Magic: The Gathering - Flavor Text I Enjoy

I was first introduced to Magic at six years old, and I immediately fell in love with it. While there are many aspects of the game that drew me in, the flavor text on the bottom of cards introduced me to another layer entirely, occasionally leading me to seek out books, poems, and plays I'd otherwise not come across for likely another decade or more. (I'm fairly certain my first introduction to Shakespeare came from a magic card.)

Beyond quotes from real world sources, cards often have quotes from characters within the world of magic or from in-universe books, and seeing them together within a set can provide a deeper story to go along with the theme and function of a set.

As a prompt to relearn web design, and to give myself a project to work on, I'm going to work my way through each magic set starting from the beginning and noting here any and all flavor text that stood out to me. (Several cards were reprinted with the same flavor text, so for the sake of simplicity I'm only listing the oldest printing.)

Jump to any set you'd like!

Alpha

• Pearled Unicorn: "'Do you know, I always thought Unicorns were fabulous monsters, too? I never saw one alive before!' 'Well, now that we have seen each other,' said the Unicorn, 'if you'll believe in me, I'll believe in you.'"
  - Lewis Carroll


• Phantom Monster: "While, like a ghastly rapid river, Through the pale door, A hideous throng rush out forever, And laugh--but smile no more."
  - Edgar Allan Poe, "The Haunted Palace"


• Water Elemental: Unpredicatable as the sea itself, Water Elementals shift without warning from tranquility to tempest. Capricious and fickle, they flow restlessly from one shape to another, expressing their moods with their physical forms.


• Plague Rats: "Should you a Rat to madness tease Why ev'n a Rat may plague you..."
  - Samuel Coleridge, "Recantation"


• Scathe Zombies: "They groaned, they stirred, they all uprose,/ Nor spoke, nor moved their eyes;/ It had been strange, even in a dream,/ To have seen those dead men rise."/
  - Samuel Colridge, "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner"


• Hill Giant: Fortunately, Hill Giants have large blind spots in which a human can easily hide. Unfortunately, these blind spots are beneath the bottoms of their feet.


• Elvish Archers: I tell you, there was so many arrows flying about you couldn't hardly see the sun. So I says to young Angus, "Well, at least now we're fighting in the shade!"


• Grizzly Bears: Don't try to outrun one of Dominia's Grizzlies; it'll catch you, knock you down, and eat you. Of course, you could run up a tree. In that case, you'll get a nice view before it knocks the tree down and eats you.


• Wall of Ice: "And through the drifts the snowy cliffs/ Did send a dismal sheen;/ Nor shapes of men nor beasts we ken--/ The ice was all between."/
  - Samuel Coleridge, "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner"

Arabian Nights

• Army of Allah: On the day of victory, no one is tired. - Arab proverb

Legends

• Elder Land Wurm: Sometimes it's best to let sleeping Dragons lie.


• Devouring Deep: "Full fathom five thy father lies;/ Of his bones are coral made;/ Those are pearls that were his eyes;/ Nothing of him doth fade,/ But doth suffer a sea-change/ Into something rich and strange."
  - William Shakespeare, The Tempest


• Wallof Vapor: "Walls of a castle are made out of stone,/ Walls of a house are made out of wood./ My walls are made out of magic alone,/ Stronger than any that ever have stood."
  - Crysoberyl Earthsdaughter, Incantations


• Carrion Ants: " 'War is no picnic,' my father liked to say. But the Ants seemed to disagree."
  - General Chanek Valteroth


• Greed: "There is no calamity greater than lavish desires./ There is no greater guilt than discontentment./ And there is no greater disaster than greed."
  - Tao Tê Ching 46


• Lost Soul: She walks in the twilight, her steps make no sound,/ Her feet leave no tracks on the dew-covered ground./ Her hand gently beckons, she whispers your name--/ But those who go with her are never the same.


