"The man in black fled across the desert and the gunslinger followed." - The Dark Tower, Stephen King
For those who've read Stephen King's Dark Tower series (7 books, countless offshoots, expanding over decades of time, and now even connecting to his son's work with Joe Hill's "King Sorrow"), it's a sentence that's burned into your brain.
For those unfamiliar, what are you waiting for? Does it feel too big? Well ... don't worry. We're going to tell the whole story in 101 cards.
Sorcery turns out to be one of the best places to re-tell this grim fantasy through cardboard, in particular because of all of the connections to the legend of King Arthur within "The Dark Tower," but also because of Sorcery's willingness to peak around the curtain at horrors in other realms, something King never shied away from, either.
In this primer, I'll discuss reasons why I've selected the cards I have while attempting to make a deck that functions and could potentially win some casual games but also very much re-tells the narrative of The Gunslinger Roland and his ka-tet (group) as they travel through space and time to find the ever-present Dark Tower, saving humanity in the process, or perhaps at least resetting things for another go-'round.
First, CHARACTERS/PLACES/THINGS -
The Dark Tower: Base of Babel / Apex of Babel - no tower is more imposing in the game - it literally stretches into two different cards.
Roland Deschain, The Gunslinger: Ironclad/Pathfinder - packing iron. Protecting. Ready to fight. But also eternally searching the Realm - going to new lands.
Violence: Silver Bullet - Roland often finds his answers through bullets. He is a Gunslinger, after all.
Roland's Guns: Excalibur - the weapon of the Line of Eld
Highland Princess: Susan Delgado - Roland's first love, killed in book 4 by a Witch, the woman he planned to marry. Fitting then that this card fetches just that.
Ring of Morrigan: the final "gift" that Susan Delgado gives Roland - a proclamation of her love before death - it echoes throughout Roland's mind forever, and fittingly, it creates a time loop in both the books and the game, comboing off, allowing Roland to fire INFINITE "bullets" at his foes, clearing a battlefield
Jake Chambers: Sir Yvain - early on in the story, Jake finds a "billy bumbler" with eyes that are ringed in gold. Fitting then that this card befriends a beast, and that beast is none other than ...
Oy: Black Cat - sure, it's a raccoon-esque creature in the book, but I think it's important that it has "golden eyes" and fitting much of the theme of The Dark Tower, has purpose in death AND is direly important to the outcome of the story, changing fate as it were ...
Father Callahan: Town Priest, of course! He hates vampires and is vitally important to the story AND the combo.
Vampires: Daperyll Vampire - late in the books, when Father Callahan is introduced to the story, there's a whole cult of vampires who play a major role
Summoning at the Dixie Pig: Dhol Chants/Doomsday Cult/Den of Evil - nothing GOOD will come from this animalistic summoning
Steven & Gabrielle Deschain: King Arthur & Queen Guinevere - I had to include the pair. After all, Roland is descended from the "line of Eld," a parallel universe of the King Arthur legend in our world. There's a world where Roland lived happily ever after, as did his parents, and in that world - you win the game with Wedding Hall.
Eddie Dean: Sir Lamorak - I wanted a troubled character for Eddie, and also one who proved to be an incredible fighter - his Deathrite ability is fitting for the books, as most characters in The Dark Tower are unfortunately chewed up on Roland's quest.
Susannah Dean/Odetta Holmes: Maiden Mother Crone & Morgana La Fey - Susannah has "multiple personalities" in the books and is even possessed at some point, giving birth as ...
Mia: Lilith - the demon that possesses Susannah and seduces Roland, ultimately giving birth to a horror show of a character in both The Dark Tower and Arthurian Legend ...
Mordred Deschain: The twisted abomination, birthed of evil and good. Mordred isn't a spider/man in Sorcery, but he is as deadly, and parallels very clearly the character from Arthurian Legend
The Man in Black/Randall Flagg/oft-called "Sorcerer": Sorcerer - it's right in the name. Though visually, I think Magician reminds me of the final scene in the first book, when this sorcerer shows Roland his fate through Tarot cards, I think that can also apply to Sorcerer, as its main job is to bestow knowledge upon you through card draw
The Necronomicon: Pnakotic Manuscript - though never officially called "the Necronomicon" in the books, it is hinted that it is - the wizard Alhazred wrote it, and the Man In Black reads it throughout King's Eyes of the Dragon, a fairytale with strong connections to The Dark Tower
Eyes of the Dragon: Shrine of the Dragonlord - great in a 4 element deck, but referencing the place where Roland's bloodline learns of the Man in Black's treachery - looking through the eyes of a dragon mask from a secret space behind the walls.
