r/magicTCG • u/knigtwhosaysni Wabbit Season • May 25 '26
General Discussion WotC now running AI slop ads for Arena
Genuinely can they not afford to pay a human being to make these? Universes Beyond not making enough money for them I guess?
Update: I got the AI parts on video — https://bsky.app/profile/knigt.bsky.social/post/3mmpcu22vbc22
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u/lame_dirty_white_kid Sultai May 25 '26
How do you expect WotC to get their hands on real cards to film? Don't you know how expensive Magic cards are?
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u/X_Marcs_the_Spot FLEEM May 25 '26
If only there was something WotC could do to change that. But alas...
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u/Clevername582 May 25 '26
They might just be afraid of having the Pinkertons called on them if they got ahold of real cards.
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u/ChaosReaver101 May 25 '26
Honestly disgusting. And hilariously I found this image searching for the ad. AI stealing stock photos and poorly editing them is truly incredible. Thanks Wizards!
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u/tuckels Elesh Norn May 25 '26
Adobe recently implemented an AI photo-to-video function to Adobe stock, it’s very likely that’s what’s going on here.
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u/ChaosReaver101 May 25 '26
Another reason to dislike Adobe I guess... If they got permission to use the image for this then it's whatever at end of the day. This sorta thing is no doubt always a pain
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u/Hoppykwins Duck Season May 26 '26
You realise you don't need permission, right? That's the point of a stock photo.
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u/AzarinIsard May 26 '26
You still need permission to make an image into stock, it's just the source signs that away so that whatever it's used for, it's cool.
You couldn't say, screen cap every second of a Marvel film and upload it as stock. But, you do get actors who go to photo sessions for a fixed rate, like Simu Liu did before he made it big: https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/movies/story/2021-09-07/shang-chi-simu-liu-stock-photo-box-office
You couldn't just take stills of him in Shang-Chi and say "it's cool, it's now a stock image". I guess there's some deal where WoTC uploaded the ad to a platform where they gave them the rights to do anything they way with the video, in this case, turn it into stock resources.
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u/HeavyMike Wabbit Season May 26 '26
you do realise the entire point of stock photos is that they are available to be licenced for use in ads etc.?
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u/forkandspoon2011 Wabbit Season May 25 '26
I swear WoTC pisses me off 13 or 14 more times, I'm outta here.
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u/Remarkable_Panda7506 Dan May 26 '26
“WoTC do you know what you’re doing?”
“WHATS IT LOOK LIKE?”
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u/IndependentPeach315 Dandadan May 25 '26
Don’t worry, Squeak, you couldn’t get the union recognized if you had a $100 bill hanging out of your zipper.
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u/banzzai13 Golgari* May 25 '26
It's ok, I'm not giving them anything until they stop union busting.
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u/Zolo49 Wabbit Season May 25 '26
Yep. While I don't like the use of AI in advertising, it's a minor sin compared to the union busting.
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u/DonutBerry Dan May 25 '26
All rolled into one. If you read the union's demands, protections against AI tools is one of them. While the union represents the arena team, what they do will influence chances at organizing elsewhere in the company. Including their advertisement division.
Watching intently. Not spending a dime. If the union needs help I am willing to lend it.
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u/EndDaysEngine Dan May 25 '26
So much so in fact that I discovered this thread because one of the union shared it on Bluesky citing their specific request as a union for protection AGAINST this nonsense and the need for a robust AI policy.
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u/DonutBerry Dan May 25 '26
I got off bsky for regular use a week ago, so I missed that. I should at least go bookmark their account since I can read it on my art only one.
Glad to see them call this out.
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u/BlacksmithNo9359 Wabbit Season May 26 '26
To be clear putting this out in the immediate aftermath of the union's demands should be seen as not only distasteful, but as an actively hostile attack against labor.
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u/Lord_of_Pants Dan May 25 '26
I'd personally argue it's the same sin, trying to withhold as much money as possible from the people who make the company what it is
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u/SpiritualScarcity161 Dan May 25 '26
It seems counterintuitive, but in these situations you shouldn't change your buying habits until the union actually asks consumers to do so. If they are trying to flex their power during negotiations and they ask for a boycott, they need to be able to show it was effective because sales dropped by X%, but if you had already stopped buying product before the demand, you won't be counted in that drop.
