Important note about 1:03, gonna pull a rules lawyer moment but I think it's worth mentioning. The reason Animate Dead's card text is beyond stupid isn't due to the reanimation, it's due to how it's done. Animate Dead is a victim of them making effects that don't function logically in the modern rules. Following the updated wording shown in the video, Animate Dead would be sent to the graveyard immediately after bringing the creature back. It would enter play enchanting the creature in a graveyard, bring it back, then fail to attach itself to the creature as the Aura can only enchant a creature card in a graveyard (CR 303.4j). After state based actions are checked and Animate Dead sees it isn't attached to anything, it'd be sent to the graveyard (CR 704.5m) and you'd sacrifice the enchanted creature. Granted, they could probably fix the stupid part of the wording by simply having it read "enchant creature card in a graveyard or creature put onto the battlefield with Animate Dead", but they sadly haven't done that yet. edit: Focused too hard on one part and completely forgot that the reanimation itself lacks a trigger for when it enters and that it mentions "target creature" instead of "enchanted creature card"
btw the reason Animate Dead has so much text is mainly because of "Enchant creature card in a graveyard". When the creature card in the graveyard becomes a creature on the battlefield, it does not have "Enchant creature", so it would fall off, which is why 'it loses “enchant creature card in a graveyard” and gains “enchant creature put onto the battlefield with Animate Dead.”' is on the card. (FYI I agree about the whole enters stuff however I gotta say Converted Mana Cost holds a special place in my heart)
I would love changing "card name" to "this", so "when Mabel, Heir to Cragflame enters, ..." Becomes "When this enters..." It also makes it slightly more intuitive what happens when a card gains the abilities of another card without changing it's own name. Of course a card like Shadowborn Apostles could still use "creatures named Shadowborn Apostles". I'm not sure about the reanimate change as there is still the question about which graveyards you can get it from (yours, theirs, or either) as well as whose control it comes back under (yours or it's owner's).
The problem wiht 1:04 is that animate dead does not work like that. As if you where to simply reanimate the creature, then attach animate dead to it, it would be an illegal target, since the thing your are enchanting is a creature on the battlefield, no a creature card in a graveyard. Most of the animate dead text is there just to facilitate it being able to first enchant a creature card in a graveyard, and then switch its own text to enchant a creature in play once the creature is in play, instead of the reanimate text.
I like the change of enters since it‘s intuitive and won‘t confuse new players too badly. However I have a problem with search and reanimate, search would not specify that you search your library (it‘s not quite as intuitive to me). And when it says reanimate something I would expect to lose the life equal to MV. It‘s just if you name a keyword or mechanic after a old card (like mill after millstone) the old card will influence your perception of the card. I am down for simplifying magic eventhough I love the puzzeling texts from time to time. But it should always be clear hoe something works with the rules (at least for basic cards that don‘t have a weird interaction like timestamps or apply on different layers) so that new players won‘t have to read the entire rulebook and learn all the lingo we use as magicplayers I think comes into play was one of the cleanest ways to word etbs
i always felt they could've added more symbols apart from the mana and tap. for example there could be symbols distinguishing something you could only do as a sorcery (activated abilities) or when things only happen once per turn
Instead of tutor, I think just saying "search" may get the point across better without needing to rely on specific nomenclature that not everyone may know. I don't think I've ever called it a tutor card for any of my search your library for X even though I've been playing for around 10 years now. If you need to clarify you look through an opponents, just specify. But for majority of those cards, it'll cut the 17 characters of space that " your library for" brings
It's not only "your library for" there's also the shuffling part, which is mandatory whenever a player looks through a library, it could be implied by rulings. The only problem is that more implied rulings do make the game less approachable for new players, but if that's too much of a problem just getting rid of the "your library" seems intuitive enough. Mill is basically the same and the word by itself is not intuitive at all for someone new to mtg. Just mill means our own libraries and if the effect will/can mill others it's specified in the card. I think the shuffling part could also be abbreviated, it's not super clear but it's simple enough to understand why the game would enforce you to shuffle everytime you look through an entire library. Hey, they kinda did it with shuffle, before cards would say "shuffle your library" or "that player shuffles his or her library" now it's just "shuffle" or "that player shuffles". With search implying it nature's lore would go from "Search your library for a Forest card, put that card onto the battlefield, then shuffle." to "Search for a Forest card, put that card onto the battlefield" that's 29 less characters.
