Magic: The Gathering’s April Fools’ Day joke from late this month has landed with a thud thanks to the poisonous pairing of the Comic Sans font and the mocking all-caps style of the Mocking SpongeBob meme. Five alternate-art card reprints in a new Secret Lair will sport the text-font combination in the name, rules, and flavor text, resulting in a hard-to-read and hard-to-swallow experience.
On May 1, sAnS mERcy’s Secret Lair was revealed on the Magic: The Gathering YouTube page. It includes new versions of five cards that were apparently chosen for their ability to frustrate other players: the black mana sorceries Massacre and Torment of Hailfire, the black instant Doom Blade, the red sorcery Ruination, and the multicolored legendary enchantment creature Mogis, God of Slaughter.
Wizards of the Coast employed a similar sense of humor in its flavor text, which contains (in quotes) gems like “oh no! You’re so scary! I’m dying laughing!” and “I hope X is 3, hahahahaha.” The overall effect falls somewhere between 2014 memes shared between coworkers on an email chain and the kind of image macros that have found their final home in groups filled with older Facebook users.
Manage cookie settings
Watch on YouTube
As many players have pointed out on social media, there’s a strange disconnect between the card design and the intended joke. Compositions by illustrators like Joseph Meehan and Maxime Minard are dramatic and action-packed: Mogis is splitting a mountain range with his axe; the colonnades of a temple are crumbling under an airstrike. Tragedy and destruction are not at all matched by the jibes that make players shudder, and instead feel like two halves of separate projects that were accidentally thrown together.
Even the card choice seems off, as MTG contains plenty of cards that make you clench your fists and gnash your teeth. Where's Rhystic Study with a boo-boo “dO yUo PaY the One?” underneath? Brash Taunter seems like an obvious choice, as do any of Blue's countless counterspells that ruin plans to win the game for a pittance. Even Doom Blade, included here, didn't include a genuinely adorable “dIeS to dOoM bLaDe” flavor text.
Wizards took advantage of the situation by telling players in the announcement email that “April Fools’ Day was a month ago!” But self-awareness isn’t the only ingredient for a successful prank. No one seems to like this, and it’s a poor companion to the Hatsune Miku set announced earlier this week—both of which will be available in the Secret Lair Spring Super Drop, releasing later this month.
