It's only a matter of time before Magic The Gathering gets into the NFT racket. It's already a game all about buying and owning cards that are worth far more than they reasonably should be, so the leap from that to buying and owning nothing at all and spending way too much on it isn't all that big.
It's a sword that's been hanging over the game ever since NFTs first became a thing. A stalemate between Wizards of the Coast, who ultimately wants to make money, the Magic community who want to just keep playing the game they love, and crypto grifters seeing the boom of TCGs in the last few years and getting dollar signs in their eyes.
We already know that Wizards is thinking about it. A recent email from its lawyers demanding the cessation of the NFT-driven Magic format magicDAO stated that it is "currently evaluating its future regarding NFTs". Even with executives at Wizards like VP of design Aaron Forsyth pushing back against the idea on Twitter, a future where Hasbro doesn't want some kind of crypto bullshit seems impossible.
I adore TCGs, but they're years ahead of NFTs in the art of the grift. Thanks to all those non-recyclable packets, they're environmentally problematic (though both Flesh & Blood and Magic have recently experimented with more sustainable packaging). They have similar "to the moon'' speculative ideologies in their second-hand markets, which lead to scams and people hoarding stock and raiding McDonald's for their promos, hoping they'll flip them for a profit in the future. But even with all that in mind, the line between TCGs being physical game pieces and NFTs being literally nothing is a line any sensible person who hasn't been infested with crypto-brain-worms would find difficult to cross.
Being as charitable as I can, whether NFTs kill a game like Magic depends on how they're done. mtgDAO's idea was to have a format where you could only play the cards you own the NFT for, which is an idiotic idea that means only the richest players get to play with what would be a staple in other formats. If this kind of thinking ever bled into something like Arena or MTGO (which already has a second-hand market with elements of scarcity and proof of ownership without blockchain buzzword nonsense), it would be the end of those games for sure. Magic only thrives when cards are available regardless of how much mtgDAO or maybe even Hasbro would want the opposite to be true.
The question, then, is how close could Wizards creep to that line. Would people accept NFTs being bundled in with Secret Lair purchases? It would get well-deserved backlash for sure, but it wouldn't be quite as apocalyptic for the game as minting game pieces themselves would be. It would fall into the same realm as Team17's Worms NFTs, which had nothing to do with the game but would hypothetically appeal to the fans. Could you get an MTG Arena emote on the blockchain and prove you own Chibi-Winking-Niko?
How would the artists feel about it? While there are MTG artists who are thoroughly into NFTs for their own work, they've so far not been allowed to mint their contributions to the game (thankfully). Others, like Paul Scott Canavan, are vehemently against NFTs, describing it as "wasteful, needless, and horribly pyramid scheme-y". But what if the choice was taken away from them and Wizards minted their art directly? They own the copyright, so they feasibly could do it. But there's no way there wouldn't be an artist's revolt in response.
But all this is missing the point. The fact I'm sitting here even trying to work out which NFTs I'd "be okay with" is part of the problem. The crypto scene has weedled its way into everything, and no hobby is safe from some tech bro trying to ram a blockchain or cryptocurrency in there somewhere. They're coming into our houses, pulling their pants down, and I'm trying to figure out which things I'd be less aggrieved if they shat on.
I fully believe that, one day, Wizards of the Coast will bring NFTs to Magic in some form. And I'll keep playing, both because covering it is my job, and it's a game I love. But right now feels like the moments before a car crash when everything goes into slow motion. I know the pain is coming, I know things are about to majorly suck, but there isn't a whole lot I can do about it. I can say "fuck NFTs" until I'm blue in the face and hope somebody at Wizards pays attention, or hope the bubble bursts before it can happen. But right now, it really doesn't feel like that's going to change anything.