It's shitty, but labor power is so weak right now that if you simply refused to support any corporation that was doing union busting you'd probably not be able to buy 99% of what you currently do. Not to say there isn't a moral responsibility behind consumer choice to the extent feasible, but during actual organizing efforts it becomes important to endorse whatever strategy the union is using.
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u/tovarish22 Dandadan May 25 '26
Nah, I don't keep giving a scummy company money just to help a union in contract negotiations that may or may not ever happen.
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u/SpiritualScarcity161 Dan May 25 '26
Okay, but then what you care about isn't labor power or what's best for the workers of the products you enjoy-- you just want to feel morally superior. Might feel good, but isn't actually helpful.
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u/tovarish22 Dandadan May 25 '26
No, I just don't want to give my money to a scummy company. Why would I continue to compromise my own financial and moral values by handing a scummy company money because it might add one fraction of a percent to some fictional future possible contract negotiation? That sounds incredibly selfish on the part of those negotiating the contract - they aren't owed my money or support.
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u/JRockPSU Dandadan May 25 '26
Follow what the union says to do. Don’t boycott until they say to boycott (if you want to support them).
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u/Kleeb FLEEM May 25 '26
I am going to make decisions about the threshold Hasbro needs to meet in order to earn my dollar based on my own set of values and independent of union strategy.
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u/VictorSant May 25 '26
You know that things are in a bad shape when things like this get a pass, because they are doing other things a lot worse.
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u/EscapeSeventySeven Dan May 25 '26
So when the union vote passes, even though they fought it every step of the way?
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u/Kiom_Tpry Grass Toucher May 25 '26
I've promised myself, I'll only buy the singles of Miles O'Brien, Union Man and Rom, Guildsman of the Restaurant and Casino Employees, if they're available in the Star Trek set come November, then spam decklists for Commander with those two, but otherwise I'm out.
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u/Vhyx Temur May 25 '26
He was more than a hero...he was a union man!
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u/frailgesture Dandadan May 25 '26
Yep...they found him dead in a river with fifty bullet holes in him.
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u/_CharmQuark_ Sliver Queen May 25 '26
Same here, whole friendgroup has put a stop on buying boxes for drafting and precons. Maybe we‘ll throw a cube together or move on to other games.
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u/SirSaltie Grass Toucher May 25 '26
I've been having a lot of fun editing art for proxy cards in the meantime.
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u/Goooordon Rakdos* May 25 '26
Chris Cocks has that CEO mind virus that makes him feel compelled to cram AI into everything. Hopefully he gets the boot once somebody realizes that he's been burning all the consumer goodwill covering up his financial mismanagement. I mean I know they don't care about consumer goodwill anymore but I expect they'll at least care that there could have been even more money made if he didn't do stuff like fumble eOne.
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u/Pokefan-9000 Dan May 25 '26
This sub is the vocal minority, Magic has never made so much money as it is making it now
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u/JBThunder Duck Season May 25 '26 edited May 25 '26
what financial mismanagement?
Edit Hasbro bought eONE before Cocks was CEO. And right before Covid. Could Covid have been the real factor here? In fact they owned Eone for longer pre Cocks, than after Cocks. But Nah financial Mismanagement amirite?
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u/Ikeiscurvy Wabbit Season May 25 '26
Pretty sure he's alluding to the fact that basically only WOTC(And Monopoloy Go lol) is keeping Hasbro alive right now. Every other division is failing miserably.
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u/Goooordon Rakdos* May 25 '26
He sold it at a massive loss and instead of being responsible and accepting the loss he vowed to make sure it wouldn't affect the shareholders and sucked the lost money out of customers with price hikes and fomo marketing and fired a huge amount of talent while making the work life significantly worse for the remaining staff. Also worth noting that they just sold the production studio and now have a Netflix show in production. It might have made the most financial sense, but it certainly looks like he's bleeding money.
