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Main Magazine Page: The Duelist #9

With contributions from Scott Hungerford, Margaret Organ-Kean, William Jockusch, and Melody Alder

Caretaker of the Wood

Autumn Willow is the ruler and protector of the Great Wood in the Homelands. A legend in her own time, she is an incarnation of the power of the forest itself, and those creatures who live among the trees are living extensions of her will. Part of Autumn Willow’s strength comes from her unity with nature, for she can only be affected by spells that also affect the land with which she shares her life.

Originally a simple forest spirit, Autumn Willow grew to her current status because of Feroz’s Ban, the spell that protected the Homelands from meddling outsiders. Much as placing a rock in a slow-moving stream causes a pool to back up behind it, the mana pouring into the Homelands was backed up when Feroz cast his world spell. As a result, Autumn Willow grew incredibly powerful and achieved sentience and physical form.

She ultimately became the guardian and protector of the place that is the embodiment of her will. The Folk of An-Havva believe that Autumn Willow is a creature of Faerie. Numerous tales surround the living legend of Autumn Willow and the creatures with whom she interacts. Tales about one of her creations, the Daughter of Autumn, are common throughout the Homelands—stories of a beautiful woman appearing out of the misty air, leading children from danger, or a ghostly apparition freeing an injured woodsman from his own trap. Others tell of encounters with the Willow Priestesses, assumed to be servants of Autumn Willow. Often seen wearing gowns of luminescence and gossamer, these beings seem no more tangible to mortals than a shaft of soft moonlight in the trees. The Spectral Bears that roam the Great Wood are believed to be the personal guardians of Autumn Willow and are often seen escorting caravans from the river bridge to An-Havva. The mere sight of these beasts causes most goblins to flee, for there is a tale of a great Spectral Bear that once consumed an entire goblin village, shacks and all, in a single night of feasting.

Autumn Willow gained a motherly affinity for the Folk of An-Havva, but with the settlement of these fragile creatures came new raids from the goblins to the east. She created new creatures from nothingness—giving life and hunger to the Hungry Mist and breathing the host of Faeries into existence—to watch over her Wood. Traders and travelers were allowed to walk the twisty roads, but any creature or being who entered into her foreboding Wood intent on pillage or war rarely returned—presumably hunted down by Spectral Bears, or consumed by Root Spiders, huge arachnids rumored to be as intelligent as small children and capable of catching and eating small horses. On the evening that Feroz died, Autumn Willow had a vision of Baron Sengir marching the survivors of a terrible war into another world. The sending rang so loudly of prophecy that she had to act upon it. She redoubled her efforts to keep the vampires and undead from traversing through her Wood and worked harder at maintaining her defenses. Shortly thereafter, Feroz’s Ban started to fail, and she felt the energies that sustained her begin to fade. She knows that with her current strength, she may have a chance at restarting the mana channels, thus, over time, turning the world from a wasteland back into one rich with life. However, this will likely cost the lives of every creature in the Homelands. She is willing to destroy herself and Baron Sengir for the greater good, but she cannot bear to kill the Folk of An-Havva. But if Autumn Willow doesn’t use her power, then the strength of the Homelands will fade until even she ceases to exist, and what she saw in the vision may indeed come true. Now Autumn Willow is at a loss for what to do and is trying to find some third option, some miracle, because to destroy all the ones that she loves brings a cruelty that even a creature derived from balance and nature cannot endure. So she waits for a miracle that will keep her from using the very primal forces of nature against those that she loves more than life.

Artist’s Perspective

At first I imagined Autumn Willow as a woman in regal robes. After I read the Homelands background, however, I found the story of her waning power a sad one and decided that a softer, romantic portrayal would be more appropriate. I also chose to paint her as a human figure due to my background in classical and Renaissance art history, periods in which dryads and forest goddesses were depicted as women.

I felt that Autumn Willow should be an identifiable person, with her own idiosyncrasies of face and figure, rather than a generic fantasy character. I had wanted to paint artist Kaja Foglio for some time, and this seemed the perfect opportunity. I shot the reference photos in the Foglios’ yard, with Kaja wearing a creamy white blouse and a fluorite, amethyst, and sterling-silver necklace I designed. I took the photos at sunset, and that contributed a great deal to the mood I wanted to create.

When I painted this picture, I worked with one of my favorite themes of combining three-dimensional figures that break the flat surface of the paper with two-dimensional patterns that reconfirm its flatness. As I painted, I enjoyed working with the many colors that went into the white of Kaja’s shirt and the flesh tones of her face as a result of the reflected light and shadow. The light also changed the color of her hair to a rich gold. So what might have been a rather pedestrian picture of a woman in a white blouse became one of my favorite works as a result of the early evening light.

—Margaret Organ-Kean

Playing with Autumn Willow

Creatures are one of the most effective means of dealing damage in Magic, but they’re also extremely vulnerable. Most decks have some way to deal with them, using direct damage or cards such as Terror or Swords to Plowshares, but what if a creature cannot be targeted at all? A “bulletproof” creature is not only a difficult- to-stop source of damage, but it also makes cards such as Terror and Swords to Plowshares effectively dead draws for your opponent.

Autumn Willow is such a creature, a formidable damage-dealer that’s invulnerable to spells and effects that target it. As such, Autumn Willow can provide the backbone of a very effective deck, and another nearly invulnerable creature, Blinking Spirit (0: Return Blinking Spirit to your hand), can provide a nice complement. With these two creatures to deal damage, the deck needs to be filled out with cards that maintain defense and control. Both Autumn Willow and Blinking Spirit have fairly high casting costs, so you want to protect yourself early on in the game until you have a chance to play them. One method of protection for slower decks is to gain as much life as possible, and cards like Fountain of Youth, Ivory Tower, Reverse Damage, Spirit Link, and Zuran Orb are excellent for this. You may also need to destroy creatures, arti- facts, and enchantments, so Arenson’s Aura, Disenchant, Swords to Plowshares, Hurricane, and Wrath of God are good choices as well. Finally, you want to have control of what’s on the playing field. Cards like Sylvan Library, Forgotten Lore, Jalum Tome, Barbed Sextant, and Land Tax help you quickly cycle through your library.

Your main concern is to keep in mind Autumn Willow’s strengths and keep from inadvertently countering them. For example, while Fyndhorn Elves or Llanowar Elves seem like good additions to the deck—they provide fast mana for getting out your expensive creatures—your opponent will probably have a hand full of anti-creature cards that she hasn’t been able to use on Autumn Willow and Blinking Spirit. This deck capitalizes on your opponent’s having dead cards in her hand, and if she can’t use her Terror on Autumn Willow, she will most certainly use it on Elves.

“The Untouchables”:
4 Autumn Willow
2 Hurricane
1 Sylvan Library
1 Forgotten Lore
1 Primal Order

4 Blinking Spirit
4 Swords to Plowshares
4 Wrath of God
1 Reverse Damage
2 Disenchant
2 Spirit Link
1 Divine Offering
1 Land Tax
1 Arenson’s Aura
1 Balance

1 Jalum Tome
1 Ivory Tower
1 Fountain of Youth
1 Zuran Orb
2 Barbed Sextant
1 Icy Manipulator

11 Forest
13 Plains

—Melody Alder

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