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Dec 19, 2012 -- 7:23PM, BlizzardWizard wrote:

I would prefer triggered abilities to always use 'When', instead of three possible words to indicate them.
'Whenever' and 'At' don't really need to exist.

When this creature enters the battlefield, ...
When a creature attacks, ...
When your upkeep begins, ... (which is also shorter than the 'at' wording)

I wouldn't like this. "At" signifies that the triggered ability has to do with the part or parts of a turn, giving immediate clarity that the triggered ability will likely happen multiple times and occurs during a particular step, and not upon some other particular action or event.

"Whenever" signifies that the triggered ability can (and may very well likely) occur multiple times, but for some specific reason that depends on the card, that usually doesn't have anything to do with the parts of a turn (like whenever you gain life). It gives immediate clarity that you need to pay attention to specifically what the ability says, and not some particular time.

"When" signifies that the triggered ability will only likely happen once, after which it generally won't be applicable again (like when this dies or when this ETBs). It's a clear distinction from the other two to indicate that you don't need to continuously pay attention to this permanent, unlike other triggered abilities, which in turn makes permanent-clogged boardstates easier to comprehend.

"Whenever", "When", and "At" serve different purposes, and exist for a reason. If you just replaced any two of those words with the other, Magic would be a very different game (not by the rules of course, but in terms of gameplay, comprehension, new-player barrier-to-entry and the like).

Dec 20, 2012 -- 10:55PM, KyCygni wrote:

Dec 20, 2012 -- 5:38AM, BlizzardWizard wrote:

It would change the barrier-to-entry indeed. It would lower the barrier.
Only one word would need to be remembered. Much like 'target' to see if something targets, and the ':' to recognize activated abilities.

The triggered abilities do not behave differently if they are made consistent like this.

What does it matter that the triggered ability refers to a part of a turn ? A trigger event is a trigger event. I don't see a need to differentiate trigger events based on turn structure from other trigger events.
Whether it triggers multiple times is also irrelevant. Triggered abilities trigger when their trigger event occurs. That's all that needs to be remembered to use them correctly.

The main issue with this change is that people are used to the current way of doing things.
However, people would adapt, much like they did when they had to start using terms like battlefield and exile.

Wizards doesn't like unnecessarily complicating the board state though, and nor do they like "complicate-the-board-state cards" (like Prodigal Pyromancer ) at low rarities. I just explained how the current terms make boardstates with several triggers that differ in nature easier to understand. From that perspective, changing them all to one word would actually increase the barrier to entry. Yes, noticing any type of trigger would be easier for new players, but understanding the differences among them in long games or during complicated boardstates would be harder.

Overall, I think your suggestion would raise the barrier to entry because learning the terms is something you only need to do once, after which you're good. You need to pay attention to the difference in triggered abilities every single game. Instead of making the terms easier to recognize, which does very little after you understand them, the trigger words are designed to make all the games you play easier to comprehend.

And I already addressed the fact that I was talking about the gameplay, not the rules. Yes, triggers occur whenever they trigger. The entire point was that the trigger words serve different purposes for the purposes of comprehension, not for the purposes of differences in the comprehensive rules.

I guess we agree to disagree then .

Any comments about my other suggestions?

Another suggestion:

As an additional cost to cast this spell, [cost] --> Additional Cost - [cost]
You may [cost] rather than pay this spell's mana cost --> Alternative Cost - [cost]

Not only is this shorter, it also makes the player familiar with the names of such costs.