Season of Weaving not returning vanguards

madwren

SoW says it will return each card in play to owner's hand.

Despite this, it isn't returning vanguards.

Janosik

'Card' is a bit of a confusing term, and IMO it's use should be retired from describing permanents in play.

At the start of the game, 'card' referred only to a card in hand, and never a card in play. You can draw, fetch, or discard cards from libraries. Cards can gain or lose mana, or have their costs affected. A player may cast a card from hand. Cards may be exiled or returned to hand from the graveyard.

In June 2019, with the WAR expansion, Vanguards were introduced. It's pretty obvious at this point that all of the aformentioned effects work on Vanguards. It's obvious in these instances that a Vanguard is a card. If I draw a card, and it's a Vanguard... then I've drawn a Vanguard card! It's self evident.

The current problem arose in Oct 2021, with the MID expansion. Oktagon stated to use the word 'card' to refer not just to 'cards in hand', but also to 'cards in play'. And you have to determine from context which meaning is intended: The word 'card' sometimes refers to 'cards in hand', and sometimes 'cards in play', but almost never refers to both at the same time.
https://forums.d3go.com/discussion/86459/is-a-vanguard-a-card-investigating

Now, Vanguards have a rule associated with them which tends to catch players out, which is that, when in play, they are unaffected by effects that affect supports unless the effect specifically states that it affects Vanguards

And this is where the confusion arises:

When the term 'card' means 'card in hand', it does affect Vanguards: the card can be fetched, discarded, or cast, for example.
But when the term 'card' means 'card in play', it does not affect Vanguards.

The rules are clear here, but they are not written on all the relevant cards, and therefore tend to catch players out.

I would therefore definitely recommend that going forward the term 'card' only refers to cards in hand. Instead of saying, for example, "Destroy an opposing card at random", an effect could instead read "Destroy an opposing Creature or non-Vanguard Support at random", or "Destroy an opponent Creature or Support at random, including Vanguard supports".

The text is a little longer but I think the fact that it no longer relies on unwritten rules is worth it.

As usual, I'm not suggesting that existing cards have their text changed, I know how much work that is with all the necessary translations! But I am suggesting that clearer text templates be adopted on future cards.