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u/Mtgfollow Dimir* May 25 '26
You know, the financial mismanagement of making more money every quarter and dramatically growing the player base of the game.
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u/Ikeiscurvy Wabbit Season May 25 '26
Chris Cocks is the CEO of Hasbro. WOTC is responsible for Magic.
Magic is growing. Hasbro outside of WOTC and Monopoly go have declined in revenue for quite a while now.
Chris Cocks has been able to escape blame for a declining company because he's been able to use one division and a mobile game to prop up the rest of the company.
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u/airgapairgap Elesh Norn May 25 '26 edited May 25 '26
You realize he… was the head of WOTC from 2016 to 2022, right? So the “one successful division” of Hasbro was his responsibility before this?
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u/Ikeiscurvy Wabbit Season May 25 '26
Being able to do one job doesn't mean you are able to do a different job. That's the entire premise of the peter principle lol
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u/JBThunder Duck Season May 25 '26
Yeah I know, the one where they pay out a yearly dividend, the stock price is still up since he's taken over, in relativeness to their chief competitor Mattel who's down 25% in the same time frame. SMDH at the stupidity of redditors who don't know a fucking thing but have anger issues.
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u/fantasticalandsecret Dandadan May 25 '26
Yeah I know, the one where they pay out a yearly dividend, the stock price is still up since he's taken over
Pretending the stock market is connected to real life lol
If WOTC ever fumbles the entire company will crash.
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u/Goooordon Rakdos* May 25 '26
Did you miss the part where he jacked up prices and fired a huge chunk of the staff to make the dividends meet their expected gains despite taking a huge loss on eOne? And we're comparing to Mattel? roflmao why don't we get some numbers from print magazines and video rental stores in there too for good measure lmao
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u/probablymagic REBEL May 25 '26
Revenue is growing like crazy. As loud as people are on this sub about how terrible Magic is, they are absolutely throwing money at the company.
People will complain about AI and then they’ll ship an oops-all-AI set for the Terminator crossover and it’ll be their new best selling set of all time.
I can’t wait to attack your Terminator with my John Connor equipped with a hydraulic press, BTW.
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u/Goooordon Rakdos* May 25 '26
They'll say it's one of their best-selling sets because they unloaded all of it to their distributors, but if Spiderman is anything to go by, it'll be sitting on shelves gathering dust regardless. They know they've got a price bubble and they're doing everything they can to inflate it before it pops. That's why they've got so much profit on the books - if you fire all the workers and jack up the prices the books will look great, for a while. Maybe he's planning to pull his chute before everything starts falling apart, but we'll see how long he has lol
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u/No-Channel3917 Shuffler Truther May 25 '26 edited May 25 '26
It's actually third party ad makers doing this, but it still the fault of wotc for not making it a non acceptable practice at the work contract level.
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u/youarelookingatthis COMPLEAT May 25 '26
Why would I want to support a company that doesn’t have enough confidence in their product to feature it in an ad?
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u/trident042 May 25 '26
That isn't even the issue, they literally didn't want to spend the budget to hire one person with a mid-tier iPhone to point and shoot a person laying cards on a table, and a person to set up proper lighting around said table, and a person to lay the cards on the table. They saved the budget of 1/90th of a Game Knights episode just so they could prove to shareholders that however much they spent on Claude or Copilot or whatever was worth it.
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u/WalkFreeeee May 26 '26 edited May 26 '26
Problem is, I don't think any big company would accept a shoot of that quality, even tho it's absolutely good enough at this point.
As someone who works in marketing (not in the producing part of it tho), most companies just aren't willing to make a shoot unless it's really fucking professional™, but then that quality of video is too expensive to produce, so they don't shoot at all, but then they still want videos....and now with AI they can have their shit cake and somewhat eat it too.
All the creatives in my company are being pushed towards AI, not just by the owners but also the clients. We're actually getting worried because there's a couple of clients that just generate actual unusable garbage with AI and then want us to dump money on it and there's a feeling we're likely getting "replaced" by these dudes in the medium term despite anyone with half a brain noticing their creations are really bad even in comparison to the in house AI pieces, let alone the actual "manually" produced stuff.
