608.2c The controller of the spell or ability follows its instructions in the order written...
«Dystocracy : A system of government in which corrupt leadership colludes with dishonest bankers and greedy elites in order to ensure that productive members of society –people who actually do useful work- bear the greatest share of taxes while gaining the least benefit possible.»
Why the templating difference? Why doesn't the Visions say Draw a Card, then Scry 2? Or Why doesn't Preordain say: Scry 2 Draw a Card ?
The default is to give keyworded abilities requiring reminder text their own line, complete with said reminder text. However, do that to Preordain and people are going to miss the "Draw a card" line because it's burried under a whack of italicized text.
(One thing that may be an additional factor here - at the time Serum Visions came out, the distinction between keyword abilities and keyword actions, though in practise it existed, wasn't yet formalized in the rulebook as it is now, so Scry was mostly treated the same as Flying for this purpose.)
Jeff Heikkinen DCI Rules Advisor since Dec 25, 2011
At the time Serum Visions was printed, scry was a keyword ability, which meant that it had to be printed on its own line (or on the same line as other keyword abilities, but that's not relevant here).
Later, scry was changed to a keyword action, which meant that it could be used as part of a spell ability. Serum Visions was given errata to have a period after the "scry 2". Preordain was printed with it as a keyword action.
As for why they didn't also change it to have just a single spell ability, joined with "then", I'm not sure. Sometimes they'll join things together like that, sometimes they won't. It's probably just a historical accident; Serum Visions originally needed to have two abilities, and they didn't bother changing it.
How to autocard (do this to specify a card in your posts): Type [c]Black Lotus[/c] to get Black Lotus . Type [c=Black Lotus]The Overpowered One[/c] to get The Overpowered One .
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