In many ways, the MTG community is rather blessed. We have a ton of content being released in what, almost, seems like a constant stream. A massive content creator base allowing for players to find detailed content on even the most niche topics in the game and, for players who just want to consume as much MTG material as possible, there is an overwhelming amount of stuff to see.
That said, there is still some MTG content that is not accessible to every audience. From Japanese-exclusive foils to much larger event availability in North America, not all opportunities are created equally.
One form of media that MTG players do not often get access to is Manga, at least in official English printings. That said, some new information has revealed that not only has there been a Japanese Manga series promoting Magic: the Gathering, but that series is, according to some announcements, getting an Italian printing! Unfortunately, an official English print has yet to be seen.
Destroy All Humankind. They Can’t be Regenerated
Destroy All Humankind. They Can’t be Regenerated, according to Wikipedia, “follows a pair of academic rivals in high school growing closer over games of Magic: The Gathering, during the late 90s.” In typical Manga fashion, main characters Hajime and Sawatari happen to discover one another at an LGS playing MTG (after already knowing one another at school). From here, the pair continue to encounter each other in various MTG-related situations. Emi is otherwise the academic superior that Hajime sees as his rival. In typical fashion, they do not get along at the beginning of the story.
With assistance from Wizards of the Coast, and after a successful one-shot capturing the idea from writer Katsura Ise and illustrator Takuma Yakota, the official series began serialization in November 2018.
Destroy All Humankind. They Can’t be Regenerated saw its first official Japanese release date in 2019. The Manga’s newest release is still rather recent, released in March 2023. The series appears to have 12 releases so far.
Italian Printing With Exclusive Promos on the Horizon?
Cited by the Reddit post featured above, according to Italian website AnimeClick, Panini Comics has announced that Destroy All Humankind. They Can’t be Regenerated is getting an Italian printing. While this may not be a much-desired English printing, it’s nonetheless something Italian MTG fans can get very excited about.
While this is a rather exciting event, commentary on this post reveals two things: MTG players do not think an English print of this Manga is coming anytime soon, and players desperately want more official MTG content:
“There will probably also be a French release long before we get an official English release, happens with a lot of Manga.”
AporiaParadox
“ugh, I desperately want official english volumes but yeah I would not be surprised if we never got them lol. That volume 12 is the last is new info to me though, and that means we’re actually pretty close to having the full series scanlated, which is kind of exciting! Not as far behind as I had thought”
mweepinc
Something even more interesting is the potential for this printing to be available with promotional cards. Should this happen, this will not be the first time that Magic releases an exclusive Book Promo. This is more likely to be a reprint with exclusive art than anything else, but some incredibly powerful MTG cards have been introduced as Book Promos throughout the game’s history.
The Most Influential Book Promo MTG Ever Saw
The most influential card to be released this way is definitely Mana Crypt. Originally revealed as a promotional card to a book named “Final Sacrifice” that was released in 1995. Part of a series of books that had exclusive promotional cards, Mana Crypt’s inclusion as a promotional card completely flipped the script.
Nowadays, Mana Crypt is known as one of the most powerful Artifact cards ever printed. Considered a super-staple in Commander, the Crypt is a free resource that offers two mana every turn. This can accelerate your mana base two turns ahead for minimal cost.
Of course, Mana Crypt does have a chance of dealing three damage to you on each of your upkeeps. This is a lot less relevant in Commander than other formats thanks to life totals, but can add up quickly if you’re not careful. The reward, however, massively outweighs the risk.
Since Mana Crypt was originally printed, the card has seen six separate reprints (counting the full-art and regular-art Double Masters printings as separate reprints). Despite this, the card still retails for an absolutely absurd amount thanks to massive demand from the Commander player base.
The cheapest that you can find one of these cards (in decent condition) remains around $150. The original Book Promo tends to have a massive premium over even a near-mint copy of the cheapest variant (Mystery Booster reprint), retailing for around $250 in heavily played condition and $340 in near-mint condition according to recent TCGplayer sales.
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A Short History
Other Book Promo cards do not even remotely share the influence that Mana Crypt has, but they do exist. This short two-minute video featuring Gavin Verhey details, basically, how these Book Promo cards came to be and what they looked like. An interesting feature of these Book Promo cards that would likely see a lot of pushback from the community nowadays is that these Promos were all mechanically unique. Here are a list of promotional cards addressed by Verhey that had their first printings in this series:
- Arena (available in the book titled Arena)
- Sewers of Estark (available in the book titled Arena)
- Windseeker Centaur (available in the book titled Whispering Woods)
- Giant Badger (available in the book titled Shattered Chains)
- Mana Crypt (available in the book titled Final Sacrifice)
These were acquired by purchasing the aforementioned book and flipping to the final page to find a coupon. Once you mail that out, you would eventually be sent a related promotional card. Interestingly, according to Verhey, there was a final book named The Cursed Land that had a coupon that could receive one of these promotional cards at random.
As Verhey mentions at the end of his video, mailing in these coupons will no longer allow you to obtain promotional cards.
Unofficial English Translations Are Available
Even though many MTG players do not think an official translation for Destroy all Humankind. They Can’t be Regenerated is coming anytime soon, there are unofficial translations available. According to some commentary on the currently available contents of this story, they apparently end on a cliffhanger. For this reason, many readers believe that the story may not be finished yet. Either way, if English readers have a hankering to take a look at an unofficial translation of an official MTG Manga, they are out there.
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