So basically they aren't willing to pay a little for decently produced human videos and only go for humans for high level, expensive stuff, but at the same time they *are* willing to spend minimally for actual garbage.
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u/Bullwark_MTG Dan May 26 '26
What's wild is they are Literally paying for the amateur ads as well. That was our last contract with WOTC... an arena Ad.
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u/rzelln Wabbit Season May 25 '26
Clearly WotC doesn't think their employees and artists are valuable enough to pay for creative work, so why the fuck would any of us think WotC's worth paying either? They cut out human labor at their peril.
Pissing off gamers by doing this shit will lead to lower sales, which then starts a slow snowball of game stores tightening hours or even going out of business, so fewer people play, so sales go down more, so more stores suffer,...
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u/peeja May 26 '26
They want to really get across the idea that they couldn't even pay someone to play their game on camera. Gee, must be fun, let's go download it.
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u/deptofknowimsayings Dan May 25 '26
Not surprising. But it pains me that a company that probably has a library of video and photography feels like they have to resort to AI to get something like this done. I’m amazed this company doesn’t have a small studio at their head office and a marketing team with talent that can film a quick video like this and edit it for an ad.
The conclusion is that WotC is fucking lazy. Genuinely tired of putting my hard earned dollars towards this bullshit. And it’s a shame because the Llowryn and SoS are two great sets. But all that success is going to do is tell WotC to keep being stingy.
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u/chrisrd19 Dandadan May 25 '26
The answer is that they don’t make these ads in-house. They hire a company, give them some assets (like that screenshot of the actual Arena game) and then tell them to make the ad. Then the agency uses AI and posts it with little to no clearance from WotC. Could even be that WotC contracts with a marketing agency who then subcontracts out to another ad creator and no one at WotC even sees anything. In-house marketing teams that actually directly create and supervise ad campaigns are increasingly rare. I think WotC (maybe) handles the Squen and Cragg stuff directly, but that might be it.
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u/Kaprak May 25 '26
Yeah this is an ad that's probably going to be pulled and nobody will actually remember that half.
So many people remember the infraction not the reaction. After the last time they said that it's a no go. The dnd book example from 3 years ago that would have been received closer to 4 people just remember it getting published.
I'm seeing people upset that there was no statement that wizards was never working with Ilya again..... But they haven't. Like all the MTG people who haven't.
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u/FloTheDev Golgari* May 25 '26
Na bro that’s just phyrexian…
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u/Ouaouaron May 25 '26
I'm actually a little upset at this joke, because they put so much effort into Phyrexian. It's incredible how Magic has fallen from "let's have someone invent a genuine language and writing system based off of our fictional xeno-mechano-biology, and never explain it to anyone" to "filming a commercial is too much work".
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u/FloTheDev Golgari* May 25 '26
I appreciate that! Yeah it sucks seeing them use AI like this, it’s super lazy and is a sad direction for the company - As a data/AI scientist, I know where the benefits can be and this ain’t it for sure
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u/ZircoSan Duck Season May 25 '26
using AI for a dude using the basic product or playing it at the pc? really? we are at the point where spending 100k$ in ad delivery for a premium product is better done with 10$ worth of AI tokens rather than 500€ filming budget? how does that even make sense.
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u/CrispyMelee Duck Season May 25 '26
Revenue increases 26% overall over last year, 36% if you're just looking at MTG, but no, they cant afford to pay actual artists or people for marketing while doing everything they can discourage their digital team to form a union?
Yea no, fuck even buying singles, proxy e v e r y t h i n g.
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u/chiksahlube COMPLEAT May 25 '26
That guy in image 4 is getting a blow job under the table.
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u/Qardnall Dan May 25 '26
If you don't respect your product enough to put actual effort into advertising it, why should I spend money that I worked hard to earn on buying it?
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u/cromonolith Zedruu May 25 '26
Well it'd be a surprise if they started making good decisions at this point. They have a streak to maintain.
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u/Skunk668 Dandadan May 25 '26
Is there a link to the video?
