Wizards of the Coast (WotC) recently launched a survey to gather feedback on the controversial Magic: The Gathering | Marvel’s Spider-Man set, part of their Universes Beyond line. The set faced significant player backlash upon release for its perceived mechanical simplicity, card art, and overall thematic fit with the fantasy core of MTG.

While gathering player opinion is a standard practice, this particular survey has ignited a new firestorm in the community due to a highly contentious question. The “catch” is that the survey seems to subtly deflect blame for the set’s poor reception away from the product’s design and onto the content creators who reviewed it.

The Controversial Question: Blaming the Messengers?

The survey reportedly includes a targeted question that asks players to rate:

• “To what degree did negative influencer commentary impact your perceptions of Magic: The Gathering | Marvel’s Spider-Man before the set released?”

This question, which appears to be shown to players who cited content creators as their primary news source, immediately led to accusations that WotC is attempting a “witch hunt” or trying to create a narrative that the set’s failure was due to negative word-of-mouth rather than core product issues.

Why This Is Causing a Stir in the Gaming Community

1. Deflection of Blame: Critics argue the survey is an attempt to shift focus from the set’s fundamental problems (such as its initial design as a smaller, non-draftable set that was later scaled up) to an external factor—the content creators who review and critique WotC’s products. 2. No Neutral Option: The question’s scale is reportedly structured to assume an influence, forcing a choice between “Greatly worsened my perception” and “Greatly improved my perception,” without a clear “no influence” or “my opinion was my own” option. 3. Influencer Worry: The survey also asks participants to name the streamers and content creators they watch, leading some to fear that WotC could retaliate or change their relationships with critical voices in the community. Prominent MTG personalities have openly expressed their discomfort with the question.

WotC’s Blake Rasmussen has since acknowledged the wording of the question “sucks,” and assured players it was a mistake with no malicious intent to attack the creator community.

The Bigger Context: Universes Beyond’s Mixed Results

The controversy is magnified by the mixed financial and critical results of WotC’s ambitious Universes Beyond strategy. While the Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth set was a massive, record-breaking success, the Spider-Man set struggled, with poor reception and weak secondary market performance.

The product pipeline for 2026 confirms that Universes Beyond is a major priority, with future sets like Marvel Super Heroes, The Hobbit, and Star Trek all scheduled for release. This high frequency of non-traditional MTG IPs has caused a significant backlash among a core segment of the player base, who feel the game’s identity is being eroded.