• Crimson Kobolds: "Kobolds are harmless." - Bearand the Bold, epitaph


• Hyperion Blacksmith: "The smith a mighty man is he/ With large and sinewy hands./ And the muscles of his brawny arms/ Are strong as iron bands."
  - Hanry Wadsworth Longfellow, The Village Blacksmith


• Wall of Opposition: Like so many obstacles in life, the Wall of Opposition is but an illusion, held fast by the focus and belief of the one who creates it.


• Elven Riders: "Sometimes it is better to be swift of foot than strong of swordarm."
  - Elven Proverb


• Giant Turtle: "The turtle lives 'twixt plated decks/ Which practically conceal its sex./ I think it clever of the turtle/ In such a fix to be so fertile."
  - Ogden Nash, The Turtle


• Karakas: "To make a prairie it takes a clover and one bee,/ One clover, and a bee,/ And revery."
  - Emily Dickinson


• Urborg: "resignedly beneath the sky/The melancholy waters lie./So blend the turrets and shadows there/That all seem pendulous in air,/While from a proud tower in town/Death looks gigantically down."
  - Edgar Allan Poe, "The City in the Sea"

The Dark

• Blood of the Martyr: The willow knows what the storm does not: that the power to endure harm outlives the power to inflict it.


• Fissure: "Must not all things at the last be swallowed up in death?"
  --Plato


• Goblin Digging Team: "From down here we can make the whole wall collapse!" "Uh, yeah, boss, but how do we get out?"


• Land Leeches: "The standard cure for leeches requires the application of burning embers. Alternative methods must be devised should an ember of sufficient size prove more harmful than the leech."
  --Vervamon the Elder


• Fountain of Youth: The Fountain had stood in the town square for centuries, but only the pigeons knew its secret.

Fallen Empires

• Vodalian Mage (Mark Poole art): "Come back, cowards! Everyone knows Merfolk can't wield magic!"
  --Pashadar Dirf, Goblin Flotilla Commander, last words


• Brassclaw Orcs (Dan Frazier art): "Brassclaws were typical Orcs--quick to laud their own prowess in battle, quick to jeer at their opponents, and quicker still to run away when things started to look slightly dangerous."
  --Sarpadian Empires, vol. IV


• Thelonite Druid: "The magic at the heart of all living things can bear awe-inspiring fruit"
  --Kolevi of Havenwood, Elder Druid

Ice Age

• Battle Cry:
  


• KJeldoran Royal Guard:
  


• Order of the White Shield:
  


• Essence Flare:
  


• Illusionary Terrain:
  


• Infuse:
  


• Silver Erne:
  


• Abyssal Specter:
  


• Dark Banishing:
  


• Fear:
  


• Gravebind:
  


• Moor Fiend:
  


• Aurochs:
  


• Chub Toad:
  


• Forgotten Lore:
  


• Whalebone Glider:
  

Homelands

• Aysen Bureaucrats (two people):
  


• Grandmother Sengir:
  


• Carapace (tree):
  


• Shrink (shadow):
  

Alliances

• Noble Steeds (no trees):
  


• Seasoned Tactician:
  


• Soldevi Heretic (no hood):
  


• Soldevi Sage (standing):
  


• Misinformation:
  


• Pillage:
  


• Undergrowth (fox):
  

Mirage

• :
  


• :
  


• :
  

Visions

• :
  


• :
  


• :
  

Fifth Edition

• :
  


• :
  


• :
  

Portal

• :
  


• :
  


• :
  

Weatherlight

• :
  


• :
  


• :
  

Tempest

• :
  


• :
  


• :
  

Stronghold

• :
  


• :
  


• :
  

Exodus

• :
  


• :
  


• :
  

Portal Second Age

• :
  


• :
  


• :
  

Unglued

• :
  


• :
  


• :
  

Urza's Saga

• :
  


• :
  


• :
  

Set Name

• :
  


• :
  


• :
  

Someday I'll add a comment box or email address here if folks want to talk about their favorites.