Pentagrams and Magic: the Gathering

Its kind of funny actually, that a symbol so common in pop culture (even more so in the 80's and 90's) would appear so little in a game about Magic. However, much like so recent actions by WotC, in the early 90's they decided to be moral judges, and not only ban future depictions of demons and satanic elements in the game, they edited two pieces of card art.

The Pentagram, as a symbol, is either a symbol of protection, or a symbol of demons, depending on who you ask. Between metal aesthetics of the 70's, and the moral panic of the 80's and 90's, pentagrams (and with it inverted crosses) became a fairly fashionable accessory among a number of alternative subcultures. I once already wrote about how goth subcultures influence early Magic, mainly The Dark, but it would make sense for Pentagrams to appear on the cards. 

As far as I can tell, three cards openly depict pentagrams, and while I admit I'm not certain of this (and there may be more), these cards are Demonic Tutor, Unholy Strength, and Pentagram of the Ages. 

When Jesper Myrfors took over the reigns as art director before the launch of the game, he had a great deal of integrity when it came to the art. As far as I know, he edited one piece of art, Living Wall, though what was edited off of it, I'm not certain. Duelist #3 refers to Myrfors as the former art director, and assuming that it takes a month to go to print and be distributed, I will assume the first time he quit was sometime in the Summer of 94. Again though, this is just an assumption based on observations. The revised prints of Demonic Tutor and Unholy Strength both had the infamous pentagrams intact, but the summer print run (called Edgar) had the pentagram on the forehead of the demon in Demonic Tutor, had these images removed. As well as the much more famous print of Unholy Strength in 95's fourth edition. According to an interview with Hipsters of the Coast, Sandra Evingham, who would be Magic's second art director, edited the print of Unholy Strength "unfortunately leaving Doug's character with no context." It can be assumed she removed the Pentagram from the head of the Tutor as well. 

 

However another pentagram was featured in the early days of Magic. Ice Age contained the artifact 'Pentagram of the Ages'. Pentagram of the Ages takes a more protection stance on the idea of a pentagram, and it shows in its ability, being able to prevent all damage from a source. Now Ice Age came out right after these decisions, and if Pentagram had only been in Ice Age I wouldn't be writing about it. 

Yet Pentagram was available in standard through out the 90's, being reprinted in 5th edition, and well as Classic 6th. It almost shared standard with Grinning Demon, the first demon printed after the lifting of the no demons policy.  I'm not saying something isn't hypocritical about this, since Pentagram of the Ages both saw little tournament play, unlike Unholy Strength and Demonic Tutor, as well as it wasn't associated with demons/Satanism like the other two. However a blanket ban on the image should apply to all uses of the symbol. Regardless, I doubt we will be seeing Pentagram of the Ages reprinted anytime soon.

Fun Fact: All three pieces were drawn by Douglas Shuler.