Wizards Of The Coast Cuts Funding To Gender Ideology Program For Magic: The Gathering Tournaments

The cracks in the woke agenda are starting to show in tabletop gaming as Wizards of the Coast has now cut funding to a DEI program in Magic: the Gathering.

Very few companies embraced wokeism as much as Wizards of the Coast. At the end of 2024 the company was more under scrutiny for their handling of the Dungeons & Dragons property in the latest edition, but Magic: The Gathering led the way for WotC in a lot of the woke agenda over the last few years.

It began with a simple removal of original cards from the game which included “Invoke Prejudice,” “Cleanse,” “Stone-Throwing Devils,” “Pradesh Gypsies,” “Jihad,” “Imprison,” and “Crusade,” as they wanted to make the game more politically correct. The media cheered this on as removing “racist cards” from the game in 2020, but since then, it’s only gotten worse.

As the game went on, WotC introduced “trans and non-binary representation” to the cards in the game. Alesha, Who Smiles At Death, was specifically a card adding a marquee transgender character to the game as the company decided to push mental illness on its players in a game about intense combat and destroying opposing summoners.

Magic: The Gathering even put up a piece of story fiction on the website reiterating the character is her with italics to make sure players knew this was virtue signaling about a man wearing women’s clothing somehow magically becoming a real woman.

Magic doubled down with the planeswalker Niko Aris, who has the look of a mentally ill leftist in addition to the transgender implication of the card.

The biggest controversy for Magic: The Gathering, however, came when the company decided to dip into other settings to produce cards. Wizards of the Coast obtained the license for Lord Of The Rings, and upon making a card set for the game involving Tolkien’s beloved characters, they decided to make changes.

On top of this, Magic: The Gathering pushed social agendas within their competitive scene as well. VML is a group that Wizards of the Coast funded to create diversity and inclusivity in the Magic: The Gathering tournament scene, which, much like Dungeons & Dragons, is mostly comprised of white males that the company wanted to change to nebulous modern audiences.

Now, according to an X post from VML, Wizards has cut their funding.

They said, “We are sad to announce that we have been told by Wizards that they will no longer support us with either funding or invites to competitive events. Without this support - esp. the invites - it is impossible for us to continue, and there will be no more VML seasons going forward.”

They also posted a letter that doubles down on their DEI agenda which states:

We are sad to announce that we have been told by Wizards that they will no longer support the VML program with either funding or invites to Organized Play events.

Without this support – especially the invites – it is impossible for the league to continue, and there will be no more VML seasons going forward.

Over the past five years, we’ve radically changed competitive Magic for the better. When we started the program with 26 players back in season 1, we never thought that we would end up having served hundreds of competitors with over a thousand people in our community. We have sent cohorts of people to the Set Championships, Regional Championships, and Pro Tour. As a result of our program, representation of people of marginalized genders at the highest levels of play has multiplied from a handful at each event to over twenty who will play at PT Chicago. Several of our team members and players have gone on to be hired to work at Wizards.

We are also proud of the change we’ve created in the broader sense. The Magic community is a much more diverse, vibrant, and inclusive place than it was five years ago. The gender balance at in-person events has improved significantly, and the overall image of the game has changed for the better. We don’t claim to have caused all of that, but we are happy knowing our efforts have played a part.

We want to thank all the organizations who have worked with us and supported the cause: Good Luck High Five, Lodestone Coffee, NRG, Team Arclight, MTG Melee, BOP!, and the many wonderful creators, personalities, and players who contributed.

To everyone who has been a part of the team here: you have all been brilliant and without your passion and dedication we would not have made it this far. Every single one of you has gone above and beyond, giving your time and effort generously to the program and you should be extremely proud of yourselves.

Finally, to our awesome community: we’re sorry that we couldn’t keep this project going. We know how much the VML has meant to you. Thank you so much to every single person who has competed, written articles, made graphs, cheered their friends, and otherwise been a part of this movement. The VML community will always be a safe space and home for you and anyone of marginalized gender in the game.

It appears WotC has seen that throwing funding at a handful of mentally ill people to show up at major events is not good for business and likely causes more people not to attend those events than it does the other way around.

This marks the first move as the DEI agenda in tabletop games shows how it doesn’t make money for companies, and in 2025, more rollbacks are expected as these companies are fast realizing they need to focus on fun, not wokeism.

What do you think of the Magic: The Gathering DEI program being cut? Leave a comment and let us know.

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