I recently opened a box of Khans of Tarkir with a friend, and I was shocked at the graphic artwork on some of the cards. I first raised an eyebrow at Death Frenzy, which shows a horse and its rider being torn to fleshy ribbons by crocodiles. But I was aghast when I opened a pack containing Deflecting Palm, which shows the bones of a person's hand being broken and tearing through their skin. No magic card I have ever seen -and I've been playing since Time Spiral- has close to that kind of gore. Why has wizards decided to include this unnecessary and sickening stuff on its cards? I've been planning for a long time to give away my magic cards to younger kids when I get too old for them, but I'm certainly not going to give away cards like this, or buy them for that matter.
Macabre Waltz has been around for a while. I don't think this is nothing new. It's a game that depicts fighting, battles, and war. Sometimes there is going to be a hint of violence. If you don't like it, get those cards altered.
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One of these day I have to get myself organizized.
I recently opened a box of Khans of Tarkir with a friend, and I was shocked at the graphic artwork on some of the cards. I first raised an eyebrow at Death Frenzy, which shows a horse and its rider being torn to fleshy ribbons by crocodiles. But I was aghast when I opened a pack containing Deflecting Palm, which shows the bones of a person's hand being broken and tearing through their skin. No magic card I have ever seen -and I've been playing since Time Spiral- has close to that kind of gore. Why has wizards decided to include this unnecessary and sickening stuff on its cards? I've been planning for a long time to give away my magic cards to younger kids when I get too old for them, but I'm certainly not going to give away cards like this, or buy them for that matter.
Don't worry, it's not an issue you'll ever run into. You never get too old for Magic.
It's a game that depicts fighting, battles, and war. Sometimes there is going to be a hint of violence.
If you consider seeing a person's broken knuckle-bones ripping through their skin to be "a hint of violence", I'm afraid to ask what you consider regular violence to be! This is clearly beyond some superhero action scene. It's also completely unnecessary. Lots of amazing games and movies have fighting, battles, and war, and handle these things discretely. You don't need to show broken bones and blood in order to make a Star Wars or Lord of the Rings.
It's a game that depicts fighting, battles, and war. Sometimes there is going to be a hint of violence.
If you consider seeing a person's broken knuckle-bones ripping through their skin to be "a hint of violence", I'm afraid to ask what you consider regular violence to be! This is clearly beyond some superhero action scene. It's also completely unnecessary. Lots of amazing games and movies have fighting, battles, and war, and handle these things discretely. You don't need to show broken bones and blood in order to make a Star Wars or Lord of the Rings.
In comics, Wolverine has been ripped in half by the Hulk and had his bones ripped out of his body by Magneto. Not to mention Game of Thrones and all of its awfulness. Magic has always been rather violent; there's an entire thread about the most gruesome of art. Remember that one with the dude's teeth being removed?
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One of these day I have to get myself organizized.
Im far from a violent person, my girlfriend keeps pointing out how she loves my sweetness and gentleness.
I even faint if I see a syringe extracting blood in front of me... (but I have no problem when its on screen)
I really am not that morbidly curious but if I sit down to watch some horror movie it is exclusively because of the blood and gore effects.
The key point here is the fact that it is fake.
But when magic card arts impress me with their goreness i usually quite enjoy it.
I really like the detail that is on tymaret, the murder king left hand.
And if there is anything cool about silumgar butcher it is the art... and the fact it is a zombie djinn
Keep in mind, this game is rated for 13+. Unfortunately with today's society, violence and the things that go with it are the norm. While I am not condoning/condemning the use of violence of any kind on the magic card arts, I find none of it offensive. Though I do understand if others want to keep these types of things away from children (teens in this instance) as I am a father. Though compared to some of the things I saw in other media (comics, movies, books, etc) growing up, the art is rather "tame". I use the quotes as this is a very relative term. I agree that the art for Deflecting Palm is a bit much, but I'm not against it. Art like this has existed for a while, look at some of the older cards that have rather disturbing art (Mutilate, anyone?). Also, keep in mind, not all the art is "gory" or "violence-based".
Being an artist myself, I do find beauty in the darkness of some of the pieces named here as being gory and such.
I love MTG, and I think the game has the best art out of any card game, but I do agree that some of the art is gruesome. Your best bet is to probably try to steer clear of those cards if you don't like them.
Magic has been macabre and disgusting since it's infancy. My brother burned my copy of Pestilence back in '94 because it was a) disgusting and b) "demonic" (according to him). So this isn't anything new, maybe Magic isn't the game for you? It doesn't have to be kind and apologetic--that's not what Magic set out to be. If you want something scaled back, try yugioh or something for a younger age group.
