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Nich Grayson
@wubrg.bsky.social
Magic: The Gathering. Feminism. TV. Movies. Comics. Husband of Dana. Profile art by Greg Capullo. Profile banner pup is Eddie. Trying my best, I swear
14 followers72 following353 posts
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I have been thinking a lot about what we lost when WotC adopted ability words over modular keywords. Threshold was perfect when it debuted in Odyssey block. But after Ravncia's ability-word-palooza, it became an ability word and that's the standard now. Which led to soup like Whiskervale Forerunner.

Mystic Enforcer side by side card wording comparison. On the left is the Odyssey version, and on the right is the Time Spiral timeshifted sheet version.
Whiskervale Forerunner version from Bloomburrow.
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Ability words lead to some really awkwardly phrased lines of text. If you're a Magic veteran, you might take it for granted. But it doesn't have to be this way! Here's Cephalid Sage, as an example, and how it would look if we reverted back to the keyword format with modern wording:

Two copies of Cephalid Sage. On the left is the original Odyssey wording and on the right is the Eternal Masters version.
This is a mock up of Cephalid Sage with modern templating and also original Threshold formatting.
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Nich Grayson
@wubrg.bsky.social
Magic: The Gathering. Feminism. TV. Movies. Comics. Husband of Dana. Profile art by Greg Capullo. Profile banner pup is Eddie. Trying my best, I swear
14 followers72 following353 posts