AI Arena Commercial Accidentally Generates Perfect Format-Fixing Card
Redmond, WA – Using a new in-house generative AI program trained on internal assets, Wizards of the Coast today released a new commercial for their Magic: The Gathering Arena product.
Keen-eyed viewers of the commercial noticed that the commercial generated a non-existent Magic card that, if printed, would help alleviate a lot of current issues with the Standard format.
In the video, almost entirely tinged with a weird shade of orange, two gamers are playing a game of Magic with cards hard to discern due to the issues inherent in generative AI video. However, one card does become visible at the :34 second mark, played by a competitor with a coquetish grin that quickly melts into his chin for a few frames.
Named “Flingle Stone” (though the letters change multiple times through the video), the card text states it’s an artifact for 3 mana with “Whenever one or more other nontoken permanents with a name originally printed in a Universes Beyond expansion are on the battlefield, their controllers sacrifice them. Players can’t cast spells or play lands with a name originally printed in a Universes Beyond expansion.”
The card, an updated version of long-forgotten “set hoser” City in a Bottle, was taken out of the commercial that was quickly re-uploaded after the issue was discovered.
“We apologize for the content of our last video,” explained WOTC representative Trent Darby in a message sent only to shareholders shortly after the video was released. “In no way shape or form do we condone any Magic cards that remove, ban, or disrespect our cash cow Universes Beyond. We want to be sure that everyone gets to play with all of the game pieces they give us money for, and we don’t want consumers to shy away from our upcoming Gremlins Standard set, which is on pace to be our best-selling set yet, just like we said about literally every other Universes Beyond set in recent memory!”
At press time, “Flingle Stone” has become the most proxied card in Magic’s history.
