AMC's The Walking Dead is coming to Magic: The Gathering in a crossover that will see Negan swinging his baseball bat against pyromancers and Elder Dragons. This will be the latest in a number of crossovers appearing in the long-running card game as of late. Several have come from the game's corporate owners at Hasbro, with Magic cards representing My Little Pony and Transformers characters, although these cards were not sanctioned for anything but casual play.
In April, Magic: The Gathering teamed up with Toho to create alternate versions of certain monsters that depicted characters from the Godzilla films. These cards, which also bore the name of an equivalent creature from Magic's lore, were legal to play in everything from official tournaments to casual games on the kitchen table. Magic isn't done with crossovers either, as it was recently revealed that an upcoming set would be entirely focused on recreating iconic elements of Dungeons & Dragons in new cards. That release will be a full set taking place outside of Magic's own multiverse, a first for the game.
The cards bearing the iconic characters of The Walking Dead will be printed as part of Magic's Secret Lair program, according to a press release from Wizards of the Coast. The set will be available only for a two-week limited run starting during AMC's We Are The Walking Dead Weekend on October 4th. Two cards have been revealed so far, one depicting the villainous Negan and the other putting the spotlight on Michonne. Both are thematically appropriate to the characters in question, with Negan thriving whenever others are sacrificed and Michonne becoming invincible when Zombies are by her side.
This morning's announcement of new Magic cards caused a stir among some fans of the game, angry that what are essentially new game pieces could be locked behind a limited time only purchase. Players outside the United States are worried about the prohibitive cost of the package while others are concerned that the limited licensing deal between Magic: The Gathering developers Wizards of the Coast and AMC could mean that these cards couldn't be reprinted in the future. Designers from Wizards have come out to say that the cards are reprintable under a different name, but that causes other gameplay concerns that haven't been addressed as of yet.
It must be said that the comic-book-inspired The Walking Dead is an odd fit for Magic: The Gathering, which usually deals exclusively in fantasy realms. Still, there are lots of zombies, mummies, and necromancers in Magic's past, as well as a few sets depicting more historically accurate settings. The more perplexing choice is the choice to deviate from the way the Godzilla cards were handled. If the cards had a built-in duplicate in Magic lore from the beginning, many players would begrudgingly accept the crossover cards. There must be a reason for not doing this, but it sure isn't clear to outside observers at this time.
Source: Wizards of the Coast