Wizards of the Coast may have accidentally printed a card that references the word “corona” in their upcoming Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths set. And worse, that card might have been Spacegodzilla.
So we’ve got a lot to unpack here, and we’re going to start with the set arriving in Magic: The Gathering. It’s called Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths, and like many previous Magic sets, it’s going to focus on big scary monsters. In the case of Ikoria, those monsters are going to be very kaiju-focused as Wizards has tapped Toho Studios to get the rights to Godzilla.
Yes, you read that right: Godzilla is going to be on a Magic card.
Actually, there will be several Godzillas on several Magic cards. One of those cards is SpaceGodzilla, which is actually a clone of regular Godzilla that arrived from space (hence the name) Although SpaceGodzilla and 16 other cards will have their own special art, they’ll actually be special promo prints of beasts that already exist in Ikoria.
In SpaceGodzilla’s case, he’s actually a promo version of Void Beckoner called “Spacegodzilla, Void Invader.” Although, that’s not what he was called initially.
According to DailyMTG editor-in-chief Blake Rasmussen, "Spacegodzilla, Void Invader" used to be called "Spacegodzilla, Death Corona." The name was decided months before the coronavirus pandemic and is actually a reference to SpaceGodzilla’s special attack, Corona Beam--both of which seem to have very unfortunate names in the current era.
Realizing how horrible it would mean to even mention the word "corona" after thousands, perhaps even millions of people are expected to die in the coronavirus pandemic, Wizards of the Coast changed the name to be something slightly less offensive. They even made a special statement about it on Thursday.
However, the first printings of Ikoria have already gone through, which means there are a certain number of Spacegodzilla, Death Coronas already sitting in unopened packs. There's nothing that can be done to change them now, and all WotC can do is change the name in future printings and in the online Magic Arena.
For anyone lucky enough to have pre-ordered some packs, you might pull yourself a copy of Spacegodzilla, Death Corona, a card that will be extremely rare and thus extremely valuable to collectors (as noted by certain Redditors).
Source: Wizards of the Coast