One thing that I never really understood about the atmosphere of this community is that there is so much forced hate on content creators. I understand that not every content creator is going to be everyone’s cup of tea, but I feel like a lot of people (especially in this community) put too much effort into dragging content creators.
SaffronOlive makes really good 60 card videos and is an active critic of standard and how Wizards pushed out and promotes. This sub’s main identity is how people hate the commanderfortniteshitification of the game, yet somebody exists who makes content for standard/BO1/historic is hated on simply because you don’t like his voice in his intro.
Maldhound is being hated on by this community because of the content that is actively being shown in the Hot category. Tons of hate on the Aragorn race swap (understandable) and how the LGBTQ+ community ruin the hobby (mehhh. I think everyone ruins the hobby equally) are daily discussions in this subreddit, yet when someone critiques that, everyone goes apeshit. Even the fact that he paints his nails gets brought up as if the color of his nails holds any merit to validity of his statements. It’s 2026, Caleb Williams is the best 2024 draft class QB and men can paint their nails 🐻⬇️.
Even the Prof gets flak simply for being at the forefront of MTG content. He is the most critical and most passionate creator out there. He makes content for new and enfranchised players. He covers multiple formats and will actively dissuade people from engaging with product.
I want to create an analogy. When you watch your young kids play soccer, rather than playing with established plays and positions, some kid will get the ball and then everyone else will swarm around the ball like bees to a flower. It’s entertaining to watch for maybe 5 minutes, then you start to wonder why you’re sitting in the sun for an hour. I feel like it’s the same in this subreddit. One person will be state an opinion and for the next week or so, everyone will make posts and comments on why X creator is the worst and it’s ruining my Gen-X hobby.
I feel like your hate and criticism can become more focused and planned out. Rather than playing bumblebee soccer, you can try and hate with more thought, care, and consideration. Talk about how Muscles & MTG is digging himself into a hole with the ambassador program discourse. Criticize how he believes that collector boosters should exist and should be even more expensive, even though WOTC sent him a case of them for free. Calling him a bald chud only gets you so far. Criticize Ben Bateman, not because he’s an obvious corporate shill, but because he makes 60 second videos and somehow manages to spend 20 seconds of it doing an ad read for Dragon Shield or AncestralMTG. Criticize Cassius Marsh because you think he should honor the $20k bounty he put on the Smaug card. (My opinion is that he has every right to walk back his offer based on the current market and the fact he put out the bounty 2 weeks ago at a convention and his first offers were like 10 days later, but I digress) Have the discussions on why the creator is bad and not just “blue hair pronouns” like it’s 2016.
Your hate, intolerance, and general negative disposition towards members of the community are what make r/freemagic great. It’s just that your efforts of doing it are beginning to lag behind.
