Kyle Ng, Wesley Berryman and Bryan Huynh break down the convergence of Magic: The Gathering, dark fantasy and modern style.

Brain Dead’s founder, Kyle Ng, who has played MTG and Warhammer for over a decade, cites fantasy and sci-fi as foundational to his creative instincts. "I feel that it is the DNA of a lot of the aesthetics I gravitate towards,” shares Ng. While Magic was once considered nerdy, he’s realized that the ability to bring communities together is "the coolest” and that gaming "seems like a subculture, but really it's one of the largest communities around.” Ng is most excited about MTG’s Secret Lair collaboration, where Brain Dead hand-selects contemporary artists to rework cards. “It’s all about trying to create context and show people that there is a taste level for all forms of gaming.”

The collaboration’s <a href="https://www.tcgplayer.com/product/560299/magic-secret-lair-drop-series-meteor-golem-1660">Meteor Golem card</a> showcases a tattoo-inspired, blue ink style by <a href="https://www.instagram.com/kogancult/">Kogan Cult</a>, a Berlin-based illustrator and tattoo artist who shares Ng’s reverence for Magic. After receiving his first set of cards at 8 or 9 years old, Kogan was struck by the game’s deep world-building. "It had a strong impact on my creativity and I remember trying to copy the artworks on my favorite cards,” explains Kogan. He’s able to recall specific illustrations with the same fluency that fashion enthusiasts reference runway collections; Kogan is drawn to the “dark fantasy element” where “the artwork was hand-painted and it made each card feel like a dark spell that I could cast on my opponent.” 
 
For Wesley Berryman, the founder of <a href="https://www.instagram.com/weslah/">WESLAH</a>, building decks of Magic cards served as an early opportunity for thinking and editing through collections like a designer. “I love creating a cohesive aesthetic through my deck,” he says, “Collecting cards with really cool art, similar aesthetics and using elements like water or nature to create a theme makes the game so personal.” Shaped by childhood memories of playing pretend in Nashville’s woods and creeks, Berryman uses fantasy as enhancement instead of escape, adding that “interacting with fantasy is just another way to feel closer to the very real undercurrents that exist within nature.” 
 
Berryman’s fashion design shares core tenets as game design when “styling goes beyond aesthetics into symbolism and narrative” or approaching custom looks for Beyoncé and Lady Gaga by “imagining them as characters in his own design world.” The newest collections from WESLAH invite wearers to look at their wardrobes in a trading card game system, where each garment is accompanied by a card with its element, rarity (“super custom”), mineral (colors like rose quartz, peridot) and more.&nbsp;

“I see my creations as artifacts that have been imbued with magic, so the cards act as sigils to activate that power and can be used in a game format or to give yourself psychological enhancements in real life,” says Berryman. By creating literal “attributes and abilities that can be activated when collected and styled together” for his garments, Berryman reveals an inherent closeness between fashion and fantasy through their respective approaches to collecting, decision-making and worldbuilding. 
 
Like Magic, Warhammer and other franchises that have expanded beyond the tabletop, WESLAH is now developing its own dark fantasy RPG. Berryman intends to use this project to “express the deeper methodology of my process, inspirations and philosophies,” while allowing “people to make a game out of something so mundane as dressing themselves.” Both Berryman and Ng have turned to fantasy games not only as aesthetic inspiration, but as a way to rethink how audiences engage with their creations. Ng puts it bluntly, “Fashion is so superficial…gaming is all about being in the moment and present.”

<a href="https://www.instagram.com/bryanhuynh">Bryan Huynh</a>, a video game-inspired image-maker and Creative Director of Gaming at TikTok, sees a similar desire for more meaningful expression in younger audiences. "The younger generation doesn't rely on style or beauty to be curated by a select group of editors anymore," he says. "Their idea of luxury might actually be much more tied to what will get them closer to who they feel like inside, rather than brand names.” 
 
Younger generations tend to “feel no shame in loving fantasy,” as they live in a reality with modern tools for character-building and greater self-embodiment. Huynh adds that “digital identity and real life are converging in a way that they never really have before,” with digital skins, avatar customization and crafting a new self across video games, TikTok, Twitch, Discord and beyond. Looking ahead, he hopes to see creative work from "a whole new class of kids who have fresh perspectives unmarried to the gravity and dullness of ‘the real world.’”

But, the intersection of fantasy and fashion isn’t impermeable to the tensions within any collecting subculture. Online vintage dealer <a href="https://www.instagram.com/99bulletholes/">99BulletHoles</a>, who’s sold a handful of rare Magic T-shirts like a Scaled Wurm graphic from 1996, has observed how fantasy game memorabilia attracts clientele with varying motivations. “I've realized there are people who love the game and there are people who love the value of the game," he says. Among his potential clientele, he’s learned to discern genuine players from those wanting to flex by listening to how they discuss the game's "lore, history and storytelling." 
 
Elsewhere in the vintage world, <a href="https://www.instagram.com/oglukemook/">Luke Fracher</a> has revisited MTG for pragmatic reasons. Since opening his stores, he’s repurposed Magic cards as hang tags for secondhand offerings, buying 4,000-count bulk boxes and rarely stopping to check whether an individual card has collectible value. Instead of diehard players, his customers mostly appreciate the graphics or simply recognize the franchise. "They're like, 'Oh, this is fun,' and they'll buy the shirt in the same way as an old Harley shirt or a Guggenheim Museum shirt." Fracher’s observation speaks to Magic's status as a broader cultural touchstone.

As Magic's influence grows, first encounters with the game are no longer limited to the physical realm. Several creatives in this story cite online RPGs, video games and online artwork as their gateways to MTG and other fantasy tabletop games. Yet the tactile appeal of tabletop games remains unmatched. WESLAH’s Berryman was initially drawn to “crafting, painting and building” landscapes with fortress ruins and miniature terrain. Kogan, meanwhile, has noticed how computer graphics can create more immersive fantasy works, but believes an overly saturated internet leads to people “preferring the tangible collecting and playing experience over another addition to the ever-growing screen time.” 
 
For an industry that’s constantly searching for a new source of inspiration, fantasy offers a world for players to return to, reinterpret and expand. I want to believe fantasy is en vogue because it's expansive enough for anyone to find a creature, character or power that reflects their own identity. 
 
An internet friend sent me a photo of the <a href="https://www.tcgplayer.com/product/14642/magic-the-gathering-timeshifted-soul-collector">Soul Collector card</a> from 2006 with a dominatrix-like figure that’s uncannily aligned with <a href="https://www.instagram.com/hotgothwriter/?hl=en">my own style</a>. The artwork may catch our attention, but it's the opportunities for participation in these worlds that continue to draw generations of creatives in.

Enter the <a href="https://www.goat.com/editorial/2hollis-nate-sib-interview">dark fantasy world of 2hollis</a> and catch up with <a href="https://www.goat.com/editorial/constant-practice-interview">vintage platform Constant Practice</a>.

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