MTG Cardsmith Community Forums
HELP!!! I NEED A GRAMMAR LESSON!
Recently, I've been told that my MTG grammar isn't good. I, on the other hand, have no idea what I'm doing wrong. If you could give me a few tips and/or correct my cards, that would be great.
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Don't look at the old ones please. Those suck. I should delete them.
I know. Sorry, I just sent the site to help. I make a lot of mistakes in that part.
Ixban, Forest of Life
When Ixban, Forest of Life enters the battlefield, sacrifice it unless you sacrifice one basic land of each type
{T}: Add WUBRG
{T}: Choose two, you may choose the same one twice:
You gain 3 life
Create two 1/1 druid creature tokens that are all colors.
Always capitalize subtypes.
Creature subtypes: Cat, Lizard, Dragon, Eldrazi.
Other subtypes: Equipment, Aura, Arcane.
Capitalize abilitiy costs when using words.
"3 {b}, {t}, Sacrifice this creature: [Ability]."
Use commas to break when abilities happen.
"When ~ enters the battlefield, draw a card."
The difference between "when" and "whenever" is usually how many times the ability will trigger in the card's lifetime. If it's once, use when;
"When this creature enters the battlefield..."
"When this creature dies..."
And if it is expected to happen more than once, use whenever;
"Whenever another Cat enters the battlefield..."
"Whenever this creature attacks..."
Another big one.
Get, gets, has, have, gain, gains.
"Target creature gets +1/+1 until end of turn."
"Ceatures you control get -1/-1."
P/T boosts and detriments are easy to remember, they are always get/gets respectively for plural or singular.
Keywords and other abilities are a little harder, but not insane.
"Target creature gains trample until end of turn."
"Creatures you control have trample."
Gain/gains is used for temporary abilities. (If it's gone at the end of turn.)
Has/have is used for permanent abilities. (If it's persistent for the entire match.)
I just took a quick look at some of your cards, you put periods at the end of a lot of card names, don't. Ha ha. Usually never need to do that.
Numbers, do you put 2 or two? This is one of the most common areas for errors and it's MtG fault. Ha ha.
The general rule is, if it's written in a roman numeral, like life totals and P/T(power and toughness) of a creature, write it the same.
"You gain 2 life."
"...deals 3 damage to target creature."
If you're just referring to a number, write it out.
"Draw three cards."
"Create two tokens..."
That's a bit of common stuff and a couple I've noticed you do. The other big one I've noticed is just grammar in general. Letters not capitalized, no punctuation. Simple stuff like that. Unfortunately that is a little harder to pin down as that's more personal than relating to MtG. In that regards, you should seek advice on individual cards as opposed to a broad stroke of "help my grammar". Since stuff like that is usually memorized by repetition rather than being told.
The main thing though, aside from you wanting help, which it seems you do, is to recognize your own mistakes. At any stage. Conception, execution, or after the fact. Once you begin to recognize your own issues, not only do you work to fix them, you recognize them in others. Which means you can pay it forward by helping others and in turn become a household name in terms of helping people. So while I do think it's great that you're reaching out to find help, I think you should do a little work for yourself too.
One of the big things with me, is why. Why do we do that, why is it written like that? If I find out the reasoning for stuff, it helps me to remember.
A'ight, that was a bunch of stuff and it was broken up since I am at work. Ha ha. I hope I didn't f*** anything up and more importantly I hope it helps.
And, on a personal note, if you get stuck or are concerned with a particular card, feel free to tag me and I'll try and help. Just don't overuse it. I can help, but I'm not going to become a dependent. There are others in the community who are great with this stuff as well, but I cannot in good conscious tag them, as it is not my place. The more you interact and the more you do on this site will show you who those people are. And everyone I've met on here who is a regular, is worth knowing and will help.
Good luck.
I hope this helps and feel free to tag me in the comment section of the card (@Shadow123:disqus) and I’d be happy to help!
What has helped me the most has been taking the time to look up cards with similar syntax to what I'm trying to do. Making a direct damage spell? Pop some of the key text into Gatherer. Working on a set of activated abilities? See if it's been done before on Scryfall. Doing your own work on the front end tends to lead to a high level of initial polish. This process also helps you identify whether your effect has already been done (and if you can grab the wording you need from an existing card).
Other than that, as has also been previously stated, @Suicidal_Deity nailed it on the basics/common mistakes. That is an excellent reference!