I don't know how to tag a specific set for my cards, but I meant the original art for Pestilence.
Magic has been macabre and disgusting since it's infancy. My brother burned my copy of Pestilence back in '94 because it was a) disgusting and b) "demonic" (according to him). So this isn't anything new, maybe Magic isn't the game for you? It doesn't have to be kind and apologetic--that's not what Magic set out to be. If you want something scaled back, try yugioh or something for a younger age group.
I don't know how to tag a specific set for my cards, but I meant the original art for Pestilence.
BS flag going up. I don't ever recall the game wanting to apologetic for its art either, but never was it 'f the rules have some dead guy's head being assaulted with genitalia' It's a fantasy game, with fantasy art, primarily aimed at young teens and adults. It is a violent game and it has to depict that with the art.
Yugioh is not aimed at a younger age group, they are both slated to the 13+ crowd for various reasons. The art in it has a vastly different direction. International releases of Yugioh have the art censored just as Magic has been censored internationally.
If you want to compare apples and oranges, sure. Keep going, you are doing great. Why not compare it to Lo5r?
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Wow. Much anger. Such rage. I bet you're fun at parties. (Also, I'm not entirely sure your point with the first paragraph since you ultimately come to the same conclusion as me.)
My point: Magic has always been edgy with its art. If you play a game that could offend you, don't be surprised when it does offend you. Maybe you could choose a safer game that you will feel okay passing on to your kids. Star Wars? Dragonball Z? SORRY IF I'M COMPARING APPLES TO ORANGES, BUT IMMA KEEP GOING CUZ I'M DOING GREAT!
I understand that there is some amount of excessive violence in Magic art that might make you uncomfortable. In a similar vein, their inclusion of religious characters such as angels and demons are highly controversial as well. A great portion of the appeal behind the Magic story is that it is not limited by the propriety of it's content for small children.
I deal with accusations of Magic being a children's game often enough that I can point to the art as an example of the ignorance of that statement. The end state of the matter is that there are things in all forms of media that are controversial and perhaps excessive. My parents had an argument over whether or not I could watch the Return of the Jedi movie when I was younger because of the sexually-charged slave leia outfit. The outfit contributed very little to the story, and likely could have been a slave sweater or some such appropriate and moderate clothing.
Unfortunately, if the movie was redone by Disney and her outfit was changed, there would be public outcry. The point is that if you're looking for it, you can find inappropriate content in nearly every form of media. The onus lies with the individual to decide what is appropriate for them and their children.
I was not allowed to watch Anastasia as a child due to demonic overtones, and I couldn't watch the Gargoyles cartoon because "the bad guys always win" in that show. It's absolutely your right not to like the art in Magic, but I'm certain that if you changed it to nonviolent, peaceful, or mild artistic tropes you would experience some form of pushback from the playerbase.
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"The trick to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources." -Albert Einstein
*1993 Pre-Ice Age, Magic cards were all over the place with weird hand-painted art like Amnesia and demons! Cool demons here and there.
*1995 Ice Age arrives and Magic removes all Demons as it becomes mainstream. All demons after Ice Age are "Horrors"
*2003 The first real demon to return to art was 2003's Grinning Demon. The reason the demon was grinning is because WotC wanted to test the waters and see if the audience is ready to accept demons and if it wasn't well then at least this Demon is a "happy" demon and not a cruel "evil" demon.
*2004-Present Magic art has been pushing the envelope ever since. Showing demons, devils, hell, gore, blood, etc.
Yes it does. I refer you to: *2004-Present Magic art has been pushing the envelope ever since. Showing demons, devils, hell, gore, blood, etc.
Grinning Demon is the key to all the art in Magic. Grinning Demon paved the way for art to be pushed to the extreme.
Had Grinning Demon not been well received or stirred controversy, the most gory art today would barely be able to top Torment's non gory Mutilate. Where zero mutilation actually takes place and instead we have weird deformed rejects for Mr. Fantastic. Call for Blood wouldn't exist if it wasn't for Grinning Demon. Each set after Onslaught slowly raised to the bar to what we have today. And it all started with a menacing grin and beautiful teeth.
PS: Earthbind I wonder if bondage would ever make a comeback in MTG
I refer you to the cards I linked in an earlier post. I cannot expose my nephew to mpst of thisbgame when a large swath of decent cards have such art.
So the recommended age of 13 is due to art and not to complexity issues. How fun. A shame we can't have a cool game depicting wizards dueling without people being dismembered.
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There is a difference between shielding from the truth and traumatizing with fiction.
