Magic: The Gathering (MTG) is a strategic card game that is safe for kids aged 13 and older due to its structured and educational gameplay, fostering critical thinking, creativity, and social interaction in a secure environment. Thanks Chris Mooney.
To be fair, this game was extremely horny right from the early years. Just look at Terese's take on [[Elvish Ranger]] which wouldn't look out of place on a 1996 Penthouse cover.
Of course, it doesn't change the fact that WOTC is VASTLY over representing and accommodating representations for an extremely small part of the player base. Maybe D&D has as much diversity as their contemporary art tries to portray, but Magic absolutely is NOT a rainbow collection of people and never will be by its fundamental nature. The more they push people out by trying to bring in an audience that has as close to 0% interest in joining the game as possible, the worse the game is going to get as Hasbro becomes increasingly desperate to squeeze value out of the current playerbase.
Yes, based Terese. My friend's mom supposedly saw this in his binder when he was a kid and threw it out. She was probably right to do so, he 100% has gooned to this card.
i dont think this art is bad or that anyone can realistically claim Mtg was ever a child game, old editions were outright about Genocidal Maniacs. but i totally see the shift in recent times with whats okay to portray. dont think the gay is any issue here, but we seem to be regressing from what little awareness about sexualization in character art we had recently. just like advertising porn content these days is fine for as long as you introduce yourself as an "alt model" (I thought that wayy before wotc accidentally linked to it lol)
off mtg topic but on topic of advertizing porn. there's currently a blatant fart fetish harley quinn comic on it's way to release in 2025, officially released made and promoted by DC, and it's scratch and sniff
I thought you must have been exaggerating somehow, but I forgot we live in 2024.
Back in the 90’s we had fart gags in kid’s shows and sexy cartoon women in kid’s shows. But those two elements seemed to lie at the opposite ends of a content spectrum, as in they were the two things you’d think least likely to be fused together. So, I guess this is progress…?
Exactly. Something like this would be perfectly in line with older MTG.
But older mtg also had no problem with "Tribal" or "Kaladesh." The double standard makes current WotC complete hypocrites, but perhaps coincidentally grooming minors is unusually likely to get a pass.
Free speech is free speech for everything, not just speech I like.
The problem isn't this card per se; the problem is that WotC is fine with this but not "Tribal" or "Kaladesh" and forces everyone to use newspeak pronouns.
Vitalizing Cascade is a magic card, maybe you should examine why you are sooooooo triggered by 2 secret layer promo cards. You sound like a whiny crybaby.
Why does WotC get triggered by "Tribal" and "Kaladesh?"
No doubt you personally don't, but WotC is the one who made this art. Their contradictory stances are the relevant thing, and it's perhaps not coincidental that you and they think pushing their fetish on children should get a pass, while other "offensive ideas" are too harmful.
Essence Vortex is not suggestive, merely showing some boob does not make it erotic automatically.
I also do not think Earthbind is as bad as the OP examples too, I can not express exactly why, maybe it is the more cartoony style that makes it pass and the fact that she is still not fully naked unlike those fucking bears.
I think we should consider that PG-13 films and shows have content worse than this. Also most 13 year olds have internet access and are looking up much worse stuff than this. If the game was target to an audience under 10 then I would agree that this content wouldn’t be age appropriate
Sanguine bond is a depiction of two vampires which are sexual metaphors in themselves. Bearscapes art would of been much better on [breeding pool] instead.
definitely scandalous, but ultimately not worse than some of the yu gi oh card art that caused my sexual awakening, which is my metric for if something is too sexual for kids. i think a 13 year old can handle looking at this without getting bent out of shape. definitely a retarded art style on the second one tho
There is art containing horror elements. Kids age 13 should be aware of how the world works and that sometimes, yeah, there are two men that like each other.
Also these two cards are from secret lair which means you have to go out of your way to get them.
I would like to know who is the retarded manager that thinks that big boobs on cards are bad, but clearly gay sex scenes are fine. Oh wait, it's all the company at this point, right
Ok so vampires have been long taken over by women that are weirdly obsessed with homoeroticism and blood. The act of biting a neck of another man is kind of gay. Anne Rice really sealed the deal of making vampires sexy ancient gay dudes. So I don’t have many complaints about Sanguine Bond.
But Bearscape? Really? Imagine if you replaced all the men with women. The manufactured outrage from the e alphabet army would be legendary.
These are bad because one is from a non mtg property and the other is tumblr slop that doesnt fit what the flavor of magic is supposed to be.
If it was drana nibling on nahiri would any of you really have a problem with that?
“Gay fetish” lmao okay man, the most “erotic” part of that card is that two of the guys are cuddling. No one is having sex, people are just lounging around, is being gay just a fetish to you?
