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talenlee · 6 months ago

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MTG: Introducing Harrowed Night

Know where you stand or you’ll find where you fall.

The world is broken. The city is collapsing. The weather of the north storms hammer at the city’s walls, while the seas creeping in the dilapidated ruins of the south side start to boil. New monsters break through the decaying infrastructure, and the people in charge of the world are incompetent to fix things or don’t even care.

The only thing that will save us is us, and the time to start is now.

Let the blood rise, in this Harrowed Night.

Warning: Wizards employees, this post contains unsolicited designs of custom magic cards.

Every day across Reddit and Kind.Social, I post a custom Magic: The Gathering card, designed by me and made with art sourced from Artstation, meant to compose a whole set with its own flavour and narrative. This year’s set is Harrowed Night and if you don’t want to read the pitch after this point, you can just go here to look at the gallery of the whole set, in full.

I will do an article at some point in the future about the world building of Harrowed Night that seeks to decouple it from Magic: The Gathering for a general audience.

Harrowed Night is a top-down designed Victorian Horror set based on the trope of a tumultous industrialising city grappling with a failing abusive government. Harrowed Night is inspired by media like Fromsoft’s Bloodborne, Evil Hat’s Blades in the Dark, and Arkane’s Dishonored, and incorporates elements of HP Lovecraft’s horror stories, Neo-Noir retrofantasy, countercultural rebellions, gang politics, urban fantasy and environmental apocalypticism, all amongst a period of time where a ruling class rewrite history to reassert their own power structures, ambivalent to the way that people actually live and struggle in the world.

Harrowed Night contains 365 cards (120 commons, 135 uncommons, 85 rares, 25 mythic rares). Set in the world of the Unnamed City, Harrowed Night tells the story of the people under the rule of a commanding body known as the Exarch who have used powerful magic to alienate themselves from the people’s needs, in order to act dispassionately and optimally, and steadily left the city to find its own ways to protect itself against the erosion of reality and the monstrous creatures that follow. The ten gangs that formed in the absence of a power structure are doing their best to sustain what they think matters the most in the city of millions, and in the process, become another problem the Exarch seeks to use its vast blunt instrument to hammer down flat.

Story

Harrowed Night does not have a single, strict, directed story for how the City’s plight unwinds. Each of the ten gangs has their own narrative that flows from who they are and what they value, which intersect with one another in ways that lead to their radicalisation and rebellion against the city, and the ways that many people can address the same problem in different ways. Where the story intersects is deliberately left as an exercise for the reader, but a guide can be provided if people would like to see the intentional connections.

It has recently been made known that the Exarch exerts power over people through the power of Memoricide – through killing memories from the minds of people, in a way that allows the Exarch to do things then completely obscure their actions and rewrite their history. With this powerful magic at their hand, the Exarch declare all magic used by others as forms of ‘Necromancy,’ the magic of blood and bone, including even magic of the mind (since minds are made of meat), and outlaws them. Despite this, there are ten factions that have their own forms of ‘necromancy’ that respond to these crackdowns by coalescing and fighting back in their own way.

The ten factions and their approach to the city’s problems are:

The Tin Stars (WU), the knights and landholders of the city’s privileged class, realising that the city’s streets have become too dangerous for people to walk. The Tin Stars resolved to take to the work of being sheriffs themselves – doing their best to protect people and make good, fair, reasonable judgments with optimal information. They think that by protecting the people they can replace the Exarch who will naturally fall through their own incompetence. Their great weakness is their belief that the system is good, it’s just being used wrong.

Their mechanic is Intercept.

The Whisperers (UB), a mystery cult whose source was destroyed by the Exarch’s memoricides. Unable to know where they came from, the Whisperers view themselves as perfectly free agents – able to be nobody and turning even secrets and memories into their operators. They think that the tools of control the Exarch holds can be suborned and in the doing, the nameless Whisperers can replace the seemingly inassailable Exarch and do right with their access to infinite perfect knowledge. Their great weakness is their reliance on their own competence to permit powerful systems.

