In Hearthstone, whenever a new expansion/adventure is released, we encountered with inconsistent card texts. I think, it can be confusing sometimes (It hasn't happened to me, yet) and it's hard for new players to understand the mechanics of Hearthstone.
Except *marked ones, all of the cards listed pull a card from deck/hand and play it immediately (without activating battlecries). *Marked ones copy a card from deck/hand and play it. In Karazhan and MSoG, they replaced the wording "put from deck/hand" into "summon from deck/hand".
I think, "Summon from your deck/hand." text is shorter and better than "Put it into the battlefield from your deck/hand." The listed cards' text can be changed into "Summon from your hand/deck."
4. Auchenai Soulpriest
Embrace the Shadowgrants same effect of Auchenai Soulpriest for a turn. However, their texts are slightly different. Auchenai Soulpriest reads "Your cards and powers that restore Health now deal damage instead." while Embrace the Shadow reads "... your healing effects deal damage instead." Like the other examples, shorter and clearer version of text can be chosen instead of using two different texts for same effect.
Auchenai Soulpriest also contains "... power ..." word. When we look at other cards that mention about Hero Power always written as "... Hero Power ..." with capital letters. For example, Prophet Velen, Raza the Chained.
5. Battlecry/Deathrattle
There are slightly different inconsistencies about these types of specifications:
They are the examples of inconsistency in Hearthstone. I don't know if you care about these kind of stuff but I just want to write them to bring attention for :)
I also added a poll to know what are you thinking.
Edit: If you know other inconsistencies, just let me know and I will add them.
They need to publish an official rule book for order of events and other card interactions so that players can ascertain whether an unexpected occurrence is a bug, or an intended result under the rules. Right now, all we have is an unofficial compendium of rules which have been generated via player observation/experimentation.
I agree with 1, 2 and 4, but I have some small issues with your explanations for the others.
3. Barnes should not really be counted in these, as he plays a copy of a card while the others actually pull the cards from their original locations. The same goes for Mindgames. In this vein, I think that cards like all of the other ones you listed should probably say "Put" and not "Summon" for the same reason, unless they were to change all of the listed cards to read the same way.
5. For some of the cards, like Museum Curator or Journey Below, they can Discover Deathrattle cards that are not minions (Tentacles for Arms, Charged Hammer) so saying "card" is fine. For others like Defias Cleaner ("minion with Deathrattle"), they are meant to be able to affect minions that are given Deathrattles through effects, such as Explorer's Hat and Unearthed Raptor, so the inconsistency in text is at least understandable. The same goes for the difference between "Battlecry minion" and "minion with Battlecry" but there have not been any cards that can make this a reasonable distinction (i.e., cards that give Battlecry to something that does not normally have it). The wording on Brann Bronzebeard and Baron Rivendare were definitely intentional.
6. The difference between cards like Archmage Antonidas and Rhonin, or Dread Infernal and Abyssal Enforcer, is most likely that one of each pair is in the Basic or Classic set, while the other is in an Expansion. Blizzard wants the game to be easily understood to new players, and it is likely that a new player will run into Antonidas or Infernal before they run into Rhonin or Enforcer, so the distinction could be to draw attention to the fact that Fireballis a spell and that the Dread Infernal deals damage to all other characters, so that new players can immediately recognize exactly what the cards do. By the time they see the newer cards, they should have a good idea of how cards like that work, hence the change in text to make it shorter. I'm grasping at straws here but it at least sounds reasonable to me, or like something that a developer would say. Darnassus Aspirant vs. Felguard might just be the connotation: the Aspirant takes the mana with her when she dies, and the Felguard comes in and smashes one of your mana crystals.
TL;DR, some inconsistencies make sense, but some just don't. Brode even made a video about Druid of the Claw where he said that he knows there's an inconsistency but nothing came of it so I have no idea what's going through Blizzard's team anyway.
They definitely should change the texts to make them consistent. This is something I've also noticed and wondered about.
I get why they might have worded Auchenai that way (to keep design space in case "powers" was ever relevant), but the way they worded Embrace encompasses Auchenai's ability without restricting future designs. So they should change Auchenai's text to match embrace imo, and some other similarities you mentioned.
Two things I wanna mention:
First, Brann and Baron's text was intentional in that Brann works for weapons, where Baron does not. I'm not sure why they decided to do that, but I suspect they put the limitation on Baron due to Death's Bite also being a thing. By the time they got to Brann, I'm sure they realized that limitation might have Brann see a lot less play (as I'm sure it did for Baron, although not to the same degree since Brann is worlds better than Baron).
