The Magic the Gathering Manga Just Confirmed Its Final Promo Card (And It’s Perfect)

Magic: The Gathering’s official manga, Destroy All Humans. The Can’t Be Regenerated is officially coming to an end in Japan with the release of its eighteenth volume, and, like every volume that has come before it will include a special promo card to be bundled with the physical release. This volume, being the grand finale, is particularly special, as the bundled promo card will be Wrath of God. While the card itself isn’t particularly high value on its own, it is sentimental to the series, as its rules text, “Destroy all creatures. They can’t be regenerated.” is the inspiration for the manga’s title. The artwork for this promo is also unique. Instead of reprinting the card with the original Mike Raabe art from 1993, the volume release features a brand-new promo art for the card from an illustrator named Yumeko.

The illustration depicts the two main characters from the series, Kano and Sawatari, standing side-by-side against a sunset. While there is no official English translation for the flavor text featured on the promo card just yet, the art is absolutely stunning and serves as an excellent send-off for the series. Destroy All Humans. They Can’t Be Regenerated follows Hajime Kano, a geeky middle school student who spends his days playing Magic: The Gathering with his friends at school. After being hounded by one of his classmates and star student, Emi Sawatari, for bringing a card game to school, Kano catches her at his local game store and learns that she’s secretly an excellent Magic player.

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Magic: The Gathering‘s Manga Is a Surprisingly Poignant Look at Growing Up In Hobby Spaces

Something Destroy All Humans. They Can’t Be Regenerated does remarkably well is explore what it is to be a young person growing up in hobby spaces and to grow a strong bond with another person both in and outside of that community. While Kano and Emi are initially introduced as rivals, they slowly grow to understand each other thanks to their experiences playing Magic which blossoms into a true friendship between the pair. The series does have plenty of rom-com tropes sprinkled throughout, and it becomes clear over the course of the series that the two main characters may like each other as much more than friends, but even with that in mind, there’s a stranger nostalgia-laced comfort in seeing the two of them find a community within such a niche hobby, even if their expression for the love of said hobby is different when they’re at school.

Something else the Magic: The Gathering manga excels in is making the janky mechanics of Magic‘s early cards feel very fun for modern fans of the game, and is filled with references to things like the “Power Nine”, rare cards that were found in Magic‘s Alpha, Beta, and Unlimited sets, and making the actual gameplay featured in the series just over-the-top enough to fit the energy of the medium. It’s a clear love letter to the game, and to the community that now surrounds Magic: The Gathering as it exists today. It’s a worthwhile read, and, while the official release is still catching up to Japan – there’s no better time to get started.

Source: Natalie Comic