a-screaming-clear-area asked:

It's confusing that Syr Carah, the Bold allows you to play lands you exile with it but Robber of the Rich only lets you cast spells it exiles. Please consistently choose one or the other and stick to it in the future.

I’ve decided to try something new on my blog. I’m going to start commenting on how to give better feedback. Giving feedback is an important life and job skill, so I’m going start giving advice to help people get better at it.

Here’s my first piece of advice. When suggesting something, it’s comes across much better if you say it’s something you personally would like to see done rather than demand as an imperative that it must be done.

For example, your point about inconsistency of effect is a good one. It is confusing when two effects work slightly differently and as a general rule, we as game designers should strive to avoid that confusion where we can.

But as someone who’s done this job for a long time, I know that while that’s a great ideal to have, game practicalities can often get in the way. Sometimes, in order to make something work within the rules or to avoid play design issues or to not cause digital issues, you have to create sone inconsistencies. It’s not ideal, but it’s the reality of the process.

So when you, the feedback giver, demand I do something, it puts me on the defensive. It implies that if I don’t do what you ask, I’m doing it wrong. It makes me retreat to a stance of “well, they don’t know all the issues at hand”. It forces unnecessary confrontation and creates distance between the feedback giver and the feedback receiver.

But if you word it as a desire, as something you would like to see rather than as a demand, it makes me, the feedback receiver, more willing to listen. People in general want to be helpful. If you present your idea as a means of you trying to help me rather than you trying fault me, I’m much more receptive. Now, I want to hear what you have to say.

So as to why the two are different. Syr Carah is a straight impulsive draw card exiling cards from your own library. As they are your cards, it’s assumed you have the mana needed to cast them. Robber of the Rich is stealing cards from the opponent’s library. As such, it needs the rider that you can spend mana of any color to cast them. The rider needs to use the word “cast” as it’s referring to mana costs. My best guess is they didn’t want the confusion were part of the text talks about “playing” the spell while a different part talks about “casting” it. The different words, besides being confusing, might also lead to odd rules issues.

Hopefully, this answer is helpful on two different fronts.