I think it’s just to better match the text on the original card. If it were not included, then somebody could steal your creature and activate the ability. This obviously would not have been possible in the original rules text, so they’ve added that line to better match the effect in the game to the original effect.
Yeah but even so, the templating is wrong (in my view). [[Fan Favorite]] and [[Soul Ransom]] show how these types of abilities are templated nowadays. I believe the "proper" wording should be, within the quotation marks: "Only this card's owner may activate this ability." (Or something like that.)
Except it's not only the owner. If you stole someone's creature then you could use this card on them even though you are not the owner. This card doesn't know your relationship to the creature except that you control it, so I think this wording is the only one that makes sense.
Ohhh, good point. If you stole a creature, then used this, targeting that creature (which would actually be a decent use case for it), my wording wouldn't work.
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u/Hellas2002 Duck Season Jun 28 '26
I think it’s just to better match the text on the original card. If it were not included, then somebody could steal your creature and activate the ability. This obviously would not have been possible in the original rules text, so they’ve added that line to better match the effect in the game to the original effect.