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| Let's see what we can find in Ula's Temple |
To celebrate my 200th blog post here on Mythic Writing, I wanted to do something a little different. As became obvious in my Pekudei installment of Mythic Torah, I am a devoted fan of the collectible card game 'Magic: the Gathering', made by Wizards of the Coast.
Now Magic has a lot of different creatures in the game, from Armadillos to Zombies, but among my favourite, are of course, the Leviathans.
In Magic's 20 year history, there have been 15 different Leviathans printed (as well as Krakens, Serpents, Octopi, Fish, Merfolk and Cephalids), so I thought that I would run down the Biblical roots of these 15 Leviathans, and rank them from least to most Biblical in abilities, art and gameplay. Then I'm going to supply each of them with Biblical verse that would work as new flavour text.
Everyone with me? Then in reverse order:
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| All images are copyright of Wizards of the Coast |
The only Magic Leviathan with an actual biblical quote falls right at the bottom of the list for one simple reason - it's tiny. At only 3/3, the Segovian Leviathan is the same size as a Hill Giant or Canyon Minotaur, whereas Leviathans should be world-consuming monstrosities, enormous creatures that dominate the board and your opponents.
A lesser sin is the card's depiction of a leviathan as a colourful fish. While later rabbininic sources imagine Leviathan as a fish (how else could it be kosher?) the Bible calls it a nachash, a snake, suggesting a creature far more reptilian.
It's since been stated that Segovia is a tiny plane where everything is miniature in size, explaining why the plane's largest inhabitant, its Leviathan, is only a 3/3, but this creature's diminutive stature is enough to earn the Segovian Leviathan last place on our list.
New Flavour Text:
"Will you play with him like a bird? And bind him for your young girls?"
-Job 40:29
