Ī screenshot of the Portal Three Kingdoms Story Site, available on This article is the introduction to a series retelling one of China’s most popular stories through the Magic: the Gathering set Portal Three Kingdoms. ![]() Fond memories of these games are what motivated me, two decades later, to start re-collecting Portal Three Kingdoms, and this year I’ve spent time both learning the history and lore of the set, as well as imagining what a contemporary Remastered version of this set might look like. So, with my limited paper route funds, I picked up two of each Kingdom’s respective pre-constructed decks and the starter set, and set about teaching friends to play Magic, getting games between Scholastic Bowl matches in high school hallways and stairwells. An 8/8 that comes back to hand when it dies? 16-year-old me was here for it. The allure of the massive Zodiac Dragon in the singles case didn’t hurt, either. Destiny of an Emperor on the NES and the Dynasty Warriors series on Playstation were stories of historical warfare that centered on the destinies of larger-than-life characters with named mounts and legendary weapons and the potential for heroic feats that would unite the kingdoms and restore peace to the land, everything this D&D nerd could ask for. While I knew Arabian Nights’s stories mostly through cartoons like Popeye, Bugs Bunny, and Disney’s Aladdin the massive historical novel Portal Three Kingdoms is based on, Luo Guanzhong’s Romance of the Three Kingdoms, had inspired video games that I was familiar with. ![]() Like Arabian Nights, Portal Three Kingdoms is based on real-world sources. While the Portal sets were known to be ostensibly less powerful-designed for teaching, not competition-something about the flavor of this set grabbed me. Cover art: “Balance of Power” by Quan Xuejunĭespite its allegedly not being released for the American market, one spring day in 1999, I remember parking my bicycle outside of Baseball Card Connection in the town square of Effingham, Illinois and walking in to see the newest Magic set: Portal Three Kingdoms.
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