MTG head designer Mark Rosewater has some strong feelings about Buffy the Vampire Slayer, it seems. In a blog post from March 4, he lists Buffy Summers as one of many green human characters found in popular culture. This sparked some debate among the Magic: The Gathering fanbase, but Rosewater is holding firm: Buffy MTG cards would be green, end of. We don’t entirely agree the our hypothetical MTG Buffy set we designed ourselves, but we’re not in charge of designing the game.
The first challenge to Rosewater’s decree came from Tumblr user Clatterslikeworry. “I know you’ve thought more about the colour pie than literally any other person and so it’s foolish to argue with you about it, but Buffy seems pretty red to me”, they say. “She’s impulsive, has little regard for rules and is heavily influenced by her emotional attachments to her friends and romantic interests.”
“I guess fulfilling your destiny is pretty green but that’s really the central conflict of the series and she probably spends more time overall not doing that than doing it”, they add. “Can we settle for RG?”
Rosewater is apparently not prepared to settle. “She has some red in her, but her core colour is green”, he replies. “She was born into her role killing black creatures, fulfilling an ancient destiny. She has increased strength and instincts. Yes, much of the series has her rebelling against this, but fundamentally in the end, she accepts her role.”
Next, Tumblr user Reginakasteen tries to come for the king. “How is she green?”, they ask. “Half her motivation is to protect her family and loved ones, and the other half is to do what’s right regardless of the situation – it’s hard to think of someone more clearly in tune with white.”
Rosewater expands the MTG colors of the Buffyverse in his counterargument. “The Watcher’s Council is white”, he says. “It’s the one motivated by the greater good and with strict rules to ensure that vampires are properly dealt with. Buffy has huge issues with the Watchers Council because she doesn’t like their rules (or having to follow rules in general).”
“If you want to attribute her loyalty to her friends, that plays out in a much more red way”, he adds. “And ‘doing what’s right’ was never her core motivation.
You can weigh in on the great Buffy debate on Rosewater’s blog.
After this passionate defence of Buffy, we’re hoping to see her get a Universes Beyond set in the distant future. After all, it’s one of the best horror series (and maybe one of the best TV series) of all time.
For now, though, we’ll have to be content with the slew of new releases approaching in the MTG 2023 release schedule. And if the Buffy set never happens, we’ll have to dry our tears with all these MTG Arena codes and MTG Arena decks Wizards left lying around.
Source: Wargamer
