A coalition of gamers on the Wizards.Com message boards are urging WotC to return to old terminology, angered at what the game has become. BlackDiamondDragon, a veteran Magic player, started the coalition to bring back "Bury" into the magic vocabulary. A mentally unstable poster named Purraj of Urborg seconded the motion, and moved to reintroduce Banding, Flanking, and the terms Summon and Interrupt. He also urged wizards to put text back on basic lands, to add meaningful flavor text, and to restore varied creature types.

The gamers got the following response from Wizards of the Coast representative Mark Rosewater:

"There are very good reasons that we made the game the way it is. First and foremost it was too complicated. What does bury mean? Does it mean to put the card deep in the library? Does it mean to bury it in the backyard? Aside from actually checking the rulebook, or asking a slightly experienced MTG player, a gamer has absolutely no way of knowing. Also, bury is a very violent term. Destroy is so much more docile. And it can't be regenerated shows that no scary supernatural stuff is happening, like people growing back arms."

He then responded to the additional requests:

"Banding was too complicated for our new target audience, brainless ex-Pokemon players, um, I mean, mature adolescents, much like trample. What did it mean? Did banding creatures share abilities? The rulebook clearly said that they didn't, but a new player might not read well. And Summon is very complicated. We had tons of players calling in saying Swords to Plowshares was useless because the only cards they had trouble with were Summons, not creatures."

"Also, interrupt was confusing. How could something be faster than an instant, if an instant is instant? An interrupt was a spell that could interrupt a spell being cast, which made no sense to a grand total of seven gamers, who we must not confuse."

"Lastly, let me mention creature types. We have several creature types. In fact, at the moment, artifact creatures are called golems, and each color has around two creature types. That's a step up from when every creature was a Kavu. We have:

Red: Dwarves, Barbarians.
Blue: Cephalids
Green: Centaur, Druid, Insect
White: Bird, Soldier, Nomad, Bird Soldier
Black: Nightmare, Horror, Nightmare Horror.

With all these many, many different types, as well as Beast, which is what we now call everything else, we can mix and match. We can have Birds, Bird Soldiers, Bird Horrors, Bird Soldier Horrors, everything. I don't want to give too much away, but judgement will have a Cephalid Soldier Druid Beast Nighmare Horror Barbarian Legend. We also have a really nifty picture, but we had to shrink it to make room for the creature type."

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A coalition of gamers on the Wizards.Com message boards are urging WotC to return to old terminology, angered at what the game has become. BlackDiamondDragon, a veteran Magic player, started the coalition to bring back "Bury" into the magic vocabulary. A mentally unstable poster named Purraj of Urborg seconded the motion, and moved to reintroduce Banding, Flanking, and the terms Summon and Interrupt. He also urged wizards to put text back on basic lands, to add meaningful flavor text, and to restore varied creature types.

The gamers got the following response from Wizards of the Coast representative Mark Rosewater:

"There are very good reasons that we made the game the way it is. First and foremost it was too complicated. What does bury mean? Does it mean to put the card deep in the library? Does it mean to bury it in the backyard? Aside from actually checking the rulebook, or asking a slightly experienced MTG player, a gamer has absolutely no way of knowing. Also, bury is a very violent term. Destroy is so much more docile. And it can't be regenerated shows that no scary supernatural stuff is happening, like people growing back arms."

He then responded to the additional requests:

"Banding was too complicated for our new target audience, brainless ex-Pokemon players, um, I mean, mature adolescents, much like trample. What did it mean? Did banding creatures share abilities? The rulebook clearly said that they didn't, but a new player might not read well. And Summon is very complicated. We had tons of players calling in saying Swords to Plowshares was useless because the only cards they had trouble with were Summons, not creatures."

"Also, interrupt was confusing. How could something be faster than an instant, if an instant is instant? An interrupt was a spell that could interrupt a spell being cast, which made no sense to a grand total of seven gamers, who we must not confuse."

"Lastly, let me mention creature types. We have several creature types. In fact, at the moment, artifact creatures are called golems, and each color has around two creature types. That's a step up from when every creature was a Kavu. We have:

Red: Dwarves, Barbarians.
Blue: Cephalids
Green: Centaur, Druid, Insect
White: Bird, Soldier, Nomad, Bird Soldier
Black: Nightmare, Horror, Nightmare Horror.

With all these many, many different types, as well as Beast, which is what we now call everything else, we can mix and match. We can have Birds, Bird Soldiers, Bird Horrors, Bird Soldier Horrors, everything. I don't want to give too much away, but judgement will have a Cephalid Soldier Druid Beast Nighmare Horror Barbarian Legend. We also have a really nifty picture, but we had to shrink it to make room for the creature type."

Discuss this article in the Magic: the Gathering Forums!