I started playing Magic: The Gathering about 21-22 years ago, not sure of the exact time, but I was 12 or 13 and opening Mirrodin block decks when I got a massive 11/11 Darksteel Colossus with 11 mana and knew I'd really like to play the game. I actually started a little earlier, collecting cards and learning the rules on and off because I distinctly remember owning cards from Onslaught, but the Mirrodin block made me start playing for real. With Kamigawa, I drafted whenever I could, and Ravnica was the best time for me Magic: The Gatheringto the point where I was participating in tournaments and creating my own decks.
When I took a big break at 19, I got back into active gaming and collecting MTG a few years ago, just as Bloomburrow was announced. I saved up to buy all four commander packs at Bloomburrow and got a few other products like the collectible booster display, regular box, starter packs and pre-release kit. I'm hooked again and Lorwyn Eclipsed already has me over the moon. All this to say I was active or walking around Magic: The Gathering most of my life, so it makes sense to me that WotC is “nerfing” Ashling, The Limitless, before its release, but I also know it's just a symptom of a bigger problem.
Magic: The Gathering has a ridiculous combination of Sonic the Hedgehog x Warhammer 40k
Magic: The Gathering players can take advantage of the powerful combo between Sonic the Hedgehog and Warhammer 40K cards, as strange as it may seem.
Best Commander Lorwyn Eclipsed MTG Explained
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It is a 3-CMC 2/3 elemental creature.
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Summons 4 generic to elemental spells that you cast from your hand
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It creates a token copy of any elemental non-token you sacrifice, gives it haste, and gives you the option to not sacrifice it at the end of your turn if you pay WUBRG.
Now, Ashling is incredibly powerful, which is reflected in the fact that she is Lorwyn Eclipsed's most popular commander in MTG across Eternal cards and main sets. For example, it can allow you to chain multiple Impulsivity for devastating effects. It can create incredible combos when paired with Yarok, the Desecrated and when played with cards like Shriekmaw, Risen Reef and MTGthe iconic Mulldrifter. He's a WUBRG commander, which means your color identity is all