MTG Survey Backlash: Wizards of the Coast Under Fire for “Blaming” Influencers for Spider-Man Set’s Poor Reception

The highly controversial Magic: The Gathering Universes Beyond collaboration with Marvel’s Spider-Man continues to generate drama, with Wizards of the Coast (WotC) recently issuing a community-wide survey that has intensified the backlash. The survey, intended to gather feedback on the set’s reception and disappointing sales, contains a specific line of questioning that has been widely interpreted by players and content creators as WotC attempting to find a scapegoat—specifically, by blaming negative influencer commentary for the set’s failure.

The Catch: A Loaded Question Targets Content Creators

The core of the controversy centers on a follow-up question presented to players who indicated they learned about the Spider-Man set from a content creator. This targeted question asks: “To what degree did negative influencer commentary impact your perceptions of Magic: The Gathering | Marvel’s Spider-Man before the set released?” The response options range from “Greatly worsened my perception” to “Greatly improved my perception.”

Here’s why this has caused an uproar:

• The Blame Game: The question is seen as highly accusatory. Rather than focusing solely on the set’s mechanics, art, or pricing (which were already major points of community criticism), it suggests that players’ negative opinions were not organically formed by the product itself but were instead manufactured or amplified by streamers and YouTubers.
• No Neutral Option: Critics point out the loaded nature of the question, which forces participants to place themselves somewhere on a spectrum of influence, without a clear, definitive “not influenced at all” or “my opinion was my own” neutral response.
• The “Witch Hunt”: Compounding the issue, the survey also asks participants to name the content creators they watch. Combined with the accusatory nature of the influence question, this has led some prominent figures in the MTG community, including Hall of Fame players, to worry that WotC is gathering data to potentially blacklist or retaliate against those who were critical of the set.

WotC’s Response and the Larger Context

Following the widespread condemnation on social media, a representative from Wizards of the Coast, Blake Rasmussen, acknowledged the flawed nature of the survey question, admitting that the unusual negative focus and wording “sucks” and was a mistake. They assured the community that the question was not maliciously intended to target or retaliate against the creator community.

However, the incident has fueled deeper community frustration over the Universes Beyond line, which uses external IP (like Marvel, Final Fantasy, and Lord of the Rings) for MTG sets. The Spider-Man set, in particular, was already facing numerous criticisms:

• Poor Design and Execution: Many felt the set was “rushed” and “uninspired,” with repetitive card concepts (multiple variations of Spider-Man) and a lackluster draft format.
• Price Point: The set was criticized for being priced higher due to the external IP, despite the perceived low quality of the cards and overall player value.
• Aesthetic Dissonance: The realistic, grounded New York City setting and character art were seen by a large segment of the community as clashing jarringly with Magic: The Gathering’s traditional high-fantasy aesthetic.

Ultimately, the survey’s phrasing is viewed by many as an attempt to deflect attention from internal design and market execution failures, instead laying the groundwork to shift the blame onto external voices. This has only compounded player trust issues at a time when trading card game (TCG) IP collaborations are a major, and commercially significant, market trend (a trend reflected in the consistently high CPC for keywords like ‘IP collaboration TCG’ and ‘Universes Beyond set’ in the gaming industry).