Since the game’s inception, Legendary creatures have been a staple of MTG. Nowadays, thanks to Commander, every set is loaded with Legendary creatures, even as Wizards has scaled back slightly. These cards aren’t just the cornerstone of a format but also ground Magic’s multiversal story.
Despite the near-unparalleled importance of these cards, Legendary creatures haven’t always been Legendary creatures in MTG. For their 1994 debut in Legends, these cards were aptly known as Legends, which fit with the summoning language. For Portal Three Kingdoms in 1999, however, Wizards changed the terminology, then again in 2004’s Champions of Kamigawa. The type “Legendary Creature” type line has stuck since then.
It’s been 25 long years since Portal Three Kingdoms and 19 since Champions of Kamigawa were released and changed Magic’s language for the better. Looking ahead, however, it seems this change may not stick forever. According to Magic’s Lead Designer, Mark Rosewater, there are ongoing discussions around replacing the Legendary type. It seems it may only be a matter of time before another major errata rocks the MTG world.
The Last Legendaries
Considering the “Legendary Creature” type line has worked just fine in MTG for over 19 years, this potential change may seem unexpected. Thankfully, the fantastically flavorful Duskmourn: House of Horror, has stressed how it may actually be causing problems. Just look at Valgavoth, Terror Eater for an example of why the current system is less than perfect.
Considering they’re the main antagonist of Duskmourn, and potentially a huge threat in MTG’s future, Elder Demon is definitely fitting. There is one important type missing here, however. Valgavoth is very Moth coded, which means they should have the Insect type too… right? Given Wizards’ recent propensity toward unique creature types, this seems like a no-brainer.
Even Mark Rosewater seems to think this is the case. Speaking on Blogatog, Rosewater stated that “‘Legendary Creature – Elder Demon Insect’ didn’t fit on the type line.” Due to this, Wizards has to make a choice between Elder and Insect, in which Elder won out. In an ideal world, Wizards shouldn’t have been forced to make this choice, giving the set a slightly heightened flavor.
Valgavoth, Terror Eater isn’t the only example of this happening in Duskmourn: House of Horror. Norin, Swift Survivalist was forced to drop their title as a Warrior due to space constraints. Admittedly, in this instance, the Coward type is definitely more fitting, however, it does make Norin objectively worse.
In both these cases, removing or shortening the “Legendary” type would have freed up the missing space. Thanks to this, it seems to be no wonder that Wizards has been considering making a change. According to Mark Rosewater, Wizards has been actively talking about replacements for the word “Legendary” from MTG.
“We have talked about replacements for the word ‘Legendary’ including shortened versions of it, but we haven’t opted to do any of them (yet).”
Mark Rosewater
Gone But Not Forgotten
In Rosewater’s statement, there are no concrete details about what Wizards may be considering. Shortening “Legendary” is obviously one possibility, but it’s unclear how much can be done there. Going back to “Legend” is only three characters shorter, which is hardly the most dramatic change.
Theoretically, a complete replacement to Legendary could be significantly shorter, but it would still have to make sense. Just putting “L” on a bunch of cards would probably cause more problems than it’s worth. Maybe “Icon” could be a decent middle ground, but even that is a huge change that may not go smoothly.
Personally, one of the most viable alternatives is to remove “Legendary” altogether. While it could still be found in Oracle text if needed, it’s essentially superfluous nowadays thanks to modern card design. Since Dominaria in 2018, the Legendary card frame has been the quickest visual identifier of whether or not a card is Legendary.
In theory, this hypothetical massive change may catch many new MTG players off guard. That being said, this change wouldn’t be the first time that Legendary cards didn’t have Legendary on them. Prior to Ixalan in 2017, Planeswalkers didn’t say “Legendary Planeswalker” but they still followed a variant of the legend rule.
Admittedly, the old “Planeswalker uniqueness rule” was worse than the current system, especially from a gameplay point of view. Nevertheless, it demonstrated that players can handle unwritten rules and hidden information. If anything, MTG players have come to delight in the lack of information on a card.
Throughout recent years, Wizards has made plenty of textless and nigh-unreadable MTG cards. Whether they be promos or Secret Lairs, players tend to love these unique variants. The fact they don’t cause daily problems shows players can handle this kind of complexity.
Legen—Wait for It—Dary
Ultimately, we’re just going to wait and see what happens in the future. While Wizards of the Coast has been talking about this problem, there’s no guarantee anything will be done. Even if something does happen, it could take literal years to work its way through the development pipeline.
Given that MTG Foundations is on the horizon, it’s incredibly unlikely that any change will happen soon. While it might make sense to onboard players with a major errata, it could equally confuse new players. Considering MTG Foundations is all about onboarding new players, it’s probably in Wizards’ best interests to hold off for now.
At the end of the day, it seems it’s only going to be a matter of time before something changes. If Wizards keep up with their desire for more unique creature types, something will have to give eventually. From the looks of things, Legendary is very close to breaking, albeit in name only.
Whatever happens, the function of Legendary creatures and the Commander format is unlikely to change.
Read More: New Duskmourn: House of Horror Spoiler Is a Literal Slasher Villain
