Wizards of the Coast accused of deadnaming employees during MTG union election

Wizards of the Coast submitted legal names rather than chosen names to the National Labor Relations Board ahead of the Magic: The Gathering Arena union election. That list was then made public.

Wizards of the Coast keeps presenting itself as one of the more progressive companies in the gaming industry. Its actual labor and business practices have been telling a different story for the past three years.

The latest example came on June 5, 2026, when Kotaku‘s Rebekah Valentine reported that WOTC had allegedly deadnamed multiple transgender employees during the lead-up to the Magic: The Gathering Arena union election. The alleged deadnaming happened in front of their coworkers.

So, Happy Pride, I guess?

The company apologized internally and removed the list.

The same thing then happened again at the in-person vote the following week.

What happened

Ahead of the June 2 NLRB election, WOTC submitted a list of eligible voters to the National Labor Relations Board. The NLRB allows chosen names. WOTC submitted legal names. The list was then published on an internal company website accessible to every employee.

For several trans employees, that meant their deadnames were visible to coworkers who had only ever known them by their chosen names. Xib Vaine, one of the affected employees, told Kotaku how they found out: a coworker messaged them saying they could not find Vaine’s name on the list.

Vaine’s full quote on the experience: “The way I’ve been describing it to folks, especially folks who are like ‘I don’t really understand the deal,’ it’s like, as a trans person, I just don’t want my deadname out there. It’s like if the company had sent my nude pictures to the entire company, where it’s just very, it’s very violating and it’s, it just sucks.“

After the initial deadnaming, WOTC removed the list and switched to sending individual emails to eligible employees about how to vote. Then the same deadnaming occurred again at the in-person vote that took place earlier in the week of June 5.

WOTC has historically been supportive of trans employees in everyday workplace interactions per Kotaku’s sources. The disconnect between that day-to-day support and the repeated deadnaming during a union election is what the affected employees are pointing to as the problem.

The union context

The MTG Arena developers announced their unionization effort on April 29, 2026, joining the Communications Workers of America as United Wizards of the Coast - CWA (UWOTC-CWA). The drive was sparked by two rounds of mass Hasbro layoffs affecting roughly 2,000 employees (just under a third of the entire company), with an additional 3 percent of company headcount cut in 2025.

The MTG Arena team has worked remotely since the COVID-19 pandemic began. A recent return-to-office mandate triggered what UWOTC-CWA called “a wave of anxiety and uncertainty” across the team and accelerated the unionization effort.

The union also cited the absence of AI protections as a core organizing issue.

The union-busting campaign

WOTC has not voluntarily recognized the union. Instead, the company hired Fisher Phillips, a law firm widely identified as a union-avoidance specialist, to represent its interests.

WOTC has been sending letters to employees describing the union as a “third party“ and warning that union membership could result in employees ending up “less than you have now.” The letter language carefully stays inside the bounds of the National Labor Relations Act, which prohibits direct threats but allows broad characterizations.

Senior software engineers Valentine Powell and Neil White told Kotaku that the company has been “spreading misinformation and sowing fear among our colleagues“ through daily emails to the MTG Arena team since the union petition was filed.

The deadnaming incident lands in the middle of that campaign.

The Pinkertons history

The current incident is not the first time WOTC’s actions have undercut its public image.

In April 2023, YouTuber Dan Cannon (known as oldschoolmtg) was visited at his home by agents from Pinkerton, the private security firm with a 19th-century history of violent strikebreaking. The Pinkertons were there to retrieve cards from the unreleased March of the Machine: The Aftermath Magic set. Cannon had purchased the cards legitimately from a dealer who had been accidentally shipped the wrong cases.

According to Cannon’s account to Kotaku, the agents threatened him with $200,000 in fines and up to 10 years in jail. They mentioned calling the county sheriff. They made his wife cry. They asked him to delete his YouTube videos showing the cards.

WOTC confirmed to Polygon and Kotaku that it had sent the Pinkertons as “part of their investigation“ into the leak.

The AI history

In January 2024, less than a month after WOTC publicly pledged to not use generative AI art in Magic: The Gathering and Dungeons & Dragons products, the company posted a Ravnica Remastered marketing image to X with the caption “It’s positively shocking how good these lands look in retro frame.“

Fans immediately spotted hallmarks of AI generation. WOTC initially denied AI involvement, posting that “This art was created by humans and not AI.“ Two days later, the company reversed itself.