Their mechanic is Cloak.

The Stonehearts (BR), a gang of hooligans and brutes who started out dealing in exotic monster blood as their product of choice, only to turn to using Gargoyle Blood to self-augment, turning themselves into living artifacts. The Stonehearts then coalitioned with Gorgons, allowing them to build and sculpt themselves into the artworks they want to be, taking monstrous and beautiful forms that express their love of freedom and rage against the city. Their great weakness is their immediacy, their inability to make greater plans beyond their own needs and wants.

Their mechanic is Living Metal.

The Unruled (RG), separatists who have broken out of the city, breaking holes in the walls and fleeing into the wilds. The Exarch branded them as rebels and wreckers, insisting that they flee into the woods only to die, because the woods around the city are too dangerous, filled with monsters and old horrors. The Unruled make raids back into the city to find people who want to escape, and get them out, making a proud showing of what they can do to help people. Their great weakness is that they don’t have one. They want to leave the city, so they do.

Their mechanic is Boast.

The Crownless (WG), anarchists who reject the authority of the city. The Crownless believe there is no need for kings or anything like them, and they share their resources amongst one another to address needs and problems they have. They demonstrate an ability to freeze out city infrastructure by simply refusing to engage with it, and their invisible identities make it harder for the Exarch to memoricide the network of relationships. Their great weakness is that by being present in the city, they are potentially at risk of being crushed by it.

Their mechanic is Supply.

The New Dawn (WB), a cohort of detectives and investigators interwoven in the city’s criminal networks and also their high society. The New Dawn are a seemingly hidden conspiracy of people working to protect people as best they can from the nobility who would seek to disregard the law or what’s right, and they spend their time following the complicated plots to their conclusion – even if that means the occasional engagement with deadly serial killers or graverobbers. Mixed in amongst the New Dawn is the story of a detective trying to uncover a mystery of a missing person – someone who was murdered then memoricided. Their great weakness is their small numbers and unwillingness to communicate.

Their mechanic is Plot.

The Hackgears (UR), the former union of glassworkers and chemical transporters. Their ability to even just show up for work and do their jobs have been choked to the limit by the city’s laws about what does and doesn’t count as Necromancy, with individual chemicals being banned based on not what they are but even just based on their names, forcing the Hackgears to turn to illegal acts just to do their jobs, and to fight the authorities to create space for their own research. Their great weakness is their pragmatism – ultimately, if the city worked for them, they wouldn’t fight it.

Their mechanic is Sabotage.

The Yard Hounds (BG), the outcasts in the city branded as necromancers, chased from the city’s heart to the graveyards and tombstones. They’ve learned ways to tap the magic of death and rebirth, drawing back from the past to fight back against an oppressor, and saving those people who fall into medical need. One might wonder why if they’re the city’s monstrous undesireables, the Exarch haven’t memoricided them. Their greatest weakness is their antipathy to structure — they’re willing to let the city fall apart and rebuild in the rubble, because who cares about it?

Their mechanic is Rouse.

The Razorwings (RW), a coalition of weaponsmiths and accelerationists, convinced the only way to end the Exarch’s rule is through open street warfare. To this end, they have taken to distributing weapons, freely, everywhere they can – the Razorwings are firm believers in arming the homeless to oppose the police. Since so much of what they do is anonymised, they take it as proof that the Exarch’s power is not absolute – and even their ability to destroy memories can be overcome with sufficient, powerful emotional upwellings. Their greatest weakness is they are leaving weapons where anyone can have them.

Their mechanic is To Arms!.

The Groundsharks (GU), urban druids who know that the city is not the rulership, that the land is older than the crown, and that oppression is not natural. The Groundsharks take to the city’s hidden places and teach abandoned or unused buildings to stand up and fight the forces of the city with brick and mortar fists. Their greatest weakness is their reliance on the ancient ways – sometimes there are new problems that need new solutions.

Their mechanic is Awaken.