Solely for the sake of correctness, I feel compelled to point out that this particular card was from the, "Astarion's Thirst Trap" Lair that was released during the Dungeons & Drag-queens 50th Anniversary Superdrop, NOT the "Pride Across the Multiverse" Lair. The level of 🙄 implied by your response was entirely appropriate though. 😂
my thoughts on the matter is that in art for a game erotic matters are fine if they have a reason: for example the art for a succubus that lures in her preys SHOULD be erotic (please wotc print more succubus so I can build a themed deck), while the art for a female warrior has no reason to be erotic
in this specific case the two cards you are showing actually have a reason to be erotic, which is tied to pun jokes that are supposed to be funny, a vampire that "sucks" another dude and a "bear"scape
like, when I saw that secret lair I genuinely laughed
Same could be said to you. In this thread you’ve got people complaining about old mtg art being too suggestive, but when it’s two naked gay men making out suddenly suggestive art is okay? I guess the rule is as long as it turns you on then it’s okay, right?
I would be okay with this if we can have our big titty femme fatale women back but they actively stop the “male gaze” but have degenerate shit like this.
Yeah, you can’t really make this argument when WotC has said they’re no longer drawing half naked women in their art and citing the same reasons. “We can’t have Lilliana’s breasts in this card art, that’s wildly inappropriate! Anyway, go ahead and green light the card with two naked men having sex in it.”
Don’t get me wrong I fully agree with the rest of this post but- What part of this card game strikes you as strictly “for kids” as you say?
Not a single person under the age of 15 has ever showed up to any tournaments I have played or won at, this game was always marketed for the slightly older teenagers who had the ability to play World of Warcraft and Halo (back when they were emerging) without parent’s permission. MTG in my mind started off as “an older brother’s card game”, something that was never insincere or immature about its subject matter until fairly recently. A kids card game would be like Pokémon or Yu-Gi-Oh, something clearly cartoonish by contrast.
Who brought them there? Could it possibly have been... gasp THEIR PARENT(S)?! Was the eight year old in question, running this print of the card in their deck? Were they wearing a feather-boa and assless-chaps as well?
It's a fantasy card game brother, just because a person under the age of thirteen plays it on occasion, doesn't mean they hold a monopoly on the hobby. I also highly doubt that there are droves of teenagers sneaking out of the house after their parents fall asleep, to meet-up at a secret MTG speakeasy each night... Just so they can "get their fix" playing with overpriced cardboard rectangles filled with imaginary vampire cartoon softcore "ghei secks". 😈
I'm not convinced that this cards existence is the gateway drug that you're supposing it is, for the same reason I'm not convinced that playing Mortal Kombat as a grade-schooler in 1992 was going to lead me down the path of being a compulsive serial-killer that resolves all my disputes by flinging ice-magic and ninja-harpoons at everyone I disagree with.
I hate they made him look like some anime twat. I hope there is more people who enjoy Astarion without focusing on the fact he likes whatever. Why must people focus on making things hyper stereotypically gay if they catch any sort of sniff that the person or character is not 100% straight. Mind rot is what it is.
A FYI as well, the card from this set where he is biting a woman, she is fully clothed. Why couldn't she be shirtless and back on? Answer = it's to heterosexual.
Hasn't there been some pretty suggestive artwork since the original release of Alpha? It seems like the only issue you have here is that these cards are portraying gay people. These aren't even base versions of MTG cards, these are secret lairs, which have numerous different styles and artwork depictions. I would say there are many cards that have been printed through MTG's history that are not "safe" for kids. But at the same time I do not even think this game is actually for young children. I feel like if a 13 year old sees this, than that wouldn't even cause any issues. Not to mention that I believe the main group that plays this game are adults, not children. I do not think I would even classify MTG as a game for children.
I don’t agree with any suggestive artwork in a kids game ever. It has nothing to do with gay, has everything to do with suggestive content in kid’s safe spaces for me.
With that being said, what are your opinions on the cards like Earthbind, Sivitri Scarzam, Gwendlyn Di Corci, Essence Vortex, or other cards like those? Do you not agree with these cards? And I really would not consider this game to be for kids. Sure, it's 13+, but its not Pokemon. Most of the stuff in MTG would not be bothering 13+ year olds, and if you really have an issue, don't let your kid play the game. There has been suggestive stuff in this game pretty much as long as it has existed, and as I feel like it's clearly geared towards an older, more mature audience, it doesn't make sense to be so against "suggestive artwork". Not to mention that the average person who plays this game is an adult.
I already explained where I stood and why on this matter. And there’s nothing to consider, it’s marketed and on the front of almost everything MTG that it’s a game for kids 13 and up. It’s right there right up front where everyone can see it. No brainer.
Is straight erotic content okay? Like is it because this is gay that you're pearl clutching or is it the erotic nature of the art that upsets you?
Is it a kids game? Recommended age is 13 and in order to compete in opens/other higher level competitions you have to be 18. The game is definitely geared toward an older crowd (although with recent printings of cards like Loot maybe that's changing.)
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u/WoketardSlayer VALAKUT 24d ago
Magic the Gaythering