For the most part, the MTG Avatar: The Last Airbender set has been a smash hit success. While it’s unlikely to be as successful as the Final Fantasy set, this release has still been heavily praised by fans. Not only are there tons of deep, flavorful cuts for series fans to enjoy, but the MTG cards themselves are seriously powerful.
Unfortunately, while there are tons about the set that can be celebrated, part of it is mired in controversy. Badgermole Cub, for instance, might be a little bit too strong and expensive for some formats. On top of this, one of the set’s Toph cards has been surrounded by AI art accusations.
Toph, Hardheaded Teacher
As an MTG card, Toph, Hardheaded Teacher is actually pretty great. For four mana, you get a very accessible Earthbending engine that’s incredibly easy to build around. Not only can you effortlessly Earthbend all of your lands, but this Toph can even bring back a spell when she enters.
The only real downside to this Toph, from a mechanical perspective, is her color identity. While it is on brand for the character, the lack of cantrips in Gruul colors makes exploiting her somewhat difficult. Thankfully, she can still work wonders in the 99 of other decks, but she’s not the most popular Avatar Commander for a reason.
On top of this reason, there seems to be a lot of stigma against Toph, Hardheaded Teacher. Due to the AI art allegations surrounding the card, there seem to be a lot of players who don’t want to be associated with it.
Across social media, many MTG players, artists, and content creators have been bashing this Toph card. Some have even created proxies of the card, while others have destroyed copies after opening it in packs. There have even been threats to eat copies of the card, should they be played.
AI by Proximity
From the moment it was revealed, Toph, Hardheaded Teacher was embroiled in controversy due to the card’s artist, Ruwen Liu. Thanks to being involved in AI-centric projects, many automatically assumed that Liu had created this piece using generative AI. Considering Wizards has rightfully found itself in hot water for using this in the past, players were seriously upset.
These complaints quickly manifested into scrutinizing every last detail about the art, claiming the discoveries as proof. While some of the oddities don’t look great, it turns out that this art isn’t AI at all. Despite Liu’s connection to AI-based projects, she proved on Twitter that this art is the real hand-drawn deal.
Responding to an accusation about this piece being AI, Liu outright stated, “I created this art without AI.” Following this, after being asked for additional proof, Liu showcased drafts from the design process, further proving authenticity. In theory, this should have cleared things up; however, it hasn’t stopped MTG players from being unhappy.
Broken Trust
Technically, this controversy never should have happened. After being caught using AI in marketing material repeatedly, Wizards has reaffirmed their art policy several times. Most recently, in 2024, Wizards stated that artists, writers, and creatives should “refrain” from using generative AI. Notably, this statement did leave some wiggle room, but there’s nonetheless a line in the sand that players should trust.
“We require artists, writers, and creatives contributing to the Magic TCG and the D&D TTRPG to refrain from using AI generative tools to create final Magic or D&D products.”
Wizards of the Coast
Thanks to the current AI-dominated climate, however, accusations of AI art are still thrown around all over the place. This happened recently to the Pizza Lands for the TMNT MTG set, when they were previewed, since players didn’t totally love them. These complaints got so bad, in fact, that artist Gaboleps had to make a post confirming the piece’s hand-drawn authenticity.
Unfortunately, even with Wizards’ current stance on AI art, it’s incredibly unlikely this is the last time this issue will arise. Accusations of AI art are thrown around constantly nowadays, especially when anything about a piece looks a tiny bit off. Sadly, proving or disproving these is rarely a simple process, so we can only trust that Wizards catches anything before it sees print.
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