using just "search" will lead to confusions with many cards that either search cards somewhere other than the deck or seach cards in more than one area, like wish effects or surgical extraction searching in deck, hand and graveyard
But there's so so many places a card 'enters' in normal parlance that this is going to get annoying, especially as players enter with this as their standard way of using 'enters'. Not to mention if they actually want more simple game play they could stop rehashing existing mechanics in more complex forms as "new" things.
Can you give me an example of a card that uses enters for anywhere other then the battlefield? Cards say "dies" or "is put into your graveyard from ..." for the graveyard. Hand uses "put it into your hand" or"return _ to it's owner's/your hand". The stack uses "is cast". Library uses "shuffle it into your library" or "put it on the top/bottom of your library".
I think the best way to shorten the text and keep the intended meaning is writing it similar to an activated ability, but keep it mandatory. E.G. with Lumra, Bellow of the Woods: "ETB; mill four cards. Then return all land cards fro your graveyard to the battlefield tapped." Others could be used for board-state transitions, such as "Dies;" for enters the graveyard from the battlefield. Which makes "ETG;" a trigger for entering the graveyard from anywhere. Of course, not very n00b friendly, but simple enough that it can be searched for or printed on advertisement cards to explain what they are.
They should make it so, when creating a token, if the color isn't specified, it's colorless. It's already done for reminder text describing treasures and clues.
"Enters" is such a clunky way to describe this action.. It might be convenient but it is not as efficient and understandable as "add". Entera fails to properly describe a creature being "summoned" successfully! Just think about it from the Player's perspective.. a supposed Planeswalker that creates these beings or summona them to aid them in battle. What we see in the cards is what we would use to communicate in that world. If a creature entered a location or a vehicle.. how in-world to they describe that!? Creatures enter graveyards and other zones. Yes to the change, no to the execution. This is more of an abbreviation of an existing phrase.. and God knows I don't want Wizards to have more space in their cardboard.
Nah, I 100% feel like STP should say "Merc an opp fr fr". It's much more in-line with existing Magic wording. Seriously though, I think that the new wording is fine. I don't really care one way or another; it just gives more room for more grossly complicated cards.
There was a time when a creature's text could say: [Creature] may use abilities and attack the turn it comes into play as if it did not have summoning sickness. Attacking does not cause [Creature] to tap. Tap to add one green mana to your mana pool. This tap can be played as an interrupt.
I have been playing Duel Master, magic's younger sibling and still very big in Japan, lately and going to through new cards on the wiki they had a similar change to card text in 2020; "When you put this creature into the battle zone " to "When you put".
I feel like ETB is much better, otherwise a confusing situation can very easily occur when a card is milled, it could be confused for it having a narcomeba effect, just more confusing for new judges
"enters" has never been used in connection to the graveyard or as far as I'm aware, anywhere other than the battlefield. Knowing what the acronym ETB means requires Knowing that the first word of it is "enters" so I don't think that is any more understandable. Also, I don't think acronyms have ever been used as rules or reminder text so it just doesn't fit stylistically.
I think they can coexist, like writing the whole name of a legend vs only the first word of a legend card. Also sometimes its weird to read only enters and sometimes it's fine, based on the context.
Important note about 1:03, gonna pull a rules lawyer moment but I think it's worth mentioning.
The reason Animate Dead's card text is beyond stupid isn't due to the reanimation, it's due to how it's done. Animate Dead is a victim of them making effects that don't function logically in the modern rules.
Following the updated wording shown in the video, Animate Dead would be sent to the graveyard immediately after bringing the creature back. It would enter play enchanting the creature in a graveyard, bring it back, then fail to attach itself to the creature as the Aura can only enchant a creature card in a graveyard (CR 303.4j). After state based actions are checked and Animate Dead sees it isn't attached to anything, it'd be sent to the graveyard (CR 704.5m) and you'd sacrifice the enchanted creature.
