Way back when, cards had keywords ‘Cleave’ and ‘Enrage’. You can even see these in Classic mode, which shows they can still do it, they just choose not to. They removed them because they didn’t want to estrange new players with an overload of different effects, but I think it’s safe to say adding the originals won’t really break the camel’s back at this point. Honestly, it’s just cleave that should return since there are alot of cards that have the effect, even in battlegrounds. It’s not like the term died out too, everyone still calls it cleave.
In addition, it’ll really help with the mixup of words in card descriptions, such as ‘damages minions adjacent’, or ‘damages minions next to whomever this attacks’ or whatever. Just a simple ‘cleave’, and it’ll all be sorted.
Plus plus plus, they’ve had cards that have multiple effects so you can’t say it’ll confuse players with too many effects, such as Zyliax and others that do not come to mind.
I doubt it’d take a tonne to make this change, so it’d be nice to see them return.
I never understood this thing as “it confuses new players”.
When I was new, I used to check what each keyword did, by overing over the card to read the tooltip.
What I found confusing was the tribe thing: I thought “beast” was the generic way to call minions, because I had never seen a beast before, so I didn’t know how to check it
Cleave was never a keyword. The term came from the Warrior Spell. The first Minion that had “cleave” was Foe Reaper 4000 which was in Goblins and Gnomes. The mechanic didn’t return until Kobolds and Catacombs with Cave Hydra which came out much later. So, no, it was not removed, it was never in the game during Classic. Also, all the text of these minions that have “cleave” all have the same identical text (there are currently six minions in total who also damage the minions next to whomever this attacks).
As for Enrage, they removed that because it was, well, confusing. People thought the Enrage effect would happen every time the minion got damaged, and then were confused when it went away again when that damage got removed. Now, those Enrage cards just say “has X while damaged” which is much clearer (which is something you touch upon in your post).
Having keywords just for the sake of having keywords isn’t a good thing. Also, if the description of a card is different from similar cards, it means the effect is different. The effect of Charged Devilsaur may be the same as Rush, but it’s not Rush.
Oh, I remember a lot of posts on the old bug forum asking why the enrage effect of a minion went away when their health was set to 1 with a Paladin spell.
And what exactly do you mean with Echo? Are you talking about cards that work similar to Echo but don’t have the Keyword because they weren’t in that set? Keywords are set bound, so if it’s a different set, that Keyword won’t return.
And both are from a set that doesn’t have Echo. And since they are not Echo, they don’t activate Mistwraith.
As for Mega Windfury, that’s a variation of Windfury, which is an evergreen Keyword (there are also no minion you can play that have Mega Windfury).
Huh, I thought that Cave Hydra was the first after Foe Reaper. That’s why I didn’t check the set of Magnataur (probably because, unlike Hydra, Magnataur wasn’t played). I stand corrected. Still, a big gap before the ability came back after Magnataur, and even after Cave Hydra.
They already exist, using them is better than adding more text than is necessary.
I get it, youre trying to be some sort of guru. That doesnt mean that keywords shouldnt be used for their effects, regardless of which set a card comes from.
Discover, lifesteal and rush, for example, span many sets. It simply makes sense for ALL keywords to do so.
No, no I’m not. And don’t try to mock me for explaining it how it is and why it is. I’m not the one who made the rules.
I completely understand your point and know what? I agree! I think it’s dumb that these cards are echo, but not really. I think it’s dumb they’re using the abilities of old keywords, but they’re not the same because they don’t have the keyword.
But the truth is, Blizzard decided to go the MtG route and limit keywords to one set, with the only exception that if it’s popular enough, they’ll put in more (such as Discover, Lifesteal and Rush). That does mean that certain Keywords and effects (such as Inspire, the whole “reveal a from each deck, if yours cost more” and Recruit) fail, because they’re printed on bad cards. The only two decks that I can think of that made Inspire work was Murloc Palladin (and that was only Murloc Knight) and Raza Priest (because they could make their Hero Power 0). Oh, and there was also a lesser played Shaman deck with Mukla’s Champion, Kodo Rider and Thunder Bluff Valiant which had some success, but not as much as the other two. Those were about the only three classes that used Inspire. No other decks come to mind, or at least I haven’t played against at the time.
I would love to see some of the old Keywords (and effects) return. You’re right, Dragonbane and Phase Stalker are Inspire. And (at least) Phase Stalker is Inspire done right, because it’s used more than the actual Inspire cards. And if you should start a petition for Blizzard to slap on the Keyword on those cards, I’ll be happy to sign it.
But this isn’t really a discussion about that. The OP was talking about a keyword that never existed and one that’s been made clearer.
