#mtgtor

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Nantuko Shade by Brian Snoddy

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Ichorid by rk post

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Compulsion by Christopher Moeller

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Invigorating Falls by Rebecca Guay

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Hypnox by Greg Staples

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Krosan Restorer by Clyde Caldwell

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Dwell on the Past by Rebecca Guay

[ultwarrior]

Chainer’s Torment

Torment was the first expansion I managed to collect in its entirety, and there’s a nice degree of aptness to that, as a promotional copy of Faceless Butcher was the first Magic card I owned. Northern Ireland wasn’t a huge market for Magic at that time, and living in a small town it was hard to find product--so when a new magazine, whose name is lost to me entirely, gave away a copy of a preview card for the upcoming “black set”, I lapped it up. Here was the game I had read about, seen on the internet, but now it was in my hands, complete with some disturbingly awesome Daren Bader art.

Coming back in later life, the set was quite cheap to collect--only Cabal Coffers hit double figures in pounds sterling--but tracking down some of the jank cards was tricky; the last piece I needed here was the iffy enchantment-wiping uncommon Searing Meditation. This is often the hardest part of completing an older set from this time; anything of value is usually easy to find for sale for the right price, but often sites selling singles are missing stock for the worthless cards no one bothered to keep, so it can come down to picking up individual cards here, there and everywhere, although there is an element of enjoyment to this kind of hunt.

In terms of noteworthy cards, Torment is absolutely packed with moments of great flavour, and tremendous art. Chainer’s Edict, Circular Logic, Cabal Coffers, the Tainted lands and Waste Away all feature evocative art, often in a hand-drawn, figurative style that’s sorely lacking in modern art direction. The flavour, too, was often memorable--the Compulsion cycle of enchantments, Hypnox (well, the whole Nightmare mechanic), madness, Transcendence and Mortal Combat are home-runs in this regard. 

Torment wasn’t the first set I truly fell in love with--that would be Apocalypse--but its dark tone, evocative art, flavourfull mechanics and unusual hook (more black cards, fewer white and green) always made it stand out, and the complete set is a personal highlight in my collection. Check it out if you can.