Horizon × Magic: The Gathering "Set Concept"
Narrative Designer + Writer
A Magic: The Gathering set concept built from Horizon's fiction.
GAMES
MAGIC THE GATHERING / UNIVERSES BEYOND / TOP DOWN SET DESIGN
A personal top-down design concept that maps the Horizon series onto Magic's Universes Beyond line. This was built outward from the story's emotional spine.
I have a deep admiration for Horizon, a series whose real core, underneath the open world and the machine megafauna, is centered on connection across a thousand years. Aloy discovers who she is by uncovering Elisabet, the scientist she was cloned from, each of them making sacrifices to save a dying world. I did not want to write fan service for it. I wanted to see whether I could translate it into Magic The Gathering and their recent Universes Beyond crossovers, on its own terms. A set that feels like it belongs in both worlds and builds from Magic's systems.
The brief I set myself was simple to state and hard to do. Find where Horizon and Magic genuinely overlap rather than forcing a costume onto the game. Earn the mechanics from the fiction. And start from the emotional spine.