Cactus Game Design Message Boards

This is funny.
I took a class in Bible College called Hermeneutics, and the goal was to study the Bible to find out what the INTENT of the original AUTHOR was.
In the case of the Bible, we are never 100% sure, because all of the authors are dead.
In this case, however, I am pretty sure that the author is still alive.
Why don't we just ask him?
LOL

Honestly? Because intent doesn't determine rulings.

For a long time Split Altar was ruled that it only worked on active arts, despite being intended to hit the entire pile (to the point where, IIRC, if you asked certain elders to sign the card they would just write "piles" on it). This changed when face-down arts were considered targetable, but for a long time the card was not played as it was intended because of a mistake in the wording.
Similarly, Foreign Wives used to be played as a continuous check - a common play was to block with her from hand, then drop Mayhem to force your opponent to draw. Presto, FW is now protected. Then it was decided that because FW says "if" instead of "while" the check is instant, not ongoing, so if they haven't drawn when she hits battle then she isn't protected.

At the end of the day, it's a question of consistency. As much as I (and I imagine the designers ) wish these cards worked as intended, I'd much rather see consistency across wording as much as possible (if for no other reason than it means I don't need rulings as often )

Not sure what you are looking for. There is a play-as in ORCHID, like Aggie said, that clears up intention.

The play-as entry was made because that is how Passover Hymn was ruled for many years. As we're able to, the Elder team will evaluate the use of "or" vs "and/or".

  huh?

I see.