WotC could ‘retire’ certain MTG creature types for religious reasons

Magic: The Gathering publisher Wizards of the Coast may be moving away from printing cards with certain creature types in the future following comments from MTG’s lead designer, with a number of types set to be canned due to their connections with real-life religious references.

MTG lead designer Mark Rosewater indicated that Shamans and Druids are among the creature types that may disappear in blog posts responding to commenters late last week. The discussion was sparked when a user asked why Witch wasn’t a creature type, with Rosewater replying that, as it’s a “real world religious identifier,” it was avoided.

Another asked that, if Witch was excluded, how did Shaman and Druid—also references to somewhat similar real-life religious beings—manage to make the cut? Rosewater simply replied, “We are currently examining that exact topic.”

Rosewater went on to say that, while Druid was “far less of an issue” than Shaman, the whole concept revolved around players using the vocabulary as game terms incorrectly, in a way where “it takes meaning beyond just identifying a particular card.”

The possible axing of these creature types comes following Rosewater revealing in June the MTG design team uses “typal” instead of the historical “tribal” term.

Druids have been a long-standing creature type in MTG dating back almost to the game’s inception, with almost 300 MTG cards printed over the years featuring the term, according to MTG database Scryfall. Druids also feature heavily in a variety of other gaming media, from Dungeons and Dragons to Baldur’s Gate 3, as well as a class option in many fantasy RPGs both online and in-person.

Shaman has appeared nearly twice as often as Druid, and while Witch isn’t a creature type, over 70 cards have been printed that mention witches in some shape or form.

It appears, like in the case of June’s decision to scrap the term “tribal” internally, consultants may have deemed the terms culturally sensitive. We’ll see come MTG’s next standard set The Lost Caverns of Ixalan, releasing in November, whether WotC opts to phase out these types.