Granted, they could probably fix the stupid part of the wording by simply having it read "enchant creature card in a graveyard or creature put onto the battlefield with Animate Dead", but they sadly haven't done that yet.
edit: Focused too hard on one part and completely forgot that the reanimation itself lacks a trigger for when it enters and that it mentions "target creature" instead of "enchanted creature card"
The change to "Any target" on some spells that could previously target player or creatures (and redirect to planeswalkers) was neat
btw the reason Animate Dead has so much text is mainly because of "Enchant creature card in a graveyard". When the creature card in the graveyard becomes a creature on the battlefield, it does not have "Enchant creature", so it would fall off, which is why 'it loses “enchant creature card in a graveyard” and gains “enchant creature put onto the battlefield with Animate Dead.”' is on the card.
(FYI I agree about the whole enters stuff however I gotta say Converted Mana Cost holds a special place in my heart)
That painting is "Freedom of Speech" by Norman Rockwell, portraying real life citizen Jim Edgerton speaking up at a town hall👌
Lmao didn't even try to make the animate dead eratta even half correct.
The “corrected” one would fall off immediately
other good change would be "This" instead of "[CARDNAME]".
only few cards says "This" refering to itself
I would love changing "card name" to "this", so
"when Mabel, Heir to Cragflame enters, ..."
Becomes
"When this enters..."
It also makes it slightly more intuitive what happens when a card gains the abilities of another card without changing it's own name.
Of course a card like Shadowborn Apostles could still use "creatures named Shadowborn Apostles".
I'm not sure about the reanimate change as there is still the question about which graveyards you can get it from (yours, theirs, or either) as well as whose control it comes back under (yours or it's owner's).
not only does using 'this' make more sense, the backup creatures in March of the Machine already use "this creature"
The problem wiht 1:04 is that animate dead does not work like that.
As if you where to simply reanimate the creature, then attach animate dead to it, it would be an illegal target, since the thing your are enchanting is a creature on the battlefield, no a creature card in a graveyard.
Most of the animate dead text is there just to facilitate it being able to first enchant a creature card in a graveyard, and then switch its own text to enchant a creature in play once the creature is in play, instead of the reanimate text.
I still say "comes into play" on instinct.
same and I only started playing recently I think I picked it up from my playgroup
@DefaultMii Sounds like a good playgroup, shiboleths and all.
It's a good change, until the cards get so wordy again the problem becomes even worse later on
I like the change of enters since it‘s intuitive and won‘t confuse new players too badly. However I have a problem with search and reanimate, search would not specify that you search your library (it‘s not quite as intuitive to me).
And when it says reanimate something I would expect to lose the life equal to MV. It‘s just if you name a keyword or mechanic after a old card (like mill after millstone) the old card will influence your perception of the card. I am down for simplifying magic eventhough I love the puzzeling texts from time to time. But it should always be clear hoe something works with the rules (at least for basic cards that don‘t have a weird interaction like timestamps or apply on different layers) so that new players won‘t have to read the entire rulebook and learn all the lingo we use as magicplayers
I think comes into play was one of the cleanest ways to word etbs
i always felt they could've added more symbols apart from the mana and tap. for example there could be symbols distinguishing something you could only do as a sorcery (activated abilities) or when things only happen once per turn
Instead of tutor, I think just saying "search" may get the point across better without needing to rely on specific nomenclature that not everyone may know. I don't think I've ever called it a tutor card for any of my search your library for X even though I've been playing for around 10 years now. If you need to clarify you look through an opponents, just specify. But for majority of those cards, it'll cut the 17 characters of space that " your library for" brings
It's not only "your library for" there's also the shuffling part, which is mandatory whenever a player looks through a library, it could be implied by rulings. The only problem is that more implied rulings do make the game less approachable for new players, but if that's too much of a problem just getting rid of the "your library" seems intuitive enough. Mill is basically the same and the word by itself is not intuitive at all for someone new to mtg. Just mill means our own libraries and if the effect will/can mill others it's specified in the card.
I think the shuffling part could also be abbreviated, it's not super clear but it's simple enough to understand why the game would enforce you to shuffle everytime you look through an entire library.
