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Author Topic: Why is Remake worded that way?  (Read 4281 times)

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Kuildeous

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Why is Remake worded that way?
« on: June 24, 2011, 03:48:28 pm »
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I've been thrown a bit by the wording on Remake. I don't have the card before me, but I recall that it starts off with, "Do this twice." That is followed by instructions to trash a card and gain another one costing exactly 1 more.

The card text could have said, "Trash 2 cards. For each card trashed this way, gain a card costing exactly 1 more." Out of 130 cards, I don't believe that any of them say, "Do this twice," even for cards with a double effect (any +2 coin, +2 card, trash 2 cards, etc.). Even Trading Post could have adopted similar language, but it did not.

Is the wording deliberately chosen? Goons was written so that Throne Room could not net +2 VP per purchase per Goons. I don't think this thwarts Throne Room, as you could still play the card twice, performing the action four times.

Maybe it's nothing, but it just strikes me that after over 100 cards have been released, this one has that wording. I sometimes latch onto weird things.

Any insight on this? Other than advising me to take my meds.
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guided

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Re: Why is Remake worded that way?
« Reply #1 on: June 24, 2011, 03:56:55 pm »
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You're latching onto weird things ;)

I think the printed wording is clearer than your alternate wording, and I can't think of any other cards that are equivalent to "do this one complicated multi-step procedure multiple times," except (sort of) TR & KC, which do say as part of their text to do the same thing multiple times. Trading Post does not have a simpler alternate "do this twice" wording that would be equivalent: it has one atomic kicker effect following all the the trashing that depends on whether you trashed once or twice.
« Last Edit: June 24, 2011, 03:59:39 pm by guided »
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DG

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Re: Why is Remake worded that way?
« Reply #2 on: June 24, 2011, 04:58:45 pm »
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Quote
The card text could have said, "Trash 2 cards. For each card trashed this way, gain a card costing exactly 1 more."
Presumably you can play the remake, trash an estate to gain a silver, reveal a watchtower and put it on top of the deck, then trash the watchtower and gain a remake.
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guided

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Re: Why is Remake worded that way?
« Reply #3 on: June 24, 2011, 06:08:14 pm »
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Quote
The card text could have said, "Trash 2 cards. For each card trashed this way, gain a card costing exactly 1 more."
Presumably you can play the remake, trash an estate to gain a silver, reveal a watchtower and put it on top of the deck, then trash the watchtower and gain a remake.
Good one! I spent a minute trying to come up with some reason why the wordings had different real-game effects but gave up.

Though to be fair, Donald doesn't really seem to design cards around edge cases like this, and if he thought the other wording was better I imagine he wouldn't care that this case behaved differently.
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Kuildeous

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Re: Why is Remake worded that way?
« Reply #4 on: June 24, 2011, 06:37:36 pm »
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Quote
The card text could have said, "Trash 2 cards. For each card trashed this way, gain a card costing exactly 1 more."
Presumably you can play the remake, trash an estate to gain a silver, reveal a watchtower and put it on top of the deck, then trash the watchtower and gain a remake.

You are a crafty one, DG.
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Donald X.

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Re: Why is Remake worded that way?
« Reply #5 on: June 24, 2011, 06:46:55 pm »
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Though to be fair, Donald doesn't really seem to design cards around edge cases like this, and if he thought the other wording was better I imagine he wouldn't care that this case behaved differently.
That's correct.

I used the best wording I had for Remake and was happy with it. Do this twice! So straightforward.
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randomdragoon

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Re: Why is Remake worded that way?
« Reply #6 on: June 25, 2011, 04:57:02 pm »
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I think the wording of Remake offends the sensibilities of people who are too used to Magic templating ("this" without a noun after it? What does it even refer to?) but I think the printed wording is much clearer, intuitively, for everyone else.
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IamOBESE

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Re: Why is Remake worded that way?
« Reply #7 on: June 26, 2011, 03:32:06 pm »
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I think the wording of Remake offends the sensibilities of people who are too used to Magic templating ("this" without a noun after it? What does it even refer to?) but I think the printed wording is much clearer, intuitively, for everyone else.

I agree, I'm used to Magic formatting. Word choice and order are very specific in order to make the rules work. I can see why it matters less here, because there are way fewer card interactions to worry about.
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Auroch

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Re: Why is Remake worded that way?
« Reply #8 on: July 15, 2011, 05:11:59 pm »
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I would prefer. "Trash ... . Then do it again."
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