INTRODUCING: WAYFARER
A new cooperative story-based format in Magic: The Gathering.
What is Wayfarer, you might ask? In early April of 2021, several friends came together and asked the question: why does Magic: The Gathering not have a way to play in a more cooperative, fun-filled, enjoyable experience akin to Dungeons & Dragons? Where are the creative outlets for writing epic tales of loss and love, and the ability to join your friends in navigating through the worlds they’ve come to love through the game’s cards? Simply put, Magic is entirely based around competition, and beyond that, we thought there was room for growth. Thus, a new avenue opened itself; what if we could craft a format where the goal was to enjoy a story together, while playing the same game?
Enter Wayfarer.
We (The Wayfarer Guild) set out with one of the hardest questions in front of us; how do you turn a game based on making your opponent lose into a game where everyone wins? We first researched what we could do to make it seem more like a story and an adventure, and came up with one of the most unique and interesting card types ever added to Magic.
Scene cards are how the game will setup ways for you and your wayfarer team (of up to three players) to progress through the story laid out for you. There’s before-and-after bits of story for you to digest, but every story told wouldn’t be possible without the game’s most crucial role: the Scrivener.
Much like the dungeon master in a game of Dungeons & Dragons, the scrivener’s role is to guide the players through the story laid out in the scenario put forth, or craft an entirely unique scenario if they wish. Utilizing the new Scene cards, scriveners will be the stewards of the game, expounding on the story at length. Players are encouraged to figure out the puzzle-like mechanics to each Scene to unlock more story, until they win the scenario and continue onto the next. Even if the Scenes get a little tough for you and your team, we built in alternate paths so you always feel like there’s a way out.
Each game of Wayfarer should last about an hour to three hours, depending on how long the scrivener wants to make it. We’ve given the player who plays the scrivener the maximum amount of flexibility in regards to choosing what happens: scriveners are able to cast spells for free (to an extent), allowing them to deal with the pesky wayfarers who are getting too strong for their own good. The biggest tool in our arsenal that we’ve come up with while playing a game of Wayfarer is something that allows you to take on even the strongest of wayfarers: infuse.
Much like any other game that has an enrage mechanic, or a way to aggressively deal with the power that players employ, as the wayfarers gain strength due to Spark Emblems or Items, infuse allows a scrivener to upgrade the strength of their cards temporarily. In Wayfarer rules, at base level, they gain haste and cannot be countered by spells and effects, but then also have unique effects such as Tone, Oriq’s Shield’s ability to provoke enemies into his deadly deathtouch double swing.
Okay, but how do you PLAY Wayfarer?
I’m so glad you asked!
Wayfarer is a cooperative Commander-adjacent format with a total of up to four players, with at least one scrivener (game master) and up to three wayfarers (players). The scrivener gathers all the Scene cards and puts together the scrivener deck (a list of usually consisting of commons and uncommons, for price reasons) with our specific scenario cards added to give it that infused oomph. A separate Spoils deck (full of Items!) is alongside the Scene deck (where the story puzzles are) and you’re good to go.
For players, they’ll first decide on their choice of any of their preconstructed Commander decks available to them from their collection. We decided on this being the easiest way into the format, as anyone can pick up a Commander deck that Wizards of the Coast has created, and immediately get into a game of Wayfarer. Of course, if you want to play with any other deck, we won’t stop you, but the format as a whole is tuned for the preconstructed decks first and foremost. Second, players choose a Spark Emblem from a list, further enhancing their deck’s strategy as they will upgrade it in power after every game. As such, each campaign starts at Tier 1, and ends at Tier 5. Think of them as levels to your characters!
Okay, okay, that’s a lot of info, is there more?
Tons more, in fact! The official Wayfarer rules document is available on our site here, as well as all cards for each Episode as they are available in our guides to them.
The first full Tier 5 campaign we’re releasing will be set on the same plane that Strixhaven: School of Mages released on: Arcavios. Savvy readers throughout this article will notice it’s called Arcavios: School’s Out Forever.
We encourage you to interact with us on social media, if you want more information and/or to support this bold new direction in Magic’s development. The Wayfarer Guild is looking to release new content every single premier set release, with the next one after Arcavios: School’s Out Forever being set in, you guessed it, the wonderful world of the Forgotten Realms.
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/wayfarerguild
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Reddit: http://www.reddit.com/r/mtgwayfarer
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Twitch: http://www.twitch.tv/thewayfarerguild
