I didn't know when Garth One-Eye was first spoiled... he's the protagonist of the first ever MtG novel, "Arena" from 1994!
Spoiler-free review:
Garth is a "man with no name" type character, a morally ambiguous tough-guy loner who wanders into a crooked town to clean it up a little, all while working toward unclear personal goals. He's also a master of spellslinging (and his card's flavor of knowing a bunch of old spells is SPOT ON).
It's often corny and has a lot of tedious sections, but is still entertaining and with many great scenes. There's also a bit of a camp factor, such as how it keeps ham-fistedly forcing individual cards' flavor into the narration. ("He launched a deadly Psionic Blast, dealing himself some damage but even more to his opponent." "The Lord of the Pit angrily stormed back to its owner and ate one of his creatures, to upkeep his terrible hunger." Things like that.)
It's also a portal into the world of early MtG, as a lot of the worldbuilding hadn't really happened yet, and the author's guesswork about the multiverse's rules is a little different than our modern understanding of them, especially in regards to mana and planeswalkers.
Cautiously recommending a read, allowing yourself some skimming as needed.
Spoiler-free review:
Garth is a "man with no name" type character, a morally ambiguous tough-guy loner who wanders into a crooked town to clean it up a little, all while working toward unclear personal goals. He's also a master of spellslinging (and his card's flavor of knowing a bunch of old spells is SPOT ON).
It's often corny and has a lot of tedious sections, but is still entertaining and with many great scenes. There's also a bit of a camp factor, such as how it keeps ham-fistedly forcing individual cards' flavor into the narration. ("He launched a deadly Psionic Blast, dealing himself some damage but even more to his opponent." "The Lord of the Pit angrily stormed back to its owner and ate one of his creatures, to upkeep his terrible hunger." Things like that.)
It's also a portal into the world of early MtG, as a lot of the worldbuilding hadn't really happened yet, and the author's guesswork about the multiverse's rules is a little different than our modern understanding of them, especially in regards to mana and planeswalkers.
Cautiously recommending a read, allowing yourself some skimming as needed.