Horrific Countenance untaps a tapped blocking minion

direwolf wrote:

It may be an unintended consequence of the wording. Dark Sovereigns had a lot of card text migrations (largely due to pool costs however.

Both printings of Horrific Countenance use the same wording - untap the blocking minion.

vtes.pl/card/39592
vtes.pl/card/41987

jamesatzephyr wrote:

direwolf wrote:

It may be an unintended consequence of the wording. Dark Sovereigns had a lot of card text migrations (largely due to pool costs however.

Both printings of Horrific Countenance use the same wording - untap the blocking minion.

vtes.pl/card/39592
vtes.pl/card/41987

I said as much in the same post.

the untap is illogical from a mechanic standpoint, but from a fluffy standpoint, it makes sense.
your tapped. you're the pawn of some ancient methuselah (lets say, the pawn of hugh anseesing ) and you're a lonley 5-cap with +1 intercept who just bled your master's prey. your tired. you don't want to do anything until at least your next untap phase. then stanislava tried to bleed. you wake up and block. she turns into something really scary lookin. it scares you into untapping and not blocking.

its almost logical....

Involving "logic" (that is - applying real world mechanics to the game) won't make sense very long.
Especially when it comes to Disarming people - looks like they can grow an arm back. But wait - it's not all - even though vampires used to be human beings in the first place, you can only disarm them once.
And then you realize you can disarm Aabbt Kindred, which are snakes. Where's the logic there?

Pascal wrote:

Involving "logic" (that is - applying real world mechanics to the game) won't make sense very long.
Especially when it comes to Disarming people - looks like they can grow an arm back. But wait - it's not all - even though vampires used to be human beings in the first place, you can only disarm them once.
And then you realize you can disarm Aabbt Kindred, which are snakes. Where's the logic there?

Does this mean that you agree with Direwolf?

ReverendRevolver wrote:

the untap is illogical from a mechanic standpoint, but from a fluffy standpoint, it makes sense.
your tapped. you're the pawn of some ancient methuselah (lets say, the pawn of hugh anseesing ) and you're a lonley 5-cap with +1 intercept who just bled your master's prey. your tired. you don't want to do anything until at least your next untap phase. then stanislava tried to bleed. you wake up and block. she turns into something really scary lookin. it scares you into untapping and not blocking.

its almost logical....

That was my thinking exactly as to how "real world" logic applies to Horrific Countenance as the card is now.

However, is that really the intent of the card, or is that post justification?

My above arguments were that the card does not make sense from a game-mechanic sense. In the example mentioned mentioned by Aaron, and the whole reason for this discussion is that his prey received an unintended bonus from a card that Aaron played, which had a significant impact on the game.

There is a precedent for changing "untap the blocking minion" to "the blocking minion does not tap."

Maybe you don't agree that the card should be changed to read "the blocking minion does not tap" but that is the easiest solution to the problem.

I understand if you do not see untapping your prey's minion as a problem. Perhaps it is fair that it is part of the "cost" of playing that card.

Very few cards allow for an action to be unblockable. "Mantle of the Moon" requires a clan, must be played as announced and costs 4 blood. "Virtuosa" requires a bloodline discipline at superior and costs 3 blood. Other cards have lesser blood costs, but other costs or restrictions (such as taking aggravated damage.)

@Pascal: I agree, applying real world logic may not always work when ruling on cards, but real world logic does help inform card ideas when creating cards, and can help determine the intention of a card text when determining a ruling or deciding on a change of card text.

How does a Disarmed Aabbt Kindred computer hack? They don't, unless Nefertiti is in play.