h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

If you turn Larry Niven's name you get the word Nevinyrral. This was used in the game of Magic: The Gathering. The card is called Nevinnyral's disk, it destroys almost all cards in play. It's a clear reflection of the creator's (Richard Garfield) interest in fantasy literature.

The disk you are talking about here is not the disk from Stata. Nor is it Pratchett's discworld. It is a small disk about 6 inches in diameter that was the central feature of a short story and a novella by Larry Niven. The novella was called "The Magic Goes Away". I can't remember the name of the short story. Niven theorised that magic is a finite resource which belongs to the environment rather than the magic user. It can be used up. A magician produced a small disk which he hung in the air. He then set a spell on it to spin and accelerate indefinitely. As the disk got faster and faster it used up the magic in the area around it, rendering all local magicians powerless.

Cool, I didn't know that. It sure makes sence with the ability it has in the game. It also checks out with the artwork on the card.
Thanks.

The short story is "Not long before the end" and there are quite a few other works set in the same fictional universe though warlock's disk(the magic sucking disk) dosen't figure as much into most of them.