Second, in bullet #1, it took me quite a while to understand what the fuck message you were trying to convey. To be clear, you're saying all of the "Druid of the Whatever" cards should read either "Choose One - Gain blah blah; or Gain blippity bop." OR "Choose One - Transform into blah blah; or Transform into blippity blop." correct? If so, then you're missing a distinct difference. Druid of the Saber's stats (Gain) are shown as a buff in green, where Druid of the Flame's stats (Transform) are not shown as a green buff. Which brings up another glaring inconsistency that I find strange. Druid of the Saber's Health is shown green, but Druid of the Claw's Health is not shown in green. Likewise, when Druid of the Saber is silenced, it loses its green buffs, but when Druid of the Claw is silenced, it remains a 4/6. Why is this so if both card texts say Gain and not Transform? I understand why Druid of the Flame does not receive green buffs (since it Transforms), and therefore does not revert to a 2/2 when silenced. However, I can't see why Druid of the Claw remains a 4/6 when the text clearly says "Gain +2 Health", which typically should be shown by a green buff. Imo it's a flaw in the game, and I believe Druid of the Claw should receive its +2 Health as a buff (unless they wanna change the text to Transform). edit: I just realized you were probably referring to "Transform to gain Charge" versus just "Charge", yes? So I'm guessing it's kind of like Druid of the Claw is to Druid of the Saber what Auchenai Soulpriest is to Embrace the Shadow. Same exact effect on the latters, just outdated text on the formers. So yeah, card text needs to be consistent lol.
3. Barnes should not really be counted in these, as he plays a copy of a card while the others actually pull the cards from their original locations. The same goes for Mindgames. In this vein, I think that cards like all of the other ones you listed should probably say "Put" and not "Summon" for the same reason, unless they were to change all of the listed cards to read the same way.
Barnes and Mindgames have similar effects (both summons a copy) but their texts are different. One of them says put, other one says summon. Blizzard probably changed "put from deck into battlefield" into "summon from deck", but for consistency, they need to change previous card texts.
@CrovaxTheCursed, I also added some detailed info for Druid of the Claw.
I didn't notice that difference, but I still think there should be a distinction between Barnes and Mindgames, and the other cards. Putting implies a card being consumed. Summoning does not.
Another thing that the above user mentioned is design space, because this game is attempting to be eternal so they need to be open and ambiguous for future interactions. Obviously they should be consistent and update old cards but some ambiguous things are okay.
In Hearthstone, whenever a new expansion/adventure is released, we encountered with inconsistent card texts. I think, it can be confusing sometimes (It hasn't happened to me, yet) and it's hard for new players to understand the mechanics of Hearthstone.
I am going to list some inconsistencies in HS:
1. Druid of the Claw
Druid of the Claw's text says "Choose One - Charge; or +2 Health and Taunt" which is similar to Ancient of War. However this ability is same type with Druid of the Flame or Druid of the Saber. (three of them transforms into new minion - those three also have a unique form with Fandral Staghelm, however Druid of the Claw doesn't contain "Transform" in its text.)
So, it should be "Choose One - Transform to gain Charge; or +2 Health and Taunt" which is like Druid of the Saber.
2. Wickerflame Burnbristle
Wickerflame Burnbristle's healing ability is actually same as Mistress of Pain but they have completely different format of card texts. Wickerflame Burnbristle's card text is shorter, so Mistress of Pain's card text also should be "Damage dealth by this minion also heals your hero."
3. Put it into battlefield -> Summon
Previous text of this effect can be seen -> Deathlord, Ancestor's Call, Mysterious Challenger, Mad Scientist, Desert Camel, Deathwing, Dragonlord, Voidcaller, Varian Wrynn, Y'Shaarj, Rage Unbound; Mindgames*. (Cards I remembered and found)
Then -> Dirty Rat, Patches the Pirate, Finja, the Flying Star, Krul the Unshackled; Barnes*.
Except *marked ones, all of the cards listed pull a card from deck/hand and play it immediately (without activating battlecries). *Marked ones copy a card from deck/hand and play it. In Karazhan and MSoG, they replaced the wording "put from deck/hand" into "summon from deck/hand".
I think, "Summon from your deck/hand." text is shorter and better than "Put it into the battlefield from your deck/hand." The listed cards' text can be changed into "Summon from your hand/deck."
4. Auchenai Soulpriest
Embrace the Shadowgrants same effect of Auchenai Soulpriest for a turn. However, their texts are slightly different. Auchenai Soulpriest reads "Your cards and powers that restore Health now deal damage instead." while Embrace the Shadow reads "... your healing effects deal damage instead." Like the other examples, shorter and clearer version of text can be chosen instead of using two different texts for same effect.
Auchenai Soulpriest also contains "... power ..." word. When we look at other cards that mention about Hero Power always written as "... Hero Power ..." with capital letters. For example, Prophet Velen, Raza the Chained.
5. Battlecry/Deathrattle
There are slightly different inconsistencies about these types of specifications:
As an extra (it is probably intentional) -> Brann Bronzebeard and Baron Rivendare texts.
6. Others
They are the examples of inconsistency in Hearthstone. I don't know if you care about these kind of stuff but I just want to write them to bring attention for :)
I also added a poll to know what are you thinking.
Edit: If you know other inconsistencies, just let me know and I will add them.
Thank you for reading.
Cards should definately read the same. I was wondering about Reno and kazakus but they seem to be consistent
This is good 1st step towards consistency.
