Possibly eliminating people based on race so they cast is more diverse

For any who may be wondering?

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randomhousebooks.com
Magic the Gathering Newsletter
We have some updates from our friends over at Del Rey Books about the War of the Spark novel! In case you missed our tweets about it just now, we have two exciting things to share:

1. You can sign up for Del Rey’s Magic Newsletter to receive 20 Ravnica Prequel stories from author Django Wexler! These are official stories that will chronicle the events leading up to War of the Spark that we’re really excited to share with you!

2. Del Rey is also offering a special bonus to folks who pre-order Greg Weisman’s War of the Spark novel! Order the book, share your receipt here by 4/23, and you’ll receive a special art print signed by Greg Weisman and the cover’s artist - Magali Villeneuve!

Storytelling in Magic: the Gathering Panel at ECCC 2019
Yesterday was hectic, so I’m only sitting down now to give the cliff notes on yesterday’s panel! It was a lot of fun, and some cool information was revealed. The panel was moderated by Del Ray’s Editorial Director, Tricia Narwani (far left), and featured (from left to right) Django Wexler, Greg Weisman, Nic Kelman, Me(!), and Steve Sunu. Thank you Jim Casale for Live Tweeting it, I’m following Jim’s tweets here to remind me what was said. Check out Jim’s thread for more images.



The first reveal was in the panelist introductions, Django Wexler is writing a 20 chapter prequel ‘novel’ available through the Del Ray website - Sign-up for Random House’s Newsletter to get access. Django’s stories will feature Ral Zarek, Vraska, Kaya, Niv-Mizzet, and Lavinia, and is set during the time period the Gatewatch is away from Ravnica. Django’s stories will feature his new original character Hekara, a cheerful Rakdos emissary.

There was a lot of discussion about Ravnica and Magic storytelling in general, and I was very funny, but I think the revelations about the story are what people want. Here’s some more on Ravnica: War of the Spark, Greg Weisman’s novel.

Teyo Verada is 17-years-old and has only recently become a planeswalker. He’s the ‘new reader’ POV character for the book (one of many POV characters), and his first planeswalk is to Ravnica during Ravnica: War of the Spark, so he doesn’t known anything about the multiverse or Ravnica. He was originally going to be mid-to-late 20s, but he was aged down to fit the direction Greg Weisman wanted to take his character.

Teyo is from a plane called Gobakhan, where civilization lives between two huge storms known as the Eastern and Western Cloud. Teyo is an acolyte in the Order of the Shieldmage, which protects towns from diamondstorms. He’s also the worst acolyte in the order.

Teyo’s tour guide on Ravnica is Rat, Greg’s new original character. Rat is a 16-year-old girl (real name Araithia Shokta) who is torn between joining the Selesnyan, Gruul, and Rakdos guilds. Magali Villeneuve, who did the cover for Ravnica: War of the Spark, also did character art for Rat.


(Rat concept art by Magali Villeneuve)

Greg and Django have collaborated on plot beats between the stories, and Greg liked Hekara so much, he made Rat and Hekara friends.

Greg’s second novel to will feature Teyo, Rat, Kaya, and Liliana as main characters, with Jace, Ral Zarek, and Vraska.

Those are all the major news bits, once I find a recording of the panel I’ll share it.

Teenagers...

War of the Spark is nearly here—and so is the end.

What it's the end of you'll have to wait and see (Ravnica? The Gatewatch? Bolas? Fblthp?!), but we're going to be doing something a little different with preview season that will take you along for the ride and tell a story through the cards.

First, the official War of the Spark story by Greg Weisman will be available in book form at the end of April. You can check out the novel and see how to preorder it here. Cards paint a picture, but the official canon version of events during War of the Spark is contained within the pages of the book.


Cover art by Magali Villeneuve

But the cards tell a story as well. For this preview season, we're going to be doing a few cool things that will have you scouring the internet for the next chapter in the saga each day.

Starting this weekend with the Mythic Invitational and PAX East, we'll be previewing cards in what we're calling scenes. All cards previewed on a single day will have a connection to a story point, an event, or a key location in roughly chronological order. Then, starting Monday, we'll be posting scenes of around four or five cards to paint the picture of what's happening. Think of them like little storyboards using the cards, the art, and the flavor text to give an overview of what's happening.

Every day we'll update our storyboard (which you'll find on DailyMTG.com) with a new scene. Check back every day or periodically to follow an outline of the story. Not every card will be put on the storyboard—but we will be previewing every card along the way.

And there's the other twist. Normally we do two weeks of previews with a significant number of commons and uncommons revealed on the final day. This time we'll be previewing everything—from the most mythic of rares to the most common of commons—all along the way for the next three weeks. By the time we get to the final day of previews, everything will have already been revealed. You'll not only get a sense of the story, you'll also learn more about the mechanics and the Draft environment than preview seasons past.

In this way, you'll learn more about the characters, the story, the events, and, yes, the end than ever before during a preview season.

We hope you enjoy this different take on preview season and that you follow along as we head toward a climax that's been building for years. Be sure to tune in to the Mythic Invitational coverage this weekend to get your first looks at War of the Spark!