You can't truly explain all the motivations to a mass murder or a raping. But you certainly can when someone depicts it in the art,"because its what the fans want, because we can"
If he sees that on tv, then you can sit down and have a talk about it and let him grow from it. Both an understanding and knowledge that awful things are real. But the news doesn't show decapitations or people being burned alive.
There is a huge difference there as well. How many times have you seen a person have a hole burned/punched/impaled/"exploded" through their body on tv? That depiction happens very often. Yes its fantasy but it can lead to nightmares when the imagination is left not to wonder hat it looks like, but the implications of Dreadbore.
Star wars had impalements with the light saber that killed without any real chance of survival, but there was very little gory/blood on the whole. It was never treated as a throwaway gag, it always meant something to the story or the character's growth, especially Luke/Anakin's hands and Jango Fett's head. When it was appearing to be cool for coolness sake it wasn't dwadled about. Dooku/Maul in particular. Done in and over with quickly. And the characters had shown some want for not doing it in a manner of emotion/speech.
This is where the eye rolling action goes.
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Magic is full of nasty art, but I don't see it as a recent trend. Scars/Innistrad must have been one of the most unpleasant Standards to look at!
That being said, I can't really speak about Magic's early days as I wasn't playing then. That being said, back in 1999 when I was still a kid I was playing the Pokemon card game and randomly ended up looking in the Magic commons bin ... which could have gotten me into the game, were it not for Enfeeblement, which really bothered me. It wasn't gory per se, but it sort of made me realize Magic wasn't for me. ( At least it wasn't until thirteenish years later! )
Don't worry, it's not an issue you'll ever run into. You never get too old for Magic.
If you consider seeing a person's broken knuckle-bones ripping through their skin to be "a hint of violence", I'm afraid to ask what you consider regular violence to be! This is clearly beyond some superhero action scene. It's also completely unnecessary. Lots of amazing games and movies have fighting, battles, and war, and handle these things discretely. You don't need to show broken bones and blood in order to make a Star Wars or Lord of the Rings.
In comics, Wolverine has been ripped in half by the Hulk and had his bones ripped out of his body by Magneto. Not to mention Game of Thrones and all of its awfulness. Magic has always been rather violent; there's an entire thread about the most gruesome of art. Remember that one with the dude's teeth being removed?
I even faint if I see a syringe extracting blood in front of me... (but I have no problem when its on screen)
I really am not that morbidly curious but if I sit down to watch some horror movie it is exclusively because of the blood and gore effects.
The key point here is the fact that it is fake.
But when magic card arts impress me with their goreness i usually quite enjoy it.
I really like the detail that is on tymaret, the murder king left hand.
And if there is anything cool about silumgar butcher it is the art... and the fact it is a zombie djinn
Being an artist myself, I do find beauty in the darkness of some of the pieces named here as being gory and such.
URGEDH Biovisionary.dec BShirei WBSelenia
The brain is the muscle that pumps stupid through the body
:|
Also, I never noticed Deflecting Palm's art that way.
Dreadbore Victim of night
And Olivia Voldaren's third leg too!
Selling some cards I don't want.
Generally less than tcg mid.
I don't know how to tag a specific set for my cards, but I meant the original art for Pestilence.
BS flag going up. I don't ever recall the game wanting to apologetic for its art either, but never was it 'f the rules have some dead guy's head being assaulted with genitalia' It's a fantasy game, with fantasy art, primarily aimed at young teens and adults. It is a violent game and it has to depict that with the art.
Yugioh is not aimed at a younger age group, they are both slated to the 13+ crowd for various reasons. The art in it has a vastly different direction. International releases of Yugioh have the art censored just as Magic has been censored internationally.
If you want to compare apples and oranges, sure. Keep going, you are doing great. Why not compare it to Lo5r?
Selling some cards I don't want.
Generally less than tcg mid.
My point: Magic has always been edgy with its art. If you play a game that could offend you, don't be surprised when it does offend you. Maybe you could choose a safer game that you will feel okay passing on to your kids. Star Wars? Dragonball Z? SORRY IF I'M COMPARING APPLES TO ORANGES, BUT IMMA KEEP GOING CUZ I'M DOING GREAT!
Offended /= uncomfortable.
Selling some cards I don't want.
Generally less than tcg mid.
I deal with accusations of Magic being a children's game often enough that I can point to the art as an example of the ignorance of that statement. The end state of the matter is that there are things in all forms of media that are controversial and perhaps excessive. My parents had an argument over whether or not I could watch the Return of the Jedi movie when I was younger because of the sexually-charged slave leia outfit. The outfit contributed very little to the story, and likely could have been a slave sweater or some such appropriate and moderate clothing.
Unfortunately, if the movie was redone by Disney and her outfit was changed, there would be public outcry. The point is that if you're looking for it, you can find inappropriate content in nearly every form of media. The onus lies with the individual to decide what is appropriate for them and their children.
