> "What I dislike about the evolution of MtG is the placeholder words that they constantly add to the rules" This is an odd criticism. It's the essence of DRY

> "What I dislike about the evolution of MtG is the placeholder words that they constantly add to the rules" This is an odd criticism. It's the essence of DRY applied to a context with very limited space (the physical surface of the card). Would you really prefer to have something like this written out in 2pt font? http://magiccards.info/bng/en/144.html http://magiccards.info/bng/en/144.html Having a named mechanic also enables rulings to apply to it, rather than just to individual cards with a particular wording. The keywords they introduce do create a learning curve for new players, but this is Magic we're talking about--not exactly a game for people afraid of learning curves.