Let's collect some bad/wrong translated cards

[Akira Foxmind]

Yesterday I had some interesting commander matches against a colleague of mine. In one of his decks he was playing a german Mystic Remora. Since it was a duel commander match it wasn't actually game changing, but we realized that the translation of the card from english to german was absolutely wrong and thus changing the strength of the card by far.

English wording (ignoring cumulative upkeep):
Whenever an opponent casts a noncreature spell, you may draw a card unless that player pays {4}.

German wording (ignoring cumulative upkeep):
Wähle einen Gegner wenn der Mystische Wels ins Spiel kommt. Ziehe eine Karte, wenn dieser Gegner erfolgreich einen Nicht-Kreaturenzauber spricht. Dieser Spieler kann {4} bezahlen, um diesen Effekt zu verhindern.
(engl: Choose target opponent as Mystic Remora enters the battlefield. Draw a card, whenever this opponent successfully casts a non-creature spell. He may pay {4} to counter this effect.)

So the german card only refers to one opponent instead of all opponents which makes it a lot worse, especially in multiplayer matches. Another (but also minor) point is that, in the english version makes the 'draw a card' a may-effect where the german card forces you to draw a card with it's wording.

With that yesterday was pretty interesting and education for me.

Do you guys know other cards where the translation (not necesarry english - german, but english - 'insert random language') was that bad and irritating too?
And has anyone learned about that specific card during a game where the wording changed the out come or at least the odds for one or more players?
Curious to hear about your stories. 

_____________

Edit:
Btw, does anyone know why Mystic Remora does not get the card shown as thumbnail? If I'm not mistaken my spelling is correct. 

[Judaspriester]

One of the reasons why over 95% of my cards are english. The wording isn't always great (especially at older cards) but its usually more precise.
I would have to look, but at least for german, I'm kinda sure there are some more examples like this.

Oh and I really would have to check, but there was one card where we got something very funny: in english you have much stuff neutral gendered. Chainwhirler is Chainwhirler, doesn't matter the gender. In german the names get adjusted for the gender. For one card WotC decided at a reprint for a new artwork with the opposite gender. I think you can clearly imagine the irritation of some players, if the name says its female, but the picture clearly shows a guy.

[Akira Foxmind]

One of the reasons why over 95% of my cards are english. The wording isn't always great (especially at older cards) but its usually more precise.
I would have to look, but at least for german, I'm kinda sure there are some more examples like this.

Oh and I really would have to check, but there was one card where we got something very funny: in english you have much stuff neutral gendered. Chainwhirler is Chainwhirler, doesn't matter the gender. In german the names get adjusted for the gender. For one card WotC decided at a reprint for a new artwork with the opposite gender. I think you can clearly imagine the irritation of some players, if the name says its female, but the picture clearly shows a guy.

On top of the more precised wording of english cards, I mostly do like the card names more than in german. Most of them are just easier or more fluid to pronounce with their english naming.

Well, I knew/realized that there where gender specific cards like Goblin Chainwhirler (fun fact: that was the card where I first noticed, too) but I did not know that there actually where cards that got cross-gender reprints to their previous versions. Maybe WotC changed the gender of the newer versions exactly because, the naming in comparison to the picture was so irritating for the older versions? 

[ApothecaryGeist]

English wording (ignoring cumulative upkeep):
Whenever an opponent casts a noncreature spell, you may draw a card unless that player pays {4}.

German wording (ignoring cumulative upkeep):
Wähle einen Gegner wenn der Mystische Wels ins Spiel kommt. Ziehe eine Karte, wenn dieser Gegner erfolgreich einen Nicht-Kreaturenzauber spricht. Dieser Spieler kann {4} bezahlen, um diesen Effekt zu verhindern.
(engl: Choose target opponent as Mystic Remora enters the battlefield. Draw a card, whenever this opponent successfully casts a non-creature spell. He may pay {4} to counter this effect.)

Actually, they're not that different.  You're comparing the English Oracle text to the German printed text.  Mystic Remora was originally printed with this text:

Whenever target opponent successfully casts a non-creature spell, you may draw a card unless that player pays 4.
[\quote]


So the only difference in the printed text is that in English the card draw is a may.


Back in the days of Ice Age, Magic was printed exclusively as a 2-player game.  So the assumption was that there is only one opponent.

[Akira Foxmind]

Actually, they're not that different.  You're comparing the English Oracle text to the German printed text.  Mystic Remora was originally printed with this text:

Oh wow, you're right. I only looked up the text on gatherer without looking for the cards sprite.

Back in the days of Ice Age, Magic was printed exclusively as a 2-player game.  So the assumption was that there is only one opponent.