Tokens

The following tokens are present in Harrowed Night:

A copy token

A 1/1 colorless Spirit creature token

An Arrest token (a white Enchantment Aura for 2W with “Enchant creature” and “Enchanted creature can’t attack or block and its activated abilities can’t be activated.”)

A 1/1 white Human creature token

A 1/1 blue Bird creature token with flying

A Bloodied token (a black Enchantment Aura with “Enchant permanent” and “Enchanted permanent gets -2/-2 and has protection from Vampires.”)

A */* black Demon creature token with flying

A 1/1 red Gremlin creature token

A 2/2 red Rebel creature token with menace

A 4/4 green Bear creature token

A 1/1 green Insect creature token with flying named Butterfly

A 6/6 green Dinosaur creature token with trample named Colossal Dreadmaw

A 3/3 green Elk creature token

A 7/1 green Insect creature token with shroud

A 4/4 green Legendary Spirit Wolf creature token with “Whenever this creature deals combat damage to an opponent, put a lore counter on target enchantment you control.”

A 3/5 green Spider creature token with reach

A 1/1 green Squirrel creature token

A 2/2 green Wolf creature token

A 2/2 Citizen creature token that’s all colours

An Involved token (a black and white Enchantment Aura with “Enchant creature” and “Enchanted creature is goaded.”)

A Brain Juice token, an artifact token with “4, T, Sacrifice this artifact: Draw two cards.”

A Clue token

A Smoke Vial token, an artifact token with “T, Sacrifice this artifact: Target creature can’t block this turn.”

A Treasure token

An Unstable Fuel token, an artifact token with “2, T, Sacrifice this artifact: This artifact deals 2 damage to any target.”

Themes and Mechanics

Each of the ten gangs has their own faction mechanic. Five of these mechanics are returning mechanics that function more or less as-expected:

Cloak: The Whisperers are the nameless, recruiting out of seemingly nowhere. The Whisperers turn even dreams and forgetfulness into forces to oppose the city, creating a wall of nameless agents. Because of this, the Whisperers care about being able to return their own creatures to their hand, and have a sub-theme of cards that care about whether or not cards have names.

Living Metal: The Stonehearts have turned themselves into living statues and frescos that can blend into the artworks around the churches, to hunt the Exarch’s agents. They avoid notice most of the time, and only leap into action when it’s time to strike.

Boast: The Unruled are proud of their successes, and when they raid the city they do it with stories about how succesful their lives are outside of the city’s stifling control.

Plot: The New Dawn’s agents have to sift through all sorts of information to work out what’s happening in the city, mixed in with the missing subjects of Memoricides. The New Dawn have cards that both plot themselves, but also care about becoming plotted, and even plotting other cards.

Awaken: The Groundsharks know that every small spell has a big spell waiting to be heard underneath it. These powerful urban druids can draw upon the magic of small actions to turn into mighty aspects of the city, ready to lay into their enemies and reshape the world. Remember, the text on a card happens in order, so when a card has ‘Awaken’ above other things, then you do that Awaken effect first.

The remaining gangs have these new mechanics:

Intercept is the keyword mechanic of the Tin-Stars, representing a moment when someone is in danger, and a Tin-Star leaps out to block the hit, protecting a citizen.

Intercept is an activated ability that functions only while the card with Intercept is in a player’s hand. “Intercept [cost]” means, “[Cost]: Put this card onto the battlefield. Target creature you control with lesser power or toughness phases out until this creature leaves the battlefield.” This means in order to activate this ability you must have a creature on the battlefield with a lesser power or toughness in order to target it. Spirit of the Law here can leap out to protect a 2/2 creature, because it has a greater power, but not a 4/4 creature, or even another 4/3 creature.

The targeted creature just phases out — the Intercepting creature doesn’t become the new target of anything. This is a simple trick designed to protect creatures. Once the intercepting creature leaves the battlefield for any reason, the intercepted creature phases in. This doesn’t count as entering the battlefield. The creature got out of the way.

If you phase out an intercepting creature, it hasn’t left the battlefield, so the creature first intercepted doesn’t come back.

