Edge of Eternities isn't even out yet and already we're getting the first spoilers for MTG's upcoming Marvel Spiderman set. Loads of new cards were revealed at San Diego Comic Con yesterday, with multiple webslinging creatures announced - to a mixed reaction online. But Wizards has made an oversight that could cause chaos when these cards are actually released.
The problem boils down to that most-fascinating of subjects: MTG card templating. If you've been playing Magic a while, it probably hasn't escaped your notice that Wizards has been finding ways to save space recently, by simplifying rules text and relying on shorthand. 'Enters the battlefield' has now become 'enters', for instance.
So when writing the rules text for a card like Spider-Man, Miles Morales, which gives all other creatures trample and a counter when it ETBs or attacks, Wizards decided not to write the whole card name, and just put 'Spider-Man'.
You can probably see the problem here. There are tons of cards called 'Spider-Man' in this set - we've seen several just in the handful of early previews shown so far. Experienced Magic players will likely be able to intuit that by 'Spider-Man', the card really just means itself, but I reckon new players are going to get this wrong more often than not. They will think that the effect applies to all Spider-Mans. Spiders-Men?
As the first set with Welcome Decks rather than Commander precons, Wizards is clearly hoping to make MTG Spider-Man an entry point for a vast wave of new players, so you'd think it'd be on the lookout for possible confusions like this.
To make matters worse, this is actually a card from one of those starter decks. That's why it includes reminder text for the most basic evergreen MTG keywords like trample and vigilance.
This won't be the only card the problem appears on, though. Already we've seen another case - also a Miles card - on the common green card, Spider-Man, Brooklyn Visionary. Who knows how many more examples there will be once all the cards are revealed?
The weird thing about this is that the problem could've been easily avoided if the Magic designers had just written 'this creature'. It would also have been mitigated if Wizards hadn't made the strange decision to make the characters' real names their secondary titles, and their super-powered identities their main 'name'. That's kind of the opposite of what you'd typically expect.
It's not going to make or break this new set, but it does seem like a problem that someone should have spotted in the early stages.
If you're confused about when the various MTG sets are coming out, check out our MTG release schedule guide. And feel free to come share your thoughts and feelings on the Marvel Spider-Man set over at the Wargamer Discord.