Thread: Magic: The Gathering - An Experiment

This is intended as my "personal experiment diary" for some of the ideas from this thread:
Theory of Advanced Thoughtforms

For some background please read there (especially the quote about Tarot magic on page one and the 2 links I provided on the second page).


I put it here, because it is more Chaos than anything else for me.


Today I got a bulk of "new" cards, which I purchased from ebay. I could have gotten them a bit cheaper I guess, but well it is still okay.
It was quite a interesting feel getting the package - energizing with a mix of joy for the possible upcoming adventures.

The cards themselves proved to be a rather mixed block. Ranging from mint to uhm "unmint" *cough*
There are some cards I did not even think of until now, some exciting ones and quite a few boring ones. And there are far too many double, triple, quadruple, you name it...

Highlight is maybe a Japanese Streetbreaker Wurm . Have no idea what he is doing there...
Many Kamigawa and Guildpact - Silverstorm Samurai, yay. Cylian Elf too.
Some Elf Zombie (eh?). The Nim Shrieker I wrote about before (hm.. not so hot as a card, I only mentioned this critter cause it is such a ugly weakling).
And finally a Hobgoblin Bowling Team...WTF?

There are no lands... even though my plan now is to skry first some land area to get a better feel for the world(s). I think maybe I can use some pictures instead, since I do not really summon the lands themselves. There are only a few land cards, which I think of as interesting anyway.

A short path working experience: The Forbidding Watchtower

I was using a image of the Forbidding Watchtower from the tenth edition (there is another version with drastically different visuals in the Urza's Legacy deck). There seems to be not much info available, except that it is a mix between a land and a creature - but this are card properties. I could not find anything, which would have been helpful with my pathworking experiment( as some background information). So I decided to be a bit careful ( probably better to not mess with a living watchtower, right?)

It was rather short, but I will outline the "outer parts" too.


Making my body lighter and lighter I rise up to the clouds, which form a veil of fog before my eyes. As the fog dissolves again I am a bit suprised to not be at my usual entrance position.

I find myself in the swamp part of the woods/jungle area. Disfigured trees block most of the view upwards, so only a bit of light can come through and illuminate the ground. It is day time, which likely is better for some reasons (which I will not explain here and now).

I levitate and simply fly out of the jungle. The sun is rather low in the skies as the plains lie below me. Somewhere in distance I hear voices, even though this should be a abandoned place. Still I decide to not check upon this.
I fly towards the mountains and land near my work place.

This part is rather personal so I will not describe it.

Entering my library I feel the urge to inspect some of the books. Being done with this I go to my dark mirror in the back of the room. As high as the room itself it is made of perfectly black obsidian.
I let the surface change to a image of the Forbidding Watchtower.
Touching the surface with my right hand, it becomes liquid.

I step through. Turning around I let the mirror vanish with a movement of my hand.
Then I look around.

The land is barren, in a rocky area. No woods ir any vegetation to speak of.

The Watchtower rises high. A enormous building. Much bigger than I had imagined. No one is to see. The place looks lifeless, only the sounds of a few crows are to be heard.

I go down and towards the tower. As I come near it looks even more impressive... and not in a good way. So I decide to not go any further.
Now I see, that is it placed near a cliff, which was invisible in the picture. The ocean is nearby and for some reason I know merfolk lives there.

I decide, that I saw enough for now. With a movement I let the mirror appear. Showing a image of the library the surface becomes liquid one more time. I go through to find myself back where I started.

I summon the clouds right into the library to bring me back.


In summary it was maybe not a experience with tons of action, but a good first try and quite impressive. Even the visual part was good too, with lots of immersion. The odd starting point gives me something to think.
Maybe some strange hint. I don't know.

For those who are interested from what visual source I did work:
Wallpaper of the Week: Forbidding Watchtower : Daily MTG : Magic: The Gathering

Bakenenko I used to play this game many moons ago! (competively)
that card is actually very good.

What did you exactly do on the link you posted it's just art of the card

Well, I use the cards which I have totally different than they were intended. The mentioned link(s) explain this quite a bit.

For the pathworking that I did, the art was enough as it provided me basic information - somewhat like a address where I could travel to (see my "travel report" above).
As I said, it is a provider of some visual info. If I had the card itself I could have made a more close connection to its energies. But so it was good enough for a first try, I think.

alternitavly, you could use the creatures as servitors or something like it. They are already constructed for you and people all around the world have put energy into them (especially during intense game sessions) .

Just think of what you need, find the card, and make offerings of the elements but with actual representations of them rather than land cards. Or just burn the card to release the esscence or soul of it into the ether to do what you need.

Well, this is a concept Saeiane thought out in the other thread.

Basically I want do this at some point. But I want to start slow and hone my skills again a bit.
My current interest for the lands is mostly to get attuned to the system, get a feel for it and gather some information. And it is quite a interesting experience - much better than TV :P

Personally I would not burn the card as I see it as both a embodiment of the spirit/concept and as a gate.

i have those card i have a lot of those cards lol i cle... thouse cards and many other cads for my kids they like to play those...

@Isis: Yeah...and I plan getting more. Even though it is for other reasons haha Basically I build my own library now. If every card has only the the information inside it, which I accessed in my example pathworking above - then each card is a page of a huge book...and some would be books of their own.

Originally Posted by Vir Sapiens

This could also be looked at from a solipsistic standpoint. There is a mythos and lore surrounding those cards and the creatures and beings depicted on them. I think it would fall under the same onus as literary solipsism. So all those things already exist for someone to call upon at their leisure.

Exactly. All this exists at least at the mental plane to call up. And I highly suspect that there lies wisdom and insight in these worlds which was not accessed before, as those things tend to evolve on their own at some point.
For the summoning of creatures the big pro is that they already exist and get mentally fed. They have a background and attributes and so on.
The con is...quite the same. See Saeianes experience with the Reiver Demon.
Because of this I basically approach this not so light heartedly. And it is more fun for me this way - it is a huge world to explore and not so different to the elementary realms.

If anyone still wonders how I did what I did so far, this link might be interesting to you:

A Short Course in Scrying

I also experiment with shamanic travels, but for me this tends to become rather disorganized, so for the purposes here I prefer above technique.
If you look closely, you will recognize that I used the basic technique for Tarot cards for a Magic cards. For the environment this works good, a test with any creatures is still out.