Rouse is the keyword mechanic of the Yard Hounds, representing the ability the necromancer gang have to draw the most out of everything they deal with. Whether it’s squeezing a spell’s last dregs for another shot, or if it’s helping to resuscitate a particularly lively agent, the Yard Hounds think every good return deserves another.

Rouse is an activated ability that functions only while the card with Rouse is in the graveyard. “Rouse [cost]” means “[Cost], exile this card from your graveyard: Create a copy of this card. You may cast it without paying its mana cost. Activate this ability only when you could cast this spell, including timing and targets.”

You exile the card as part of the cost, meaning that when you Rouse the card, it’s too late for anyone to exile it in response. If you Rouse a creature card, the copy becomes a token. Rousing a does count as copying a spell, and then casting it, meaning if you Rouse a noncreature spell, you trigger Magecraft effects twice. You aren’t forced to cast a Roused a spell if circumstances change between when you activate the effect and the effect resolves. If you Rouse an Unfair Exchange, and your opponent kills your only creature in response, you’re not required to cast Unfair Exchange on your opponent’s creatures and give them lifelink for the turn.

Finally, the Roused copies are copies. They aren’t copies like Embalm copies, which are copied except some traits. These copies have the mana costs of the original cards, so, hey, go wild with Devotion and Populate I guess!

Sabotage is the keyword mechanic of the Hackgears, representing when an agent of the crew manages to slip past your defenses and, rather than lay into you directly, they set up a rune or leave a magical potion in the right spot at the right time, and sneak away. Sabotaged spells tend to be cheaper, because they cost you a creature, and getting to Sabotage a spell in can let you cast something when you otherwise wouldn’t have the opportunity.

Sabotage is a static ability that functions while the spell with sabotage is in your hand. “Sabotage [cost]” means “You may cast this card by paying [cost] and returning an unblocked attacking creature you control to its owner’s hand rather than paying its mana cost. If you do, you may cast this spell any time you could cast an instant.”

Sabotage cards return the creature as part of the cost of casting them. When the spell is cast, the creature is already returned. In order to be unblocked, a creature must have had the opportunity to be blocked – ie, an opponent has to have passed the declare blockers step without assigning that creature a blocker. Sabotage is a mana cost; effects that reduce mana costs or increase them apply to Sabotage costs.

Supply is the keyword ability of the Crownless. It represents the way a mutual support network finds ways to take care of one another, and when resources are introduced to a group, they’re improved by everyone bringing them together.

Supply is an activated ability you can only activate in your upkeep and only once each turn. “Supply X – [cost]” means “[Cost]: Put X +1/+1 counters on this creature and it becomes supplied. Activate only once, only in your upkeep, and only activate one Supply ability per turn.”

Most but not all creatures with supply also have a triggered ability that checks for when a creature becomes supplied, or that do something for supplied creatures. These abilities trigger when a supply ability resolves, because a creature has become supplied. If a supply ability is activated and the creature is destroyed before it resolves, then that creature never becomes supplied, which means those triggered effects don’t trigger. If that happens, you can’t activate another Supply effect.

Gotta be careful, protect your Supply creatures to get those supply effects!

To Arms! is the keyword ability of the Razorwings, representing the way the Razorwings leave weaponry around the city for any normal city to take up. The Razorwings think that the task of retaking the city should be everyone’s responsiblity. “To Arms!” means “When this Equipment enters, create a 2/2 Citizen creature token that’s all colors, then attach this Equipment to it.”

Yeah, this is like For Mirrodin! just not linked to the same specific flavour and with added advantages for things like Convoke.

Spoiler

The set is done! The set is available for you to inspect, in a fully sorted spoiler that divides everything by set. Every card is available, along with my card-by-card notes. No secrets, no ability to make changes after this point. Every card also has its art source along with it, and the developer notes, and you can

See the Full Spoiler Here!

Hopefully this reference document provides a useful explainer for all the relevant rules for the cards, and a guide to the factions if you want to browse them all at once!

Check it out on PRESS.exe to see it with images and links!

#Custom Magic #Games #Magic: The Gathering

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