MTG ends the Die Hard Christmas Movie debate with new festive card 

The new MTG card Seasonal Sequels has seemingly weighed in on the eternal question of whether Die Hard counts as a Christmas movie. 

There’s no question that the movie Die Hard is a cinematic classic. The Bruce Willis and Alan Rickman-starring action flick has been beloved by audiences ever since release. But surprisingly, a debate has raged around Die Hard in the last several years. Not one regarding the film’s overall quality, but whether Die Hard should be considered a Christmas Movie. 

One side believes so, while the other school of thought is that just being set at Christmas doesn’t automatically make a film a Christmas Movie, and Die Hard’s peril and tension is at odds with the feel-good family spirit of the holidays. Now, an unexpected source has added its opinion debate, as a new Magic: The Gathering references the Die Hard debate. 

Seasonal Sequels brings Wizards’ Die Hard opinion to the forefront 

Adrian Rodriguez Perez

To celebrate the 2023 holiday period, MTG has put out a new card named Seasonal Sequels, complete with the acorn symbol to denote it as not being legal for official play. 

Much like ‘un’ sets such as Unfinity and Unstable, Seasonal Sequels is much less concerned with competitive viability and balance than creative wordplay and out-of-the-box thinking. While Seasonal Sequels can kickstart a fun minigame within Magic, fans like FlyfishingThomas on Reddit were quick to look past the card’s mechanics and notice a particular inclusion in the card’s art. 

The inclusion of ‘Die Hardened Scales’ is a clear reference to both Die Hard and the MTG card Hardened Scales, working as an example of Seasonal Sequels’ effect. As Seasonal Sequels exclusively trades in references to holiday sequels, it appears that Wizards of the Coast is saying quite firmly that Die Hard counts as a Christmas movie after all. 

While of course, Wizards of the Coast has no more authority than anyone else to settle the Die Hard argument, Seasonal Sequels’ commentary on Die Hard is a fun addition to a card that fans already seem to appreciate. 

In adding fuel to the fire of an ultimately harmless debate, Wizards have given Magic players a small extra treat in the run-up to the holidays. 

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