The importance of 'then'
Asked by Temporal_Inept 3 years ago
I'm building an oracle text parser and am wondering about the relevance of the word 'then'. An example is Ancient Stirrings. 'Then signifies that the statement following occurs after the statement preceding it. But, when reading oracle text, arn't the statements executed in order anyway?
So, basically does 'then' have any special significance or rules effects. Thanks.
Temporal_Inept says... #2
Tylord2894 Thanks, yeah I'm using mtgjson for the repository
Tylord2894 says... Accepted answer #1
In short, the word "then" doesn't have any special meaning for the rules in this case. It is largely there to make Ancient Stirrings read better. "Then" helps break up a string of imperative statements into a list that's easier to remember. You already have to follow the instructions in order. The presence of "then" doesn't change nor require that. It's just there to help the human that's reading the card.
As an aside, if you're writing an Oracle text parser, you might want to check out MTGJSON (if you haven't already). They offer a great way to query and retrieve the Oracle text of cards.
Help this helps!!
July 10, 2020 2:01 p.m.