It’s pride month! MTG has traditionally been majorly supportive of the Pride movement, creating full Secret Lairs and promos to support various projects. While this Pride month also offers an event for players who want to celebrate, not everyone who may want to celebrate will get the chance to do so. Combine that with some disappointing ‘promos,’ and some players are upset that this Pride month event isn’t better.
Magic Presents: Pride
If you want to celebrate Pride through MTG, some players will have the chance to do so. A Pride event is being held in North America only between June 28 and June 30. Sadly, if you’re outside of Canada and the United States, you’re out of luck.
The Commander Pride event itself seems fun enough. Players can play any two Commanders as though they have Partner. This allows players to try wacky Commander combinations that they could only dream of. The article about the promo from Wizards of the Coast suggests exploring some cannon couples as Commanders, for extra romantic flavor.
Should partnering Huatli, Poet of Unity and Saheeli, the Sun’s Brilliance not be your style, there are myriad other options. Rather inclusively, there are literally no limits on the Commanders you can Partner up during the event’s short timespan. Whether you’re looking for combos, flavor, fun, or all-out power, this event will let you get away with it all.
Beyond just getting to have a good time, there’s also a promo up for grabs during this event. Participants in any Commander Pride event should receive the Chandra and Embercat Rainbow holographic art print while supplies last. To be extra clear, this is not a Magic card but just a foil print.
Is This Even a Promo?
While the art on this print is a welcome addition to the event’s unique twist on Commander, not everyone is happy. On Reddit, some players express concerns regarding the lack of a traditional game piece as a promotional item for a paid promotional event. Even simple LGS-related incentives have offered promotional cards with unique treatments to award and encourage participation.
Whether you’re offering a retro-frame reprint of Ravenous Chupacabra or an alternate art Sarkhan Unbroken, players enjoy promos. Knowing this, promo cards are almost seen as standard whether you’re going to a local prerelease event or a MagicCon. This makes the absence of one for the Magic Presents: Pride event utterly baffling.
Considering Wizards of the Coast already has the artwork, the promo could easily be made into a reprint with little extra work. Regardless of which Chandra was reprinted, a physical card would be infinitely more playable than an art print while being equally collectible. This begs the question, why didn’t Wizards of the Coast make this promo an actual MTG card?
Sadly, we’re likely never going to get an answer to this burning question. Perhaps Wizards just felt art would be nice for a change, and limited-time limited-availability promos could cause problems. Whatever the reason, MTG players are nonetheless upset about the lack of additional incentive offered by this otherwise interesting event.
“Might be controversial, but I’m really not into this. I wish we had gotten an actual promo for this event, maybe it’s just the art style I’m not vibing with. For a paid event though this really just doesn’t feel like it works for me.”
Stuckin2nd
A Missing Pride Secret Lair?
While the promo for Magic’s Pride celebrations in 2024 may be rather lackluster right now, they may improve soon. In previous years, Wizards of the Coast has created Secret Lair drops to celebrate Pride in a major way. Sadly, no such Secret Lair drop has materialized in 2024 just yet, but we haven’t given up all hope.
Currently, the contents of the Secret Lair Summer Superdrop 2024 are steaily being revealed. So far, a Pride-themed Secret Lair drop has not been announced as part of this Superdrop. Considering the Summer Superdrop 2024 launches on June 24th, it may be too late for a truly relevant release.
Despite not seeing anything yet, we’re still hopeful there will be a Pride-themed Secret Lair drop. After all, not only have past Pride drops created some fantastic art, but these products can do good too. That being said, following a WeeklyMTG livestream with no announcements, our hope is fading fast.
“While I wish they would do another Secret Lair like they did the other year, this is a very cute image and I like it.”
ChampBlankman
Should nothing be announced in the coming week, 2024’s Pride celebrations will look downright dire in comparison to previous years. Back in 2022, the Pride Across the Multiverse set the gold standard for a charity Secret Lair drop. Not only were 50% of the SLD’s proceeds donated to The Trevor Project, but Wizards collaborated with multiple LGBTQIA2S+ artists too.
Sadly, as time goes on it seems less and less likely that we’re going to get a surprise repeat of 2022’s spectacular offering. Instead, all players can do to support The Trevor Project indirectly is purchase merchandise. Available via MTG Pro Shop, the Pride-themed merch on offer does support The Trevor Project with a good chunk of the proceeds, which is nice.
Ultimately, we can only hope that we’re in for a nice surprise before June 24th.
More Accessibility
As if MTG’s Pride celebrations in 2024 didn’t already have enough problems, there’s another fatal flaw plaguing players worldwide. For whatever reason, the Magic Presents: Pride Commander events are only available in North America. This obviously leaves a huge number of potential players left out for seemingly no reason.
Unsurprisingly, many MTG players online have been quick to criticize Wizards for this decision. Pointing fingers, many have accused Hasbro and Wizards of chasing the almighty dollar while mitigating any potential controversy. While possible, this theory ultimately feels rather unlikely, as there are many regions where Pride is actively supported that this event excludes.
Outside of what’s possible on paper, it’s disappointing that MTG doesn’t offer any Pride events digitally. Even if MTG Arena can’t support a Pride-themed Partner event right now, anything would be better than nothing. Even a sleeve featuring the new Pride artwork in the MTG Arena store would be appreciated at this point.
Sadly, it seems that for 2024, we’re getting very little when it comes to Pride celebrations. Hopefully, we will be surprised before the end of the month, but there’s sadly no guarantee of that. At the end of the day, we may just be left wanting until 2025 and hoping for more in the future. Whether or not that will happen, however, remains to be seen.
