With over 4,000 cards in my Magic: The Gathering collection, it’s not surprising that I don’t remember most of the cards I’ve accumulated. However, one card emblazoned in my memory is called “Frozen Shade,” a card that uses a quote by Edgar Allan Poe. Even though the card isn’t very good and doesn’t function well in any of the decks I own, it commands a spot in my memory due to the fact that I’m a sucker for literary references.
The card is of standard size: about 3.5 inches tall and about 2.5 inches wide. An approximately half-centimeter wide white border encompasses it, and a black border outlines the image and the text box. Many important pieces of gameplay information reside here, including the mana cost to play the card in the game and the creature’s power and toughness. The illustration depicts a dark, ghost-like figure in a dark cloak whose body seems to dissipate into snow flurries into the sky behind it. From under the hood of the cloak gaze two sinister eyes that stare straight at the viewer. Two grey hands extend from the sleeves with fingers maniacally curved in a malicious gesture. The cloak is attached to a cape that floats away from the figure. The most intriguing part, however, is the text box. What the card does in the game is the first chunk of information in the box. The ability of the Frozen Shade allows a player to pay mana to make the creature bigger. Beneath this ability resides some flavor text, which are words on Magic: the Gathering cards that appear in italics and don’t add to the ability of the card but rather present information about the larger lore of Magic: the Gathering as a whole or, in the case of this card, a quote that corresponds the card’s illustration. The quote comes from Poe’s sonnet, Silence, and reads, “There are some qualities–– some incorporate things / That have a double life, which thus is made / A type of twin entity which springs / From matter and light, evinced in solid and shade.” As of 2015, over 20 million people worldwide play Magic: the Gathering. The game includes over 24,000 cards, of which people can create 60-card decks to play. Without a doubt, Magic: the Gathering is a game of strategy. Technology Review calls Magic: the Gathering “the world’s most complicated game” in terms of the amount of possible strategies that can be employed to win and the necessity of understanding them. Not only must a player understand his or her own deck, but also the opponent’s deck. Sometimes, a player can face off against more than a single opponent, and the game can technically have any number of players. Along with the fact that many people can participate in a single game of Magic: the Gathering, there are also myriad strategies a person can employ to win the game. To try to win, a player adopts the identities, the values, and the synergies of one or more colors: black, white, blue, red, and/or green. Each color has several strategies associated with them. The combination of color(s) and strategy is how a player intends to win a game.
Silence is not an exceedingly common sonnet from Poe’s canon. Most fascinating about the use of Silence is the relationship between the quote, the illustration, and the creature’s ability. First, the quote remarks that there exist “some incorporate things” that are “made.” According to the Oxford English Dictionary, “incorporate” means, “Without body or material substance; incorporeal, unembodied.” Clearly, the illustration depicts such a being by showing a bodiless figure that melts away into the background. Furthermore, the ability of the creature also reflects the second line of the sonnet because a player can pay to make the creature bigger and thus the creature “is made.” Finally, the name of the card honors Poe’s sonnet. Calling the card “Frozen Shade,” refers to the being in Poe’s writing that is “evinced in solid and shade.” Finally, the color of the card is a clear testament to an understanding of Poe’s works. In the game, the color black represents power through death, decay, cunning, etc. Given these themes of Magic: the Gathering’s use of black, it is absolutely appropriate that a card inspired by Poe would be black. The themes of Poe’s works and the themes of the color black in Magic: the Gathering overlap. This Magic: the Gathering card represents the company’s deep understanding of Poe and gives its product a high register of intellectuality.