Magic the Gathering chooses to be less racist
Wizards of the Coast has banned seven cards with racist imagery, names, or details and removed them fully from the official online database. In the announcement, the publisher apologized for insensitivity and not being aware of the problematic parts of the cards. The seven card being excised are Invoke Prejudice, Cleanse, Stone-Throwing Devils, Pradesh Gypsies, Jihad, Imprison, and Crusade.
“The events of the past weeks and the ongoing conversation about how we can better support people of color have caused us to examine ourselves, our actions, and our inactions. We appreciate everyone helping us to recognize when we fall short. We should have been better, we can be better, and we will be better.”
Banning cards from competitive play is done all the time, but the removal of the cards from the database is unusual and speaks to the seriousness of the action. As an example, one of the banned cards, Invoke Prejudice, wasn’t just banned and removed, the card ID number has been changed from its original 1488, due to that number’s association with white supremacist iconography.
Well, that’s a matter of some debate. There have been some open letters published by former employees and partners in the past few days that paint a pretty dire picture of the company culture.
Yeah, Devils that throw stones…? They’re literally devils.
Most of the cards in question involve a color mechanic. Crusade gives all white creatures +1/+1. Cleanse destroys all Black creatures. I recall in Magic White is relatively “good” creatures (lots of angels and…heavily armored knights?) because Black is almost always chaotic evil creatures…(like vampires, zombies, devils, terrifying monsters, and other dark stuff)
Yeah, r/magictcg went totally fucking berzerk yesterday. Threads got locked, people got banned, card binders were thrown across rooms (probably). It’s hard to believe that Magic players didn’t react with their usual calm and collected demeanor.
Is every reference used? Because if it is sequential, meaning there is a 1487 and a 1489, then it would be possible to intentionally do it. Not force it so much as see the number and lean into it.
Invoke Prejudice is the smoking gun. Totally racist in intent. Flat out. 100%. Full power. Obvious.
Imprison is all about the card art, which is very symbolic. That card could work with different art. The other cards are more complex and I don’t think are worth banning actually.
To be clear, this artist hasn’t worked with WotC since they parted ways in 1997. Did they let him go for his racism? I have on idea, but I’d like to think so.
Just a cursory check, but it looks like the 1480s and 1490s ids were all blue cards, listed alphabetically, all released from the same expansion. 1487 is “In the Eye of Chaos” and 1489 is “Juxtapose”. That seems to lean real strong towards coincidence - you’d need to juggle a lot of card names to end up with the one with the racist iconography happening to end up with the number you want alphabetically. Not impossible, but at a certain point a really unfortunate coincidence starts to feel more likely.
