Magi-Nation is a Collectible Card Game produced by Interactive Imagination. The game was set in a far-off world called the Moonlands, located on the moon of a larger planet. The inhabitants were called Magi and they used their energy and the power of a stone called Animite to cast spells, forge powerful relics, and to summon up enormous creatures called Dream Creatures with which to work and battle. Players of the game took place in those battles, using Magi cards, Spells, Relics, and the all-important Creatures. The goal of the game was to defeat your opponent's three Magi cards by reducing his energy to 0 while he had no Creatures in play. It had a small but devoted fanbase, but little funding; like so many good things, it faded into the ether. Over its full run, it produced six complete sets (one went unreleased, but significant portions of it can be found online), numerous promo cards and two Game Boy pseudo-Mons RPGs.
After the game ended its run in the USA, it continued to be released in Japan for two full years after the final US release. The official U.S. site teased that the sixth set would be released to coincide with a CGI Animated Series that was currently in development.
Unfortunately, the cartoon became trapped in Development Hell. Six years later, the cartoon was released. It was traditionally animated using an Animesque style.
This tabletop-game provides examples of:
- Art Evolution: Compare this card
◊, from the first set, to this card◊ from the last one. - The Caligula: Korg, after declaring himself All-High King of Bograth.
- Cast from Hit Points: In the card game, "energy" acts as health for both Magi and creatures. In order to play a card, you must sacrifice some of your Magi's energy; to counterbalance this, Magi regain some energy each turn, and there's no limit on how much energy you can put on a card.
- Early-Bird Cameo
- One of the earliest Shadow Magi was a d'Resh shadow magi, three full sets before any other d'Resh cards came out. Bograth, the Weave, and Paradwyn were also mentioned on cards before any cards from those regions were released. Pre-errata'd for your convenience!
- Many cards actually referenced specific nonexistent cards planned for future expansions. Unfortunately, the card game was cancelled before some of these cards were printed, so there are currently some cards which reference cards that probably never will exist.
- Infinity +1 Element: Universal spells, creatures, and relics, which can be used without penalty by any magi.
- This, however, doesn't apply to Universal Magi. They can use Universal cards just fine; but they still get the normal penalties when they try to play a non-Universal card.
- Late to the Punchline: Many of the Shout Outs on the cards won't make sense to a little kid. Then you grow up, and suddenly, seeing the random nod to a Frank Zappa song on the Snow Hyren is
the funniest thing ever.
- Mushroom House: As the Underneath is almost entirely covered by forest-like growths of gigantic mushrooms, the locals — for lack of other building materials — often hollow these mushrooms out, fit them with doors and windows and use them as their primary source of housing.
- Non-Lethal Warfare: Characters do die, but very rarely, probably because all of them feature on their own cards. For example, during the wars between Bograth and Paradwyn, as well between Orothe and Cald, not a single named Magi dies during either battle. This is often explained by defeated Magi simply losing consciousness since they rely on bodily energy in order to fight, and it seems universally standard to capture defeated opponents rather than kill them. Granted, this only applies to named characters (those that appear on official cards) who are more or less implied to be the most noteworthy magi in each region. The rest of the nameless magi could theoretically be dropping dead left and right.
- In fact, the characters are horrified when they accidentally kill a nameless magi in the storyline.
- In fact, the characters are horrified when they accidentally kill a nameless magi in the storyline
- Puni Plush: Straight lines? Angles? Never heard of 'em.
- Running Gag: Read the Shadow Geyser quotes. Korg counts how many Shadow Geysers, and progressively annoys Zet more and more. By the fifth Shadow Geyser, Korg doesn't even say anything and Zet just says "Say it and I'll have to hurt you."
- Shout-Out: Many, from the generically nerdy (Such as The Princess Bride) to the more obscure. And, for some reason, lots to the Disney Animated Canon.
- Solid Clouds: Arderial is build on clouds than can hold up castles and cities.
- Stripperiffic: Just check out the costumes on some of those female Magi. Erm, wow. This is a kid's game?
- This Is Your Brain on Evil: Shadow magi—"normal" magi who use Core power—usually.