Now I understand why there was the miss translation. What seems strange to me anyway is the 'target opponent' in the actual card text. If you assume that there can only be one opponent there is no reason to choose a target. 
Furthermore, why did WotC did change the oracle text for the card afterwards (without even reprinting it)? I mean the card gets a lot stronger by changing 'target' to 'each' opponent.

[ApothecaryGeist]

Now I understand why there was the miss translation. What seems strange to me anyway is the 'target opponent' in the actual card text. If you assume that there can only be one opponent there is no reason to choose a target. 
Furthermore, why did WotC did change the oracle text for the card afterwards (without even reprinting it)? I mean the card gets a lot stronger by changing 'target' to 'each' opponent.

Has a lot to do with how the rules were written back during Ice Age (just before 4th Edition).  And how those rules and templatings have changed.  Sixth Edition saw a major rules change and many old cards received functional errata in order to function within the new rules structure.  With Tenth Edition there was again another major rules overhaul and many older cards once again received functional errata in order to work. WotC was much more willing to give cards functional errata in years past.

[Maxix]

To give other examples of badly translated cards (although they have little impact on gameplay and are quite well-known, at least among French players) :

In French, the words for "fisherman" and "sinner" are really close, the only difference being an accent (respectively "pêcheur" and "pécheur").
Well, the French printed version of Descent upon the Sinful from Shadow over Innistrad used the wrong word, literally meaning Descent upon the Fishermen.

More annoying, there is at least one case where two different cards used the same name : both Disallow and the "failure" part from Failure//Comply were translated as "Refus". I actually had a game where both cards were played, we had a good laugh.

Last one I know of, the creature types Serpent and Snake were both translated to "Serpent", meaning that Whelming Wave and other sea-creatures related cards would also work on snakes. This was changed recently as Serpent is now translated as "Serpent de mer" (sea serpent).

[liter]

I remember a fun one from Fate Reforged when Ugin, the Spirit Dragon got translated to German. His -X actually read: Exile each permanent with converted mana cost X or MORE that's one or more colors. That was pretty efficient.

[Slyvester12]

I can't think of any rules text translations that are off right now, but I know some of the Japanese names are a little odd. In the case of Damnation, the Japanese name is 滅び or "Horobi," which means "ruin" or "destruction".

Which brings me to my other point: Wizards put way more thought into the Kamigawa block names than most people realize. Even "Kamigawa" itself is 神河 literally "God River". Boseiju, Who Shelters All is すべてを護るもの、母聖樹, or "Subete wo Mamoru Mono, Boseiju" which means "All-Protecting One, Mother Sacred Tree". All of the names from Kamigawa were well researched, accurate Japanese translations. Blew my mind after learning Japanese.

[Akira Foxmind]

I can't think of any rules text translations that are off right now, but I know some of the Japanese names are a little odd. In the case of Damnation, the Japanese name is 滅び or "Horobi," which means "ruin" or "destruction".

Which brings me to my other point: Wizards put way more thought into the Kamigawa block names than most people realize. Even "Kamigawa" itself is 神河 literally "God River". Boseiju, Who Shelters All is すべてを護るもの、母聖樹, or "Subete wo Mamoru Mono, Boseiju" which means "All-Protecting One, Mother Sacred Tree. All of the names from Kamigawa were well researched, accurate Japanese translations. Blew my mind after learning Japanese.

That's cool to here. I myself tried to learn some more japanese (currently just know some words and 1 or 2 sentences), but quit the course after some weeks. So every input regarding the japanese language is very nice.
Do you happen to know, whether there are references to gods or religious aspects of the japanese culture in the kamigawa block?

[Slyvester12]

I mean, the whole set is based off of the concept of 八百万神 or "yaoyorozu kami," meaning countless gods. It stems from the shinto belief in local deities and sacred objects. Several cards from Kamigawa reference this, like Long-Forgotten Gohei, which is based on the sacred talismans shinto priests use in rituals.

[Judaspriester]

I remember a fun one from Fate Reforged when Ugin, the Spirit Dragon got translated to German. His -X actually read: Exile each permanent with converted mana cost X or MORE that's one or more colors. That was pretty efficient.

Hell yeah.. I remember that one too. caused alot of trouble in my magic round because someone invested money to buy him after he noticed this.
He was really pissed as he noticed the misprint and was thinking about reselling the card right away, because it hasn't felt strong enough for him anymore... damn.. that guy hasn't even noticed how OP the card was with the german missprint.. I still wonder why he hasn't got suspicios...

[Slyvester12]

Well, it's been awhile, but I recently came across another weird translation while listing some of my cards for sale.

The Japanese version of Sensei's Divining Top...doesn't use the word sensei. Like...at all. The name in Japanese is 師範の占ない独楽, or "Shihan no Uranai Koma," which means "Master's Divining Top."

The word shihan means instructor, but also is the official title of master-rank martial arts instructors.

I just find it silly that the only Japanese word in the English name didn't make it into the Japanese translation.