Normally this would be my work week, but I decided to spend some PTO to get an extra-long vacation for myself as a small gift. Which is why I'll be able to attend the FFTCG LCQ on Sunday, and is giving me the chance to hit a few more TCG Nights than normal!
But, before I get into tonight's night of Magic, I do want to talk about something.
For just a little more than a month now, members of the development team for Magic: the Gathering Arena, the digital game client, have been working to unionize. Wizards of the Coast, or perhaps higher-ups from Hasbro, have been fighting against those efforts tooth and nail. Disgustingly, part of these efforts have included openly deadnaming trans members of said development team.
And in fact, they doubled down, doing so again earlier this week after what was evidently a mealymouthed apology, deadnaming all of these trans employees again by refusing to update forms in advance of the union vote on Tuesday. Tuesday, if you don't have your calendar handy, was June 2nd. The second day of Pride Month.
I'm cisgender. I cannot, will not claim to understand the full breadth of the bullshit and bigotry that transgender individuals experience in their day-to-day, let alone this experience, being forced to identify with your deadname, an identity that does not align with who you are as a person, all in the name of fighting for basic work protections.
Frankly, fuck Wizards of the Coast, and fuck Hasbro.
And for added insult, today, the 5th, is the first day for "Magic: the Gathering Presents Pride" events. A paltry three days after deadnaming all of their trans employees for the second time in as many weeks. But sure, let's celebrate "Gruulfriends" with a pretty Gilded Lotus that has Nissa and Chandra in the art.
Again: Fuck Wizards of the Coast, and fuck Hasbro.
Now, I said I was going to talk about that before I "get into tonight's night of Magic"... But honestly, I don't feel like it. Not in any great detail, not after thinking about all of this.
The most detail I'll get into is this: Tonight was my shop's "Magic Presents Pride" event. I played a lot of games tonight. A few with a pod of 3, a few with a pod of 4.
Most of them, I played my new Winota deck. The last, I played my Ashling. But when the shop employee was shouting out about how tonight was celebrating Pride and handing out promotional packs and pins, in the back of my mind, I just thought again about everything I lined out above.
It soured my mood a fair bit. I had already been considering not even going out tonight after thinking my way through all of this and putting all of my thoughts to proverbial paper. But I made the call to go out and play. I do enjoy the game in spite of the bullshit that WotC continually engages in. The union organizers, as far as I've seen, haven't called for any sort of boycott.
But after the way I felt my mood drop, I'm going to be rethinking my relationship with Magic for the foreseeable future. Until WotC decides to be better, at least. We'll see. I have the choice made for me easily for the next couple of weeks, since I won't be able to do Commander Night due to previous obligations.
But we'll see how things go when I'm not being given such an easy layup.
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