In September 2017, my favorite writer Alison Luhrs penned an episode for the Magic Mothership––the episodic story series that accompanies the cards of Magic the Gathering––that changed the writing of Magic forever. This standalone chapter, titled "Jace, Alone," followed the game's most famous character, a wizard named Jace Beleren, awakening on an island with no memory of his past. The chapter was different than all the others because it was really really good. Magic's writing has always been a little cheesy and ridiculous, but this fresh storyline, Jace's reinvention, elevated the narrative depth of one of the game's most iconic characters from a simple hero to a more complex figure. And Alison was hailed as brilliant. In September 2022, Luhrs famously left Magic the Gathering over creative differences and all of Magic was worse off for it.
That is why I was so excited when I opened up my phone this morning to see that the weekly story had been published and it was titled "Bring the End. By Alison Lurhs." It blew my mind. It was especially cool following last week's crazy reveal that another character Ashiok, had been Jace (Alison's charachter) in disguise for over six months! Sorry. Spoilers. And now Alison was back to write another Jace story over a year and a half later.
Collecting Magic the Gathering has always been so special because of the lore that accompanies it. It's not just cards, when you play the game you reenact big story moments. And those in-game moments hit less hard if the story's bad. Alison Lurhs I'm so happy to have your writing back. You made my day.
You can read the original 'Jace, Alone," here: https://magic.wizards.com/en/news/magic-story/jace-alone-2017-09-06
As well, as "Bring the End," here (which won't really make sense if you haven't been following along): https://magic.wizards.com/en/news/magic-story/epilogue-1-the-invasion-tree
