting way to combine cards that I think will really excite players, especially casual fans. It give the game the opportunity to create more powerful monsters and spells than we've ever seen bycombining cards you've already played. The idea of different characters combining into one powerful construct is common throughout pop culture animation and movies and I think will resonate really well.”

Paradox will be running both sealed-deck tournaments, where players construct cards from random booster packs and play one-on- one, and “two-headed giant” sealed tournaments in which teams consisting of two players can face off.

IF YOU GO

Eldritch Moon Prerelease

Paradox Comics-N-Cards, 26 Roberts St, Fargo

Saturday, July 16

12:01am - Sealed Deck 1

3:00am - Sealed Deck 2

12:00pm - Sealed Deck 3

6:00pm - 2-Headed Giant Sealed 1

Sunday, Jul 17

12:00pm - Sealed Deck 4

6:00pm - 2-Headed Giant Sealed 2

INFO: 701-239- 9505