Magic: The Gathering maker Wizards of the Coast has announced it will take steps to pull a card from the trading card game’s upcoming Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths set to avoid any negative association with the ongoing COVID-19 crisis.
The upcoming expansion, which is due to release on April 16th, features a creature card named Spacegodzilla, Death Corona. The name references Spacegodzilla’s Corona Beam attack, first coined following his appearance in the 1994 movie Godzilla vs. Spacegodzilla.
Wizards of the Coast said on there blog, that although the Ikoria set was finalized “months ago”, the escalating worldwide coronavirus pandemic meant that
“the word ‘corona’ has taken on a new meaning”.
Ikoria’s first print run couldn’t be corrected in time – meaning that Spacegodzilla, Death Corona will appear in the initial batch of the physical set – Wizards of the Coast said that it would be “taking steps to remove or change the card where possible”.
This will also include on Magic: The Gathering Arena and Magic Online, the digital board game versions of the collectible card game available on PC. In Magic: The Gathering Arena, the card will be renamed Spacegodzilla, Void Invader, while Magic Online will remove the card completely.
Wizards of the Coast confirmed that future reprints of Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths would similarly remove the card. Void Beckoner, the creature card on which Spacegodzilla is based, would not be affected by the steps to pull the card.
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