The King Arthur story that inspired Magic: The Gathering’s Wilds of Eldraine

polygon.com:

One of the most political King Arthur stories is the basis for the upcoming Magic: The Gathering expansion, Wilds of Eldraine. Roy Graham, lead writer at Wizards of the Coast, sat down with Polygon at MagicCon Minneapolis to talk about the stories that inspired the new set. He talked about how T.H. White’s The Once and Future King informed both the whimsy and darker sides of the plane of Eldraine.

Eldraine couples Arthurian legends with Grimms’ fairy tales and other European fables. Magic players first journeyed there in 2019 with Throne of Eldraine, a set announced with a lighthearted trailer featuring a pair of animated cookies. Throne of Eldraine focused on the courtly life there, whereas the newer Wilds of Eldraine focuses instead on the fictional land’s wildernesses, filled with fantasy creatures like elves, fairies, and goblins. It might seem like an unlikely pairing, but White’s retelling of Arthurian legend makes The Once and Future King the perfect template for this particular Magic story.

White’s noveltells the story of King Arthur, named Wart in this interpretation, as an orphan boy. The collection largely follows his early education, a lot of which is surprisingly political. In one section, Merlyn transforms Wart into various animals to teach him important lessons about various political systems. Of course, White wrote the books during and in the aftermath of World War II. Many critics argue that his stories contain potent political messages, biting then and still relevant in modern times. Graham agrees.

“I’m a huge King Arthur fan,” Graham told Polygon, “It’s a really fascinating book, I think, because the beginning is a very sort of childish adventure where Arthur is getting turned into a bird to learn