Since April of this year, the MTG Arena team has attempted to Unionize to protect their jobs, time, and fight for fair compensation. After months of fighting, including Hasbro hiring a notorious union-busting firm, United Wizards of the Coast officially became a union on June 23rd, 2026.
Now, both Magic: The Gathering’s Studio X and the Dungeons & Dragons team has announced their intent to join the United Wizards of the Coast union started by the MTG Arena team, and they need your help.
Studio X Announces Unionization
Today, Wizards of the Coast’s Studio X has announced their intent to join the MTG Arena team in the United Wizards of the Coast union. In their letter to Wizards of the Coast, as the studio primarily responsible for back-to-back billion-dollar years for Wizards of the Coast, Studio X is fighting for appropriate compensation, job security, and much, much more.
One particularly alarming ask in Studio X’s letter is for full ownership over of what employees create outside of work. According to the petition for this union, any intellectual property created by employees can be claimed by Wizards of the Coast during their tenure there, regardless of whether or not its related to Magic. This is, frankly, absolutely disgusting and needs to stop.
As a quick recap, Studio X is the group of employees at Wizards of the Coast who are responsible for creating the cards that Magic: The Gathering players have come to know and love. What many players know as Magic R&D is just a smaller part of this group, while Studio X encompasses everything that goes into making an MTG card. Without them, Magic: The Gathering would not exist.
Considering that the union for MTG Arena’s team has already been made official, Studio X’s intent to join the union has a very strong chance of going through. Whether Wizards of the Coast will try to oppose the union or not is currently known, but it won’t be long before we find out. With the letter requesting Wizards to recognize Studio X’s unionization by 5 PM PT on October 13th, 2026, we may be celebrating a union for Studio X in just one week’s time.
If you want to support Studio X joining United Wizards of the Coast, please sign the petition, which just takes a few seconds. As United Wizards of the Coast states in their official Reddit post, the key for MTG Arena’s unionization’s success was the massive amount of support they received. As such, taking a few moments out of your day to support Wizards of the Coast’s workers can help support the game we all love for the years to come.
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