But it does mean she is associated with a racist card which means public opinion can shift toward that character.
You're missing the context that makes Crusade an issue is not just its name, but the intersection of its name and effect, a relationship that has been outlined a few times now. Crusade as a word has legitimate uses as well as uses that evoke a very specific meaning - the intersection of card name and ability draws the connotation too close to the specific (racially charged) meaning and away from the general (relatively neutral) definition.
To exclude the other cards with the words Crusading, Crusader, or Crusade is wrong. As the word Crusade and Crusader are never being used for their secondary definition
Crusader
2. a person who campaigns vigorously for political, social, or religious change; a campaigner.
"crusaders for early detection and treatment of mental illness"
Crusade
2.lead or take part in an energetic and organized campaign concerning a social, political, or religious issue.
"he crusaded against gambling in the 1950s"
They instead refer to a military expedition or a fighter within a crusade. Turns out most MTG cards with the aforementioned words fit the first definition instead because MTG is a game about two wizards/duelists/planeswalkers battling it out with spells and armies and wonderous artifacts.
If you want evidence of the secondary definition in action, that is on Wizards own part and those around them that advocate the banning of perceived racist cards.
Yes, these are symptoms of the larger issue of racism in the fandom. Not addressing it wasn't going to make it go away, and though I have my own issues with WotC's chosen direction, I ultimately think the conversation they started is a net benefit. In part because we can identify that people are profiteering off cards with racist connotations.
The bigger issue is actually addressing those cards. By doing so they are now worth more because Wizards called attention to them and made a large deal out of it. Letting them fade into obscurity is actually better as nobody would have cared for these cards except for a small minority of the playerbase.
To me its frankly disgusting how political discussion has seeped to the forefront of the game. I played MTG to escape it, not have it shoved in my face. In any other time prior to this event, this thread would be locked for being off topic when relating to a game for preadolescence/pre-teen/tween aka children. Oh and before that last bit is mistaken for "think of the children", no, the kids are plenty intelligent enough to make decisions on their own. My beef with it stems from how a toy company is making these sociopolitical statements for brownie points among the masses during a very emotionally charged time.
At least scryfall is more classy with the way they handled the censor of the seven. Its basically a warning disclaimer and doesn't show up in normal searches except if you add "extras" to the search. Wizards method is heavy handed.
While most cards are old and have never been reprinted, the main one that stands out is Crusade due it having multiple different artworks. As you have the Crusade artwork, the Angel version, and the Elspeth version. Yet they condemned all versions, including the Elspeth version, which means Elspeth is now associated with a wholly racist card, even on their own version. Which can mean by extension, one of wizards characters for marketing is now a racist and its not even lore reasons like Nissa Revane used to be.
But the bus does not stop here the problem with the association of the word instead of the artwork also means by extension any card that mentions "Crusade" or "Crusader" or "Crusading" in its name or flavor text is possibly on the same chopping block by just mere extension. In name that is 22 cards, including Crusade itself. Checking flavor text, five cards are now caught by extension. These cards are Ill-Gotten Gains, Lowland Tracker, Kruin Striker, Reliquary Tower, and Sungrass Egg. This isn't slippery slope trap either. As by the reasoning for Crusade's banning is the context behind the word and less about the artwork. To exclude other cards that share the same word shows a questionable bias on Wizard's behalf.
Their own announcement created a Streisand Effect with these seven cards among investors and players. Since these can't be obtained by Wizards affiliated websites like your Channel Fireball or Starcity Games or TCGPlayer, what they have done is created is a black market through eBay. And people are panick buying these. This isn't some random rambling either. When I go to sold listings for just "Crusade MTG" I see the most popular one being the Templar version, followed by the angel verison, and lastly the Elspeth verison. But its not just them, I see Cathars' Crusade, Phyrexian Crusader, White Shield Crusader, Stormfist Crusader, Mystic Crusader, Dralnu's Crusade, Tivadar's Crusade, Mirran Crusader. Oh and there is even starting to be combo packages like Bad Moon + Stone Throwing Devils + Crusade or Crusade + ProxyInvoke Prejudice. Like there is a 17.5k box of Legends who uses purposefully Invoke Prejudice and Cleanse in its listing just to potentially get a buyer.
If you think about it, its crazy. Crazy how wizards helped create a black market of players, speculators, and collectors who speculate on the banned seven for their racism but also on unrelated cards because of being potentially racist. They condemn the cards with bannings and shouting to the rooftops of this racism, but they instead caused interest and a boom in sales in unsavory products.
As the world outside is looking at us. These people who don't care about MTG or barely know of it as mere passing knowledge, are now paying attention to the collective of MTG's people and its company because of the game's racism. Not because they finally decided to have interest in the game itself. We are now being associated as part of "that game with racist cards that got banned".
Based on the power level of the other Jamuraa legends, Barrin will probably be a blue Gray Ogre with "At your end step, if you returned a permanent to your hand, draw a card."
That hexproof against blue feels random AF, on the other hand this is one of the best roadblocks I've seen in a long time, the standard "swing with two bears against the single 1/high toughness blocker" swarming strategy is blunted by this. A powerful Limited card for sure, and there's probably a weird infinite Saproling combo hidden in there I guess.
I'm thinking the hexproof from blue is more of a way to catch Dream Trawler.
Remember its hexproof, not protection, so its not really going to block the trawler unless its being used as a sacrificial lamb or with a combat trick that buffs it.
Will be fun to put it into gruul, rakdos, or jund decks where you can have things like Pestilence so you can activate the ability three times, get three dudes, and two death triggers.
Decided to see what use she could have as a commander. The results are:
There is a small niche of cards that fit the criteria of "deal combat damage" while having "power 2 or less" in red and colorless. Akki Underminer, Academy Raider, Ferropede, Prophetic Flamespeaker, Grenzo, Havoc Raiser, and Skirk Commando. There are others but they gain +1/+1 counters which means they leave the "safety net" that she provides of being unblockable and letting you draw cards.
To exclude the other cards with the words Crusading, Crusader, or Crusade is wrong. As the word Crusade and Crusader are never being used for their secondary definition
Crusader
2. a person who campaigns vigorously for political, social, or religious change; a campaigner.
"crusaders for early detection and treatment of mental illness"
Crusade
2.lead or take part in an energetic and organized campaign concerning a social, political, or religious issue.
"he crusaded against gambling in the 1950s"
They instead refer to a military expedition or a fighter within a crusade. Turns out most MTG cards with the aforementioned words fit the first definition instead because MTG is a game about two wizards/duelists/planeswalkers battling it out with spells and armies and wonderous artifacts.
If you want evidence of the secondary definition in action, that is on Wizards own part and those around them that advocate the banning of perceived racist cards.
The bigger issue is actually addressing those cards. By doing so they are now worth more because Wizards called attention to them and made a large deal out of it. Letting them fade into obscurity is actually better as nobody would have cared for these cards except for a small minority of the playerbase.
To me its frankly disgusting how political discussion has seeped to the forefront of the game. I played MTG to escape it, not have it shoved in my face. In any other time prior to this event, this thread would be locked for being off topic when relating to a game for preadolescence/pre-teen/tween aka children. Oh and before that last bit is mistaken for "think of the children", no, the kids are plenty intelligent enough to make decisions on their own. My beef with it stems from how a toy company is making these sociopolitical statements for brownie points among the masses during a very emotionally charged time.
While most cards are old and have never been reprinted, the main one that stands out is Crusade due it having multiple different artworks. As you have the Crusade artwork, the Angel version, and the Elspeth version. Yet they condemned all versions, including the Elspeth version, which means Elspeth is now associated with a wholly racist card, even on their own version. Which can mean by extension, one of wizards characters for marketing is now a racist and its not even lore reasons like Nissa Revane used to be.
But the bus does not stop here the problem with the association of the word instead of the artwork also means by extension any card that mentions "Crusade" or "Crusader" or "Crusading" in its name or flavor text is possibly on the same chopping block by just mere extension. In name that is 22 cards, including Crusade itself. Checking flavor text, five cards are now caught by extension. These cards are Ill-Gotten Gains, Lowland Tracker, Kruin Striker, Reliquary Tower, and Sungrass Egg. This isn't slippery slope trap either. As by the reasoning for Crusade's banning is the context behind the word and less about the artwork. To exclude other cards that share the same word shows a questionable bias on Wizard's behalf.
Their own announcement created a Streisand Effect with these seven cards among investors and players. Since these can't be obtained by Wizards affiliated websites like your Channel Fireball or Starcity Games or TCGPlayer, what they have done is created is a black market through eBay. And people are panick buying these. This isn't some random rambling either. When I go to sold listings for just "Crusade MTG" I see the most popular one being the Templar version, followed by the angel verison, and lastly the Elspeth verison. But its not just them, I see Cathars' Crusade, Phyrexian Crusader, White Shield Crusader, Stormfist Crusader, Mystic Crusader, Dralnu's Crusade, Tivadar's Crusade, Mirran Crusader. Oh and there is even starting to be combo packages like Bad Moon + Stone Throwing Devils + Crusade or Crusade + Proxy Invoke Prejudice. Like there is a 17.5k box of Legends who uses purposefully Invoke Prejudice and Cleanse in its listing just to potentially get a buyer.
If you think about it, its crazy. Crazy how wizards helped create a black market of players, speculators, and collectors who speculate on the banned seven for their racism but also on unrelated cards because of being potentially racist. They condemn the cards with bannings and shouting to the rooftops of this racism, but they instead caused interest and a boom in sales in unsavory products.
As the world outside is looking at us. These people who don't care about MTG or barely know of it as mere passing knowledge, are now paying attention to the collective of MTG's people and its company because of the game's racism. Not because they finally decided to have interest in the game itself. We are now being associated as part of "that game with racist cards that got banned".
There is a small niche of cards that fit the criteria of "deal combat damage" while having "power 2 or less" in red and colorless. Akki Underminer, Academy Raider, Ferropede, Prophetic Flamespeaker, Grenzo, Havoc Raiser, and Skirk Commando. There are others but they gain +1/+1 counters which means they leave the "safety net" that she provides of being unblockable and letting you draw cards.
There is a small but larger niche of cards that fit the critera of "when" and "attacks" while having "power 2 or less" in red and colorless.
The most notable of which are Dreadhorde Arcanist, Wildfire Eternal, Robber of the Rich, Conqueror's Galleon, Thunderkin Awakener, Bomat Courier, and Orcish Squatters.
For enchantments, the best ones Cavalcade of Calamity, Raid Bombardment, Five-Alarm Fire, Latulla's Orders, Destructive Urge, and Breath of Fury.
For Artifacts, noncreature, you are looking at Mask of Memory, Quietus Spike, Inquisitor's Flail, Rogue's Gloves, Worldslayer, Moonsilver Spear, Explorer's Scope, Grappling Hook, Tome of Legends and Spellbinder.
littlelots of internal testing for this.