I'd think it's a problem of tying the mechanics of Magic so closely to its identity as (a) fantasy setting(s), as Tevish kind of brushed up against in his reply. They want Demons to be really
impactful when a player puts them out onto the board, since they're the iconic of
, and it's hard to be iconic if they die to a quick
shock.
That said, I'm of the opinion that
gets the short end of the stick in a lot of ways. Like, it's characteristic creature type is Zombie (last I checked), which is a non-race. I think it's been using Vampires here and there, but they're also kind of a non-race in most cases (and certainly across mainstream fantasy).
I've probably just grown cynical as it's been longer and longer since I've delved into the actual
product of Magic, but I vaguely recall living through the changes that saw them what I considered "dumbing down" the game and presentation.
Currently its;
Characteristic races (tend to be smaller sized, shows up a lot and plays into the fantasy race idea for each world)
W- Humans for lack of a better choice but we seen catfolk and Kor too and they tried dwarves and kith kin but I think they didn't catch with players
U- Merfolk, though vedalken show up
B-Zombies and vampires are both characteristic since OG zendikar. They also been trying out the Azra and Aetherborn recently they talked about for Kylem and Kaladesh some worlds they don't want necromancy/undeath elements and orcs are seem to be making a come back.
R- Goblins, with one offs used on the planes with no goblins (allowed).
G- Elves who are similar with goblins with mostly other one-off depending on plane but recently naga have been seemly experimented with in planes that don't fit elves.
Iconic (bigger creature that end up timmy cards with splash effects often 4+ power/toughness and often appearing at rare/mythic)
W- Angels, sometimes archons
U- Sphinxes and/or any of the sea monsters
B- Demons, vampires played around here when they couldn't use demons
R- Dragons
G- Hydras, though you often see the random beast or similar big green beater here and dinosaurs are becoming more popular