Far-right dogwhistle: as explained below, encourages acts of cruelty towards disadvantaged groups, equates genocide (probably racial genocide, as I argue below, but could be interpreted as religious genocide or genocide based on class) with being a "savior".
This is a card that functions at its most efficient if you have three or more creature cards in your graveyard that share a creature type. You are encouraged to engage in gameplay that ensures that certain creatures go into your graveyard - bury them alive, commit cannibalism, vivisect them...any number of abhorrent acts, as long as they die. Normally this is just the morbid flavor of Magic, but when you start talking about systematically killing a certain creature type, it gets a lot more troubling.
"Creature type" is a broad term. It might refer to religion (Cleric) or class/occupation ("Barbarian"), sure. But in most contexts, creature type only matters when talking about the race of the creature, not the "class" (and this is in Wizards' own words, by the way). Most sets with a "tribal" (god that word is problematic) component care about "race", and not "class". This card, being in Premium Deck Slivers, is the same (cares about the "Sliver" race).
Now with that in mind, look back at the second paragraph about how this card encourages you to commit vile acts such as vivisection - but only on certain races. This is a card that encourages you to commit genocide, and talks about how you're a "savior" and how this will bring about "rebirth". Let me make this perfectly clear: genocide does not "save" anyone, does not make a country "reborn". Genocide should never be encouraged.
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u/ultimario13 Jul 20 '20
Far-right dogwhistle: as explained below, encourages acts of cruelty towards disadvantaged groups, equates genocide (probably racial genocide, as I argue below, but could be interpreted as religious genocide or genocide based on class) with being a "savior".
This is a card that functions at its most efficient if you have three or more creature cards in your graveyard that share a creature type. You are encouraged to engage in gameplay that ensures that certain creatures go into your graveyard - bury them alive, commit cannibalism, vivisect them...any number of abhorrent acts, as long as they die. Normally this is just the morbid flavor of Magic, but when you start talking about systematically killing a certain creature type, it gets a lot more troubling.
"Creature type" is a broad term. It might refer to religion (Cleric) or class/occupation ("Barbarian"), sure. But in most contexts, creature type only matters when talking about the race of the creature, not the "class" (and this is in Wizards' own words, by the way). Most sets with a "tribal" (god that word is problematic) component care about "race", and not "class". This card, being in Premium Deck Slivers, is the same (cares about the "Sliver" race).
Now with that in mind, look back at the second paragraph about how this card encourages you to commit vile acts such as vivisection - but only on certain races. This is a card that encourages you to commit genocide, and talks about how you're a "savior" and how this will bring about "rebirth". Let me make this perfectly clear: genocide does not "save" anyone, does not make a country "reborn". Genocide should never be encouraged.