Magic: The Gathering Bans Racist Cards

Wizards of the Coast announced that several Magic: The Gathering cards would be banned from all forms of competition and images of them would be removed from its online database. The cards Invoke Prejudice, Cleanse, Stone-Throwing Devils, Pradesh Gypsies, Jihad, Imprison, and Crusade will all be permanently banned from all sanctioned tournament play. Wizards of the Coast specifically apologized for Invoke Prejudice, which features a white hooded executioner carrying a black axe, and has an ability that prevents any card from being summoned that doesn't match a color not already on it. "The card is racist and made even worse by the multiverse ID it was unfortunately codified with years ago," WIzards of the Coast stated in their statement. "There's no place for racism in our game, nor anywhere else." Additionally, the Invoke Prejudice card will have its Multiversal ID number changed on its "Gatherer" page, as its original number "1488" has been adopted by white supremacists.

While none of these cards were published in recent years, they were still legal in a number of different play formats and were visible on Magic: The Gathering's official Gatherer database. In addition to the gameplay bans, all of the images of these cards will be removed from the "Gatherer" database, with their pages instead showing a brief statement noting that the cards had a racist image, text, or a combination of both.

Many members of the Magic: The Gathering community has spoken out demanding changes after the game released a statement last week in support of the Black Lives Matter movement. Magic acknowledged the outcry, stating that "there's much more work to be done as we continue to make our games, communities, and company more inclusive. Know that we work every day to be better and that we hear you. We look forward to sharing more of our plans with you as our games and organization evolve."

Black lives matter. Text DEMANDS to 55156 to sign Color of Change's petition to reform policing, and visit blacklivesmatters.carrd.co for more ways to donate, sign petitions, and protest safely.