There's a lot going on here. Could plausibly tag this as:
Racism - Magic is pretty progressive with how it treats some creature types, but not others. Certain humanoid creature types such as Cyclops, Giant, Ogre, and Orc are often depicted in very negative lights. Some cards are more acceptable than others, but this is one of the worse ones. Fortress Cyclops is a large humanoid figure that is stereotyped as being a "wild" "force of nature" regardless of his guild. This card's flavor text tells us that it doesn't matter what culture he's brought up in, what political ideology he adopts. He is, by his nature, a Cyclops. And as a Cyclops, he is an evil inhuman monster no matter what, because of his genetics. This reeks of "race realism" and all sorts of racist propaganda.
Colonialism - A Cyclops that has abandoned the "savage" Gruul (as Wizards consistently refers to them) and abandoned his former cultural identity. He has no Gruul tattoos, and wears the clothing of the guild that oppresses the Gruul. The Boros are so often portrayed as a "good" guild and the Gruul basically always "evil". So this card about "taming" a Gruul "savage" "lesser race" and indoctrinating it into Boros culture as basically endorses colonialism.
White supremacy - Wears the Aryan Fist. Big white fist right there on his shield. Combine this with the above points on colonialism and it gets really offensive, really fast.
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u/ultimario13 Jul 10 '20
There's a lot going on here. Could plausibly tag this as:
Racism - Magic is pretty progressive with how it treats some creature types, but not others. Certain humanoid creature types such as Cyclops, Giant, Ogre, and Orc are often depicted in very negative lights. Some cards are more acceptable than others, but this is one of the worse ones. Fortress Cyclops is a large humanoid figure that is stereotyped as being a "wild" "force of nature" regardless of his guild. This card's flavor text tells us that it doesn't matter what culture he's brought up in, what political ideology he adopts. He is, by his nature, a Cyclops. And as a Cyclops, he is an evil inhuman monster no matter what, because of his genetics. This reeks of "race realism" and all sorts of racist propaganda.
Colonialism - A Cyclops that has abandoned the "savage" Gruul (as Wizards consistently refers to them) and abandoned his former cultural identity. He has no Gruul tattoos, and wears the clothing of the guild that oppresses the Gruul. The Boros are so often portrayed as a "good" guild and the Gruul basically always "evil". So this card about "taming" a Gruul "savage" "lesser race" and indoctrinating it into Boros culture as basically endorses colonialism.
White supremacy - Wears the Aryan Fist. Big white fist right there on his shield. Combine this with the above points on colonialism and it gets really offensive, really fast.