IcariiFA: I find this creature's body odd in size, in the context of its creature types.
What size would you expect a Sphinx Octopus Hellion to be?
I mean, it's an octopus so I kind of want it to have 8s in it, although two 4s is...pretty okay, as far as that goes. It just seemed like this is exactly the minimum size for a thing that's a member of three traditionally large tribes.
I see what you're saying now. It took a few readings. I still think the wording could be improved, however, for that reason; it's not preferable for a card to have to be read twice!
The whole point I'm making is that there aren't rules that support operations on names except for adding additional names and the various different ways that a card can refer to itself.
All of the rules for names are here and in no way do they have the capability of handling subsetting.
EDIT: In addition there are language issues; e.g. Sturmgeist and Storm Spirit have the same German name, Falkenrath Noble and Aristocrat have the same Japanese name. Cardname mechanics can't operate on this kind of stuff because names aren't the same in every language, so in effect any cardname mechanic except for exact-match mechanics can't exist.
There are cards that key off specific, full names, but there aren't cards that key off substrings of names. As far as the game is concerned, the name is an atomic entity, afaict.
Well, this is a round for the oldies. I'm not sure I will be submitting; I have no intuitive picture of any of those sets other than 'old' and in a few cases 'bad', and the research required to develop one is pretty unappealing.
My impression for this challenge is that, instead of working from a preexisting holistic vision, we get to look at those sets and create a holistic vision that holds together the set. There wasn't much in those sets that was cohesive mechanically, so we need only look at them from a flavor point of view and top-down develop a mechanical vision from that starting point.
No need to apologize; I hope that I didn't somehow imply that I thought your question was silly. These subtle wording issues are important in this hobby.
I'm a bit confused by battlegird. Is the creature battlegirded indefinitely? Kinda like monstrous? If so I would recommend some kind of marker to keep track of what is battlegirded. The fact that the second ability only lasts until end of turn and says "whenever" makes me think that the creature is only battlegirded until end of turn, but the reminder text does not say that.
To answer your questions, battlegird is an event, not a status. That's why it says "Whenever you battlegird" and not "When ~ becomes battlegirded"
That's cool! I guess then my disagreement was with your choice of wording and not with the logic behind it! I see where you're coming from that the card doesn't make overt reference to the Theros setting.
PS I guess it really showed this time around that I'm not a Kamigawa fan huh.
All of the rules for names are here and in no way do they have the capability of handling subsetting.
EDIT: In addition there are language issues; e.g. Sturmgeist and Storm Spirit have the same German name, Falkenrath Noble and Aristocrat have the same Japanese name. Cardname mechanics can't operate on this kind of stuff because names aren't the same in every language, so in effect any cardname mechanic except for exact-match mechanics can't exist.
To answer your questions, battlegird is an event, not a status. That's why it says "Whenever you battlegird" and not "When ~ becomes battlegirded"
Interesting question.
Also can I just say that I am thrilled that everyone in the top 4 got their cards (walkers! so hard!) in before deadline?! That is awesome, everyone.