Magic: The Gathering has more than 40 million players around the world. The trading card game has been around since the 90s, but now its latest collection is shining a light on diversity and inclusion. MTG has introduced 'Pride Across the Multiverse,' which is a selection of eight cards transformed to celebrate the LGBTQ+ community. Stephanie Cheung, art director for the 'Pride across the Multiverse' project, joins Cheddar News to discuss.

Cheddar's News Wrap

MTG Introduces New Pride Collection: Pride Across the Multiverse

Welcome back to two news wrap. Now magic. The gathering is said to have more than 40 million players around the world and the trading card game that's been around since the 90s is filled with strategic battles and unique card decks. But now its latest collection is shining a light on diversity and inclusion. MtG has introduced Pride across the Multiverse. A selection of eight cards transformed to celebrate the L. G. B. T. Q. Plus community. And joining me now is Stephanie chung art director for the Pride across the Multiverse secret layer for the magic, the gathering card set. And Stephanie. Talk to us about the new pride collection in your role in creating it. Yeah, absolutely. Thanks for having me. Um So I'm Stephanie chung, I'm an art director over at wizards of the coast and I work on the really awesome card game Magic the Gathering. Um And so Pride across the Multiverse um is a collection of eight cards inspired by the creativity and the spirit of our L. G. B. T. Q. A. Two spirit plus community. Um My role was to bring together diverse cast of artists to bring their unique style and to share their experiences through these cards. So can you give us an example of two of the cards in this collection and what each represents? Oh yeah. Um Big favorite is soaring by Lauren. Yes. And that one is a collection of items in nostalgia and symbols that's been used throughout the history of the L. G. B. T. Q. Communities. Um And the other card that one was like so fun to work on. It was really a great joy to have. Lauren. Yes, back to work with us and the second card. Um I believe y'all don't want me to talk about Bear escape because I was such a wonderful review. Right? Um So Bear Escape was a card that was close to our hearts in the very beginning and it was, it represents the fun and joy of the bear community. Um and something that was deeply important about the entire process was that we really wanted it to be fun but not to make fun of the community. So um I was able to find ricardo basa um who he curated and illustrated for this Bears in back in the past called Berlin for I believe and he was such a perfect fit. Um It was just so important to have an artist who just loved this community so much and I think it really shows. So what do you hope these cards will accomplish for your player base or for certain players? Um I hope it brings um warmth to our L. B. G. T. L. G. B. T. Q. Plus players just to remind them to like take the moment to B one B with one another and to just uh savor the moment as it were from the set but to just be with one another. Um to remember what brought us here to hold fast to that so that we could all keep going. So tell me 50% of each purchase purchase is going to somewhere special talk about that. Where is it going? And what does this mean? Yeah. Um so with this pride project, 50% of our sales are in partnership go towards the Trevor project and they're just this incredible group that we worked with in the past. Um and so more about the Trevor project is, they are the largest suicide prevention and mental health organization for LGBT Q youths. Um they offer free confidential 24 7 crisis services through their site Trevor Space. Um and there haven't, They're incredibly resourceful with education, advocacy, advocacy programs. Um, they're just such an incredible group of people to work with now. Magic? The gathering the age suggestion is 13 and up. What are you hoping that those younger generation will see in these cars that you guys are representing and hope that they understand. Oh man. Um I hope that folks can feel seen and not alone. Um, a lot of this drop is about joy celebration and this is something we don't get to see very often anymore. Um and I hope, I hope it just sparks hoping everybody to realize like, oh, this could be, this could be our future. Um and it could be wonderful and it could be bright and it could be powerful, Stephanie chung real quick. Who's your favorite commander? Do you play commanders at the format? Yes. Oh my gosh, I think my favorite, my favorite is a comma, 1st, 1st love comma. Love that. I love that. I love that for us. All right. I am a big Tulane fan, even though the turns take too long. All right, Stephanie chung, art director for the Pride Across the Multiverse secret layer for magic. The gathering to purchase the collection visit secret layer dot com. Wizard simulator dot twitter dot com. So good. Thank you so much Stephanie for coming by.