Hey, they kinda did it with shuffle, before cards would say "shuffle your library" or "that player shuffles his or her library" now it's just "shuffle" or "that player shuffles". With search implying it nature's lore would go from "Search your library for a Forest card, put that card onto the battlefield, then shuffle." to "Search for a Forest card, put that card onto the battlefield" that's 29 less characters.
It was "search" before it was "tutor".
using just "search" will lead to confusions with many cards that either search cards somewhere other than the deck or seach cards in more than one area, like wish effects or surgical extraction searching in deck, hand and graveyard
You’re in the minority there bud, everybody I know refers to these types of spells as “tutor spells.”
@HomeCookinMTG Progressives are fluent in zero languages, you need to put your expectations on the floor.
Brevity is great. Notice they used the extra space for useless keywords.
But there's so so many places a card 'enters' in normal parlance that this is going to get annoying, especially as players enter with this as their standard way of using 'enters'.
Not to mention if they actually want more simple game play they could stop rehashing existing mechanics in more complex forms as "new" things.
Can you give me an example of a card that uses enters for anywhere other then the battlefield?
Cards say "dies" or "is put into your graveyard from ..." for the graveyard.
Hand uses "put it into your hand" or"return _ to it's owner's/your hand".
The stack uses "is cast".
Library uses "shuffle it into your library" or "put it on the top/bottom of your library".
I think the best way to shorten the text and keep the intended meaning is writing it similar to an activated ability, but keep it mandatory.
E.G. with Lumra, Bellow of the Woods:
"ETB; mill four cards. Then return all land cards fro your graveyard to the battlefield tapped."
Others could be used for board-state transitions, such as "Dies;" for enters the graveyard from the battlefield. Which makes "ETG;" a trigger for entering the graveyard from anywhere.
Of course, not very n00b friendly, but simple enough that it can be searched for or printed on advertisement cards to explain what they are.
So, basically like "Battlecry:" and "Deathrattle:" from heartstone
They should make it so, when creating a token, if the color isn't specified, it's colorless.
It's already done for reminder text describing treasures and clues.
"Enters" is such a clunky way to describe this action.. It might be convenient but it is not as efficient and understandable as "add". Entera fails to properly describe a creature being "summoned" successfully!
Just think about it from the Player's perspective.. a supposed Planeswalker that creates these beings or summona them to aid them in battle. What we see in the cards is what we would use to communicate in that world.
If a creature entered a location or a vehicle.. how in-world to they describe that!? Creatures enter graveyards and other zones.
Yes to the change, no to the execution. This is more of an abbreviation of an existing phrase.. and God knows I don't want Wizards to have more space in their cardboard.
Nah, I 100% feel like STP should say "Merc an opp fr fr". It's much more in-line with existing Magic wording.
Seriously though, I think that the new wording is fine. I don't really care one way or another; it just gives more room for more grossly complicated cards.
Just wait for "mega enters" 😎
I really like having "they" on the cards, it's more inclusive. We have a couple non-binary players at my LGS and they appreciated the change 💙🏳️🌈
There was a time when a creature's text could say:
[Creature] may use abilities and attack the turn it comes into play as if it did not have summoning sickness.
Attacking does not cause [Creature] to tap.
Tap to add one green mana to your mana pool. This tap can be played as an interrupt.
I have been playing Duel Master, magic's younger sibling and still very big in Japan, lately and going to through new cards on the wiki they had a similar change to card text in 2020; "When you put this creature into the battle zone " to "When you put".
I feel like ETB is much better, otherwise a confusing situation can very easily occur when a card is milled, it could be confused for it having a narcomeba effect, just more confusing for new judges
"enters" has never been used in connection to the graveyard or as far as I'm aware, anywhere other than the battlefield.
Knowing what the acronym ETB means requires Knowing that the first word of it is "enters" so I don't think that is any more understandable.
Also, I don't think acronyms have ever been used as rules or reminder text so it just doesn't fit stylistically.
@@seandun7083 I didn't mean the acronym, I meant the entire phrase, I was just abbreviating
I think they can coexist, like writing the whole name of a legend vs only the first word of a legend card. Also sometimes its weird to read only enters and sometimes it's fine, based on the context.