Which is smaller, a 1/50 creature, or a 50/1 creature?
Answers may vary. After all, the first will get extra attacks from adrenaline, which is better for smaller creatures, but it is not smaller than an otyugh, while the second is.
Basically, the same thing on a card should not mean two different things.
Then how about burrow? How does burrow effect attack? I'm betting you said it cuts it in half, which is only partially true. Burrow cuts it in half for all creatures except the devourer/pest, which has an attack that is untouched. You might say that's fine, as well, because the text of the card points out when the attack is cut and when it is not, but how does this idea hold up against devour? The otyugh has text that says it gets +1/+1. but the scarab does not, yet it does still get the boost from eating.
Now, let's move on to the hidden rules. Shard of readiness restricts ability usage to once per turn, poison only applies on every other attack, if a poisonous creature gets multiple attacks per turn, gravity pull acts as a shield, spells that affect all creatures "target" each one, and these are only a few of the hidden rules to the game.
This actually often goes hand in hand with what is written on the card, of course, which is why these two complaints are together.
The fact of the matter is, it can't even be found anywhere what the numbers on creatures mean, or that cards that don't cost specific quanta take randomly, let alone these more obscure rules, which even people that have played something like MTG would only find out by trial and error.
Most of these hidden rules are card specific, not something overall in the game, though the overall "how to play" could be better laid out, too. However, the only possible way to know that shard of readiness restricts ability use to once per turn is to either have someone else tell you or try it yourself, which means, in the beginning, someone had to try it out and find the hidden wall.
Hidden rules just make the game needlessly annoying, particularly for newer players that are just looking at the cards, and maybe the wiki, and are otherwise not warned of these restrictions, except what the card states.
I think the solution to both of these problems is actually very simple, go over the cards and make sure they are doing what they say, with terms made standard.
This would not increase the amount of text on most cards, and those that would get increased text would get very little. Many cards could get reduced text!
For instance, a new text for some example cards.
Gravity Pull: Target creature acts as a shield for all damage directed at its owner. This will take effect before any other shield.
Adrenaline: The target creature attacks multiple times per turn. Weaker creatures get more attacks.
Otyugh:
: Devour
Shard of Readiness: Target creature's skill cost is now zero and cannot be used multiple times per turn.
Graboid:
: Evolve (Shrieker)
Shrieker:
: Burrow
Then, in the wiki, or somewhere on the website, there could be a list of what every effect does. Many creatures only need the name of the skill, if the skills are listed somewhere, and all the effects are constant. So long as burrow always cuts attack in half, and its stated somewhere in a list of "rules," there is no need to list the exact effect every time it appears...or at all, just that one time for people to reference.
Heck, if needed, I could go through and make sure all the text on the cards is correct for what the actual effect is (and grammar...pet peeve in Elements is seeing "quantums" written on a card), and make a list of things that need to be better explained. These hidden rules and lack of a standard vocabulary in the game isn't very newb friendly, and it likely scares many people away.
Happy new people is good for us all, and so is the idea of making sure these things are standardized now, so better, more precise ideas come later.