The corrected statement: “Well, we made a mistake earlier when we said that a marketing image we posted was not created using AI. As you, our diligent community pointed out, it looks like some AI components that are now popping up in industry standard tools like Photoshop crept into our marketing creative, even if a human did the work to create the overall image.“ The image, WOTC said, came from a “vendor.”

The Ravnica incident followed an August 2023 controversy in which AI-generated art was acknowledged in the Bigby Presents: The Glory of Giants D&D sourcebook, plus a December 2023 flap over an armless dwarf in the D&D Player’s Handbook that fans had attributed to AI generation.

WOTC’s corporate AI policy FAQ currently states: “We require artists, writers, and creatives contributing to the Magic TCG and the D&D TTRPG to refrain from using AI generative tools to create final Magic or D&D products.“ Freelance Magic illustrator Jason Rainville has publicly said he plans to keep watching “the evaluation of vendor relationships.“

Mixed Messaging or just For Profit?

The corporate messaging from Wizards of the Coast continues to emphasize inclusivity, creative integrity, and worker support.

The actual receipts include hiring union-busting attorneys during an active organizing drive, deadnaming trans employees twice in two weeks, sending the Pinkertons after a YouTuber whose only offense was buying cards from a dealer, and publishing AI marketing art weeks after promising not to.

The MTG Arena union vote count is pending. The deadnamed employees are still on staff. The Pinkerton incident remains the most-cited example of WOTC’s escalation playbook. The AI art policy still allows vendor work that ends up using AI components.

The Magic: The Gathering community has been notably quiet from WOTC’s official channels since the Kotaku story broke.

Commander’s Herald, the community’s main editorial satire site, ran the headline “Eager to Prove Workplace Is ‘Just Like a Family’, WOTC Begins Deadnaming Trans Employees.“ When the satire site captures the corporate position more accurately than the corporate position itself, the brand has a real problem.

The union vote results, when they arrive, will determine what happens next. The pattern that got Wizards of the Coast here will probably stay the pattern either way.

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Article compiled and edited by Derek Gibbs (entertainment editor) and the Clownfish TV newsroom.

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D/REZZED is part of Clownfish TV. For more news, views, and rants on gaming, tech, and pop culture, visit clownfishtv.com. Watch the show on YouTube at @ClownfishTV where new episodes drop daily. Subscribe to the Clownfish TV podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart, and wherever else you get your podcasts. Sign up for the free newsletter at more.clownfishtv.com.

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Hat Tips:

• Kotaku / Rebekah Valentine (June 5, 2026), primary verified reporting on the deadnaming incident including the Xib Vaine “if the company had sent my nude pictures to the entire company” quote, the internal company website publication of the legal-name list, the apology and removal, and the repeat occurrence during the in-person vote the following week

• Kotaku (April 29, 2026), verified UWOTC-CWA union announcement including the senior software engineers Valentine Powell and Neil White quotes on the Hasbro layoffs (approximately 2,000 across the company, additional 3 percent in 2025) and the return-to-office mandate as catalysts

• Kotaku (May 21, 2026), verified WOTC union-busting campaign letter language describing the union as a “third party” and warning employees could end up “less than you have now”

• Game Developer (May 21, 2026), verified Fisher Phillips law firm hire and the broader anti-union campaign context including the NLRB June 2, 2026 election date

• Commander’s Herald (June 5, 2026), verified community satire response with the “Eager to Prove Workplace Is ‘Just Like a Family’” headline

• Kotaku / Gizmodo / Engadget / GameSpot / Boing Boing / Polygon (April 2023), verified Pinkerton incident including YouTuber Dan “oldschoolmtg” Cannon, the March of the Machine: The Aftermath unreleased set, the $200,000 fine and up to 10 years jail time threats, the county sheriff threat, and WOTC’s confirmation that they sent the Pinkertons “as part of their investigation”

• GeekWire / PC Gamer / The Gamer / Plagiarism Today / TechRadar (January 2024), verified Ravnica Remastered AI art controversy including the initial denial, the subsequent admission that “AI components crept into our marketing creative,” and the “vendor” framing

• PC Gamer (December 2023), verified earlier Bigby Presents: The Glory of Giants D&D sourcebook AI art acknowledgment and the D&D Player’s Handbook armless dwarf controversy

• Wizards of the Coast / DND Support Generative AI Art FAQ (June 2024), verified corporate policy statement: “we require artists, writers, and creatives contributing to the Magic TCG and the D&D TTRPG to refrain from using AI generative tools to create final Magic or D&D products”

• Jason Rainville X account (January 2024), verified freelance MTG illustrator public skepticism about the “evaluation of their relationship with vendors”