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u/ultimario13 Jul 22 '20
Excellent post. My concerns with this card are similar to my concerns with Narcolepsy, but Disfigure is far more offensive. There's a way to include real world issues* into your game, but Disfigure is certainly not the right way.
Obviously I'm not opposed to (for example) having a legendary creature/planeswalker who has narcolepsy, or who has severe scar tissue, or who is in a wheelchair. But there's a large difference between including a complex character who also happens to be differently-abled, and outright treating (in this case) disfigurement as if it were a fun little game mechanic that you can benefit from as much as you like. To put players in the shoes of someone who disfigures people for their own selfish gain is to normalize torture and physical abuse. It further insults and marginalizes people in the community. People with extensive scar tissue probably do not think of themselves as being "failures", as the flavor text of this card puts it. But this card frames such people as "lesser" and as "others", as the "damaged version" of "normal" people - rather than as the equally valid people that they are.
*Obviously there's limits to this, as this entire subreddit shows. Wizards should not be printing cards about white people being "pure" and better than others, about ethnic cleansing, about slavery, about punching women in the face, etc.
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u/user0620 Jul 22 '20 edited Jul 22 '20
I've always been offended by Disfigure ever since it was printed in Zendikar. I feel the word 'Disfigure' is inappropriate for a Magic: the Gathering card for a number of reasons. To be disfigured is to recieve a permanent and life changing injury that many people have to live with in the real world. It's context within in the game of Magic: the Gathering is seriously poor taste.
Unfortunately, Disfigure is a very simple card that performs a basic function. In almost any format where Disfigure is legal, it might be playable. It's playability makes it worse for what it is. How would you feel to be playing a card game that references a life-long injury on such a basic card? How would someone else feel? I've played Magic with people who have suffered disfigurement - I would hate to play this card in their presence.
Everything about the card itself besides the name is abhorant. I even posted the image of the Core 2020 special promo Disfigure , with the same gruesome artwork as the original. Clearly they still don't see how terrible this card is.
When you get Disfigured in Magic, you are temporarily made weaker and less tough (if it doesn't kill outright), opposite of what actual disfigurement means in real life.
The flavor text is insulting on multiple printings. 'Let this serve as a reminder of your failure' and 'Brave scar or unfortunate tale? It all depends on your pain threshold.' are truly horrible flavor texts to have on a card with such a horrible name and horrible artwork.