They need to publish an official rule book for order of events and other card interactions so that players can ascertain whether an unexpected occurrence is a bug, or an intended result under the rules. Right now, all we have is an unofficial compendium of rules which have been generated via player observation/experimentation.
I agree with 1, 2 and 4, but I have some small issues with your explanations for the others.
3. Barnes should not really be counted in these, as he plays a copy of a card while the others actually pull the cards from their original locations. The same goes for Mindgames. In this vein, I think that cards like all of the other ones you listed should probably say "Put" and not "Summon" for the same reason, unless they were to change all of the listed cards to read the same way.
5. For some of the cards, like Museum Curator or Journey Below, they can Discover Deathrattle cards that are not minions (Tentacles for Arms, Charged Hammer) so saying "card" is fine. For others like Defias Cleaner ("minion with Deathrattle"), they are meant to be able to affect minions that are given Deathrattles through effects, such as Explorer's Hat and Unearthed Raptor, so the inconsistency in text is at least understandable. The same goes for the difference between "Battlecry minion" and "minion with Battlecry" but there have not been any cards that can make this a reasonable distinction (i.e., cards that give Battlecry to something that does not normally have it). The wording on Brann Bronzebeard and Baron Rivendare were definitely intentional.
6. The difference between cards like Archmage Antonidas and Rhonin, or Dread Infernal and Abyssal Enforcer, is most likely that one of each pair is in the Basic or Classic set, while the other is in an Expansion. Blizzard wants the game to be easily understood to new players, and it is likely that a new player will run into Antonidas or Infernal before they run into Rhonin or Enforcer, so the distinction could be to draw attention to the fact that Fireballis a spell and that the Dread Infernal deals damage to all other characters, so that new players can immediately recognize exactly what the cards do. By the time they see the newer cards, they should have a good idea of how cards like that work, hence the change in text to make it shorter. I'm grasping at straws here but it at least sounds reasonable to me, or like something that a developer would say. Darnassus Aspirant vs. Felguard might just be the connotation: the Aspirant takes the mana with her when she dies, and the Felguard comes in and smashes one of your mana crystals.
TL;DR, some inconsistencies make sense, but some just don't. Brode even made a video about Druid of the Claw where he said that he knows there's an inconsistency but nothing came of it so I have no idea what's going through Blizzard's team anyway.
They definitely should change the texts to make them consistent. This is something I've also noticed and wondered about.
I get why they might have worded Auchenai that way (to keep design space in case "powers" was ever relevant), but the way they worded Embrace encompasses Auchenai's ability without restricting future designs. So they should change Auchenai's text to match embrace imo, and some other similarities you mentioned.
Two things I wanna mention:
First, Brann and Baron's text was intentional in that Brann works for weapons, where Baron does not. I'm not sure why they decided to do that, but I suspect they put the limitation on Baron due to Death's Bite also being a thing. By the time they got to Brann, I'm sure they realized that limitation might have Brann see a lot less play (as I'm sure it did for Baron, although not to the same degree since Brann is worlds better than Baron).
Second, in bullet #1, it took me quite a while to understand what the fuck message you were trying to convey. To be clear, you're saying all of the "Druid of the Whatever" cards should read either "Choose One - Gain blah blah; or Gain blippity bop." OR "Choose One - Transform into blah blah; or Transform into blippity blop." correct? If so, then you're missing a distinct difference. Druid of the Saber's stats (Gain) are shown as a buff in green, where Druid of the Flame's stats (Transform) are not shown as a green buff. Which brings up another glaring inconsistency that I find strange. Druid of the Saber's Health is shown green, but Druid of the Claw's Health is not shown in green. Likewise, when Druid of the Saber is silenced, it loses its green buffs, but when Druid of the Claw is silenced, it remains a 4/6. Why is this so if both card texts say Gain and not Transform? I understand why Druid of the Flame does not receive green buffs (since it Transforms), and therefore does not revert to a 2/2 when silenced. However, I can't see why Druid of the Claw remains a 4/6 when the text clearly says "Gain +2 Health", which typically should be shown by a green buff. Imo it's a flaw in the game, and I believe Druid of the Claw should receive its +2 Health as a buff (unless they wanna change the text to Transform). edit: I just realized you were probably referring to "Transform to gain Charge" versus just "Charge", yes? So I'm guessing it's kind of like Druid of the Claw is to Druid of the Saber what Auchenai Soulpriest is to Embrace the Shadow. Same exact effect on the latters, just outdated text on the formers. So yeah, card text needs to be consistent lol.
Nature is the Day.
Man is the Sun.
Woman is the Moon.
The Stone is the Sky.
The Art is the Way.
I didn't notice that difference, but I still think there should be a distinction between Barnes and Mindgames, and the other cards. Putting implies a card being consumed. Summoning does not.
Another thing that the above user mentioned is design space, because this game is attempting to be eternal so they need to be open and ambiguous for future interactions. Obviously they should be consistent and update old cards but some ambiguous things are okay.