The Crimson King: Asmodeus - a powerful deity that wants nothing more to raze the Dark Tower to the ground. How fitting then that Asmodeus' ability does just that.
Stephen King: Dream-Quest - Yep, the author appears in his own book and provides a deus ex machina to the main characters. The art from Dream-Quest seemed very fitting, and it does search our Spellbook for the final pieces of the combo
The Line of Eld: Pendragon Legacy - Roland's Gunslinger comes from a long, regal line of combatants, and we learn a lot about them in the books
Maerlyn: Merlin - King is no fan of Merlin, apparently, making him a horrible deity bent on chaos with loose ties to the lineage of Roland Deschain, our main character. Him being a chaos merchant made me think of Chaos Wish of course, one of our combo pieces
Lobstrosities: Aaj-Kegon Ghost Crabs - one of the more horrific scenes in Book 2 takes places with Roland being attacked on the beach by otherwordly crabs (wait, that sounds weird ...)
Aspirin/Keflex: Divine Healing - Roland - after being attacked by the horrible crabs - loses a couple fingers and is near death, feverish - when he rescues Eddie through a Waypoint Portal. Eddie is then charged with finding him healing from the modern world.
The House Where Jake is Summoned: Baba Yaga's Hut - though this doesn't work great with the deck, a house possessed that transports around is perfect for the indelible image artist Ned Dameron left in my head of the scene where Jake makes his way to Mid-World
19: 19 Magics in the Spellbook - in King's books, he recurs the number 19 as a symbol and synchronicity, and in the real world, this was pertinent to him finishing the series at all - nearly dying after being struck by a van on Jun 19, 1999.
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"Go then. There are other worlds than these ..."
SO, you want to win the game with a weird combo deck based on a book? Well, there are many ways ...
1. Minions - you have a lot of powerful ones.
2. Combo #1 - King Arthur & Guinevere at the Wedding Hall - instant win, ignore death's door
3. Combo #2 - Town + Town Priest while wearing Corrupter and holding the Ring of Morrigan. Machine gun your opponents with a free spell that triggers the ring's ping
4. Combo #3 - Town + Town Priest + Winter Nymph + False Idol + Corrupter Mask - if you assemble this series of cards and are able to loop Town Priest, you can force your opponent to draw every card in their deck, losing the game when they can no longer draw. This combo also ignores death's door.
5. Combo #4 - Chaos Wish + Black Cat + Ring of Morrigan - control destiny - cast Chaos Wish over and over, taking the randomness out of it - until your opponent is pinged to death
6. Combo #5 - Fenvale Muse casts Town Priest - Combo - so long as Fenvale Muse is near a Stream, she can cast Town Priest on Town infinitely and look at the top card, choosing whether or not to put it on the bottom of the deck.
7. Immortal Throne - I'm sure you can figure this one out, and wish Chaos Wish + Black Cat, there are certainly some fun spells you can cast to make it happen.
8. Ka is a Wheel: King's magnum opus infamously ends in a time loop, resetting most of the story with minor - almost subliminal - tweaks that gives the audience hope that Roland may one day actually "win." KAIROS the ARCHIVIST famously resets the game, returning it to a past time - along with Doomsday Mechanism, Kairos could potentially set up an insane loop where a bomb explodes the turn after he comes down, and everyone dies ... infinitely. This ISN'T a game win, but it is a FLAVOR win. Good luck to you as you try to convince an opponent of that.
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There are more references throughout the deck, but maybe if you're a Dark Tower fan, you can spot them? This document is already a bit too long in the tooth. Thank you for checking this out - if you found this deck before you saw the accompanying video, click here: https://youtu.be/HdSEhML3KKM?si=zuI1z21v8LtYZ8ir