I was not allowed to watch Anastasia as a child due to demonic overtones, and I couldn't watch the Gargoyles cartoon because "the bad guys always win" in that show. It's absolutely your right not to like the art in Magic, but I'm certain that if you changed it to nonviolent, peaceful, or mild artistic tropes you would experience some form of pushback from the playerbase.
*1995 Ice Age arrives and Magic removes all Demons as it becomes mainstream. All demons after Ice Age are "Horrors"
*2003 The first real demon to return to art was 2003's Grinning Demon. The reason the demon was grinning is because WotC wanted to test the waters and see if the audience is ready to accept demons and if it wasn't well then at least this Demon is a "happy" demon and not a cruel "evil" demon.
*2004-Present Magic art has been pushing the envelope ever since. Showing demons, devils, hell, gore, blood, etc.
Bruna, Light of Alabaster - Voltron Control
The Mimeoplasm - Reanimation Combo
Glissa, The Traitor - The Glory of Phyrexia
Selling some cards I don't want.
Generally less than tcg mid.
Yes it does. I refer you to: *2004-Present Magic art has been pushing the envelope ever since. Showing demons, devils, hell, gore, blood, etc.
Grinning Demon is the key to all the art in Magic. Grinning Demon paved the way for art to be pushed to the extreme.
Had Grinning Demon not been well received or stirred controversy, the most gory art today would barely be able to top Torment's non gory Mutilate. Where zero mutilation actually takes place and instead we have weird deformed rejects for Mr. Fantastic. Call for Blood wouldn't exist if it wasn't for Grinning Demon. Each set after Onslaught slowly raised to the bar to what we have today. And it all started with a menacing grin and beautiful teeth.
PS: Earthbind I wonder if bondage would ever make a comeback in MTG
Bruna, Light of Alabaster - Voltron Control
The Mimeoplasm - Reanimation Combo
Glissa, The Traitor - The Glory of Phyrexia
I refer you to the cards I linked in an earlier post. I cannot expose my nephew to mpst of thisbgame when a large swath of decent cards have such art.
So the recommended age of 13 is due to art and not to complexity issues. How fun. A shame we can't have a cool game depicting wizards dueling without people being dismembered.
Selling some cards I don't want.
Generally less than tcg mid.
Bruna, Light of Alabaster - Voltron Control
The Mimeoplasm - Reanimation Combo
Glissa, The Traitor - The Glory of Phyrexia
You can't truly explain all the motivations to a mass murder or a raping. But you certainly can when someone depicts it in the art,"because its what the fans want, because we can"
If he sees that on tv, then you can sit down and have a talk about it and let him grow from it. Both an understanding and knowledge that awful things are real. But the news doesn't show decapitations or people being burned alive.
There is a huge difference there as well. How many times have you seen a person have a hole burned/punched/impaled/"exploded" through their body on tv? That depiction happens very often. Yes its fantasy but it can lead to nightmares when the imagination is left not to wonder hat it looks like, but the implications of Dreadbore.
Star wars had impalements with the light saber that killed without any real chance of survival, but there was very little gory/blood on the whole. It was never treated as a throwaway gag, it always meant something to the story or the character's growth, especially Luke/Anakin's hands and Jango Fett's head. When it was appearing to be cool for coolness sake it wasn't dwadled about. Dooku/Maul in particular. Done in and over with quickly. And the characters had shown some want for not doing it in a manner of emotion/speech.
This is where the eye rolling action goes.
Selling some cards I don't want.
Generally less than tcg mid.
Magic is full of nasty art, but I don't see it as a recent trend. Scars/Innistrad must have been one of the most unpleasant Standards to look at!
That being said, I can't really speak about Magic's early days as I wasn't playing then. That being said, back in 1999 when I was still a kid I was playing the Pokemon card game and randomly ended up looking in the Magic commons bin ... which could have gotten me into the game, were it not for Enfeeblement, which really bothered me. It wasn't gory per se, but it sort of made me realize Magic wasn't for me. ( At least it wasn't until thirteenish years later! )
UTeferi, Temporal ArchmageU's prison: blue is the new orange is the new black.
Mizzix Of The Izmagnus : wheels on fire... rolling down the road...
BSidisi, Undead VizierB: Bis zum Erbrechen
GTitiania, Protector Of ArgothG: Protecting Argoth, by blowing it up!
GYisan, The Wanderer BardG: Gradus Ad Elfball.
Duel EDH: Yisan & Titania.
In Progress: Grand Arbiter Augustin IV duel; Grenzo, Dungeon Warden Doomsday.