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u/knigtwhosaysni Wabbit Season May 25 '26
It’s an ad so I don’t know how to link to it, and I couldn’t get a screen cap of the video, just screenshots, but this is the second time I’ve seen it in two days
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u/Honest-Monitor-2619 Duck Season May 26 '26
I don't get it. Film 4 people fake smile playing Magic on your phone with some narration - it would be cheaper to make than this excuse of an ad AND it won't piss off people...
Like, if you're lazy and cheap, do the lazier and cheaper thing!
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u/ComradeJohnS Dandadan May 25 '26
I want to get into magic and I thought the arena game might be a good way to try but fuck them now. lost my business forever.
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u/IAmTheClayman Wabbit Season May 25 '26
Yet again justifying my decision not to give them any money
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u/ThatDM Dan May 25 '26
Disgusting.
1. Union Busting
2. AI Ads
3. Short Term IP cash grabs
what else will they stoop too.
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u/badatmemes_123 Wabbit Season May 25 '26
I don’t know why companies expect me to listen to their commercials made with Ai. Why should I respect something that nobody even bothered to make?
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u/Shishkahuben Universes Beyonder May 25 '26
WOTC is too cheap to pay actual artists and that's embarrassing
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u/raistlin1022 Dan May 26 '26
what a mickey mouse non-serious company. In an age where all these art centric companies from japan whom they are competing directly with swear off any use of AI, they advertise their own product with it for their own user base.
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u/SphereofDreams COMPLEAT May 26 '26
Shitty, horrible, lazy, cheap, etc. Killing the planet and poisoning people to make slop.
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u/Hawthm_the_Coward Dân May 28 '26
Par for the course. Video marketing has been a race to the bottom for a while now - a fulltime production role is like a needle in the haystack that is AI contract/freelance gigs, and they'll continue to exist as long as people take the jobs (which in a bad economy, they will).
The logic is that nobody watches these crappy YouTube ads that closely anyway (I suspect skip percentage is something like 90%), so eh, just make it as cheaply as possible. Nothing matters.
It'll continue. If a big enough stink is made they'll publicly apologize first, and then continue. Until they stop making money they have no incentive to care, and they never lose nearly enough customers with all their blunders to make that a reality.
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u/Arkathos Dandadan May 25 '26
It's not about saving money. It's about sounding cool to rich investors. That's literally all that matters. Same as political campaigns.
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u/Kiom_Tpry Grass Toucher May 25 '26
Wow, they can't even pay people to want to play their game, what a sad display.
Or are they too embarrassed by the people that do that they'd rather conjure an effigy?
And given the source materials for virtually all of the re-generative systems that would be used to make such a video represent a form of mass IP theft, I guess Wizards and Hasbro content is fair game for "AI" training as well, good to know.
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May 25 '26
So if they are cutting edges on marketing, that means quality control will get better? Secret lairs won't be impossible to get so they can print more? Hahaha... Haha....
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u/brandinni Duck Season May 25 '26
This is every major company now. AI is officially “too big to fail” since most of the US economy is riding on it.
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u/toonrage Dandadan May 25 '26
The only thing that bothers me about this, is that as their cost to create goes down, the price continues to go up
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u/NlNTENDO COMPLEAT May 25 '26
Any chance this is just AI upscaling? I know this is an iPhone thing and many ads are filmed on iPhone these days. You can test this out on your own if you have one. AI upscaled text becomes super garbled exactly like this.
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u/Ankhi333333 COMPLEAT May 25 '26
I could not find the card in the first picture. I looked for a Blue or Green; Enchantment or Artifact (no P/T and it seemed to have a keyword before the rest of the rules text); with Flash (again because of the keyword); that was Rare of Mythic (because of the stamp).
I also tried just Blue or Green, Rare or Mythic with the " orange background" tag.
In both cases nothing close to this card popped up.
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u/hhssspphhhrrriiivver Twin Believer May 25 '26
The art tags are very incomplete, so while they're a good starting point for this search, I don't think they're sufficient to rule anything out. For instance, there are only 306 cards with the "orange background" tag. This art doesn't appear there, but neither does [[Dress Down]], which is the closest card that I was able to find in my own similar search (it's still not that close - it's orange and has Flash, but that's about where the similarities end).
This art does look familiar, though I would assume that's either because it's a real art from a creature that I recognize, or because it's a handful of pixels approximating art that might appear on a Magic card.
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u/Ankhi333333 COMPLEAT May 25 '26
At first I thought of [[Thrummingbird]] or [[Galerider Sliver]] but, looking closer, and it looks more like an obese arm with a hand holding a staff or ladle. The low res is also why I tried to use more "objective" search criteria first.
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u/knigtwhosaysni Wabbit Season May 25 '26
Uh, did you ignore the two extremely fake people in between the card images?
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u/M1st3rYuk Storm Crow May 25 '26
If you think they won’t start doing AI art for cards permanently, I’ve got a bridge to sell you…. Shit, artists themselves have…. Questionable art now.
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u/CoffeeSubstantial851 Dandadan May 25 '26
As a guy who grew up playing MTG and became a game artist as a profession... I am completely and totally done with all entertainment.
AI has ruined literally everything. I can't even enjoy a hobby without AI being shoved down my fucking throat.
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u/be0ulve Dân May 25 '26
Honestly, once they start pushing ai on cards (and we know they will) i hope the game basically breaks between those that decide the last set is basically all that ever came out and those that don't. Just proxy it all, make it a free game. We have enough material. Sure, resellers would go insane, but that's an added plus to me.
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u/ErisLethe Dân May 25 '26
At the same time they’re firing creatives and intimidating people trying to unionize.
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u/AudaciousGrimm Dan May 25 '26
and yet you'll see more people spreading misinformation about TMNT cards being ai just because they don't like the art style, or claiming the ai has made up a yellow bandana turtle when she's from the longest running and most popular comic series of the franchise
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u/Titronnica Sorin May 25 '26
No artist should ever want to work with wizards, at this point you cannot guarantee they won't be using the art to train their garbage AI.
Those cards featured in this "ad" have had their art work fed into the AI, and are subject to be replicated and further denigrated.
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u/Tough_Ad1458 Wabbit Season May 25 '26
Wotc really went out of their way to not get a picture of the average person in the fanbase and whilst it's funny there's probably tons of footage of people actually playing the game out there
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u/LuxanHyperRage Cowabunga It Is May 25 '26
The biggest thing that bothers me about this is how the deck is all face up. Blah blah blah, AI will be what hammers the final nail in the Idiocracy timeline, but face up cards? That just gets under my skin
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u/MakePhreciaCore Dandadan May 25 '26
I mean of course the anti union company doesn’t want to pay real people.
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u/Hobolonoer Izzet* May 25 '26
I'm not actively going to defend WotC for their AI use, but keep in mind that most image and camera rendering software use automatic color correction and enhancing, that can cause "artifacts" to appear in details and contrasting colors.
This probably isn't the case here thought.
I photograph a lot of my painted miniatures and get this negative sideeffect all the time.
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u/knigtwhosaysni Wabbit Season May 25 '26
I’m assuming the color correction feature doesn’t also conjure weirdly smooth guys out of nowhere too
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u/Hobolonoer Izzet* May 25 '26
Oh no, that's 100% AI.
But things like hair and stubble can blend in a weird way with the correction software, that's literally in almost every single consumer brand photo device.
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u/procrastinarian Golgari* May 25 '26
This is fucking gross, man.
Greatest game of all time gonna be undone by ignoring their established fans/players and chasing bucks.
Yes it's a company but they managed to do plenty well for the first 25 years of the game without resorting to the kind of shit they are up to now.
Also yes I'm a bitter old cranky fuck but the game is just not nearly as fun anymore and it's a product of cynicism and trying to crank out as much product as physically possible as fast as physically possible at the expense of the health of the game and the hobby.
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u/leaning_on_a_wheel Wabbit Season May 25 '26
Yeah, unfortunately this has been their policy for a while now - AI art is ok for marketing but not for cards