Shamans and druids may get axed from ‘Magic: The Gathering’

If you think the inclusion of shamans and druids in Magic: The Gathering is culturally insensitive, I have some good news for you. Maybe.

From Wargamer:

Magic: The Gathering is considering dropping the shaman and druid creature types, because of the terms’ significance as real-world religious identifiers, MTG head designer Mark Rosewater has revealed. This came up after Rosewater told his Tumblr audience that warlock was used instead of witch because the latter is a term used in religions today – by modern day Wicca groups.

So witches have already been removed from Magic: The Gathering and replaced with warlocks? A warlock is just a male witch. Although to be fair, there were male witches in Magic: The Gathering. 

It’s funny that Mark Rosewater, head designer for Magic: The Gathering, said this on Tumbler. There’s no better platform than Tumbler for communicating something this stupid.

I can’t imagine not wanting to offend shamans and druids by including them in a fantasy-based card game. If Wizards of the Coast, the company that produces Magic: The Gathering, removed witches from the game, then it’s almost a certainty shamans and druids will get a similar purge from the game.

What about Dungeons & Dragons? Wizards of the Coast owns both Magic: The Gathering and Dungeons & Dragons. It stands to reason that if including shamans and druids is inappropriate in one game, it would be inappropriate in all games owned by the same company.

Not that renaming witches to warlocks did anything. Not really. You could say warlocks don’t actually exist in the real world, but I would say the same thing about witches. They’re fictional characters.

When Magic: The Gathering removes shamans and druids from the game, what’s next, unicorns and dragons?