MTG’s Spider-Man Survey: The Backlash to the Backlash, and the ‘Scapegoat’ Question

Wizards of the Coast (WotC) recently released a player survey to gather feedback on the controversial Magic: The Gathering | Marvel’s Spider-Man set—part of its “Universes Beyond” line. While conducting surveys after a set’s release is standard practice, one specific question has ignited a new wave of community backlash, leading many to accuse WotC of attempting to shift the blame for the set’s poor reception onto content creators.

The “catch” is a question that suggests WotC is more interested in finding a scapegoat than in diagnosing internal issues with the product itself.

The Controversial Question

The survey, which was distributed to players, included a pointed query that immediately drew widespread criticism from MTG content creators and the community. If a participant noted that they learned about the Spider-Man set from a content creator, they were reportedly prompted with a follow-up question:

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

The available answers ranged from “Greatly worsened my perception” to “Greatly improved my perception,” forcing players to quantify the impact of negative criticism.

Why the Survey is Causing a Backlash

1. Blame-Shifting Accusation: Many in the community, including high-profile Magic: The Gathering players like Hall of Famer Luis Scott-Vargas, interpreted the question as WotC attempting to pin the set’s disappointing reception and rumored poor sales on “mean” influencers, rather than addressing the product’s quality, which many found lacking in flavor, reprint value, and overall execution.
2. The “Witch Hunt” Concern: The survey also asks participants to name the streamers and content creators they engage with. When paired with the highly specific, negatively-focused question, this created fear among content creators that WotC might retaliate or cut ties with those who offered critical commentary.
3. Question Design Flaw: Critics with experience in survey design pointed out that the question is “loaded” and leading. A neutral question would have asked about the impact of all coverage (positive and negative) or offered a neutral “No Impact” option, which was confusingly implied by one of the numerical choices, but not explicitly stated.

Wizards of the Coast’s Response

Following the significant online outcry, WotC’s Blake Rasmussen, a member of the official Magic stream team, addressed the controversy on social media. He apologized, acknowledging that the question was “not a good question” and that the wording “sucks.”

The official message was that the question was a mistake and was not an attempt to create a narrative against content creators. Rasmussen assured the community that WotC would not punish creators for having negative opinions and stated that the survey results would not be used to “attack” the creator community. Essentially, WotC framed the controversy as a survey design error, not a malicious attempt to find a scapegoat.

The Bigger Picture: Universes Beyond Fatigue

This incident comes amid growing community fatigue with the sheer volume of “Universes Beyond” crossover products. While the Final Fantasy set was a massive success, the Spider-Man set was criticized for being a “small set” that didn’t justify its high price and had a confusing digital release strategy on MTG Arena (“Through the Omenpaths”) that stripped the set of its Marvel branding. The tone of the controversial survey only reinforced the perception that the developers are out of touch with player sentiment regarding the speed and quality of these non-traditional releases.

This whole debacle has, ironically, only added fuel to the existing criticism, proving that in the digital age, market research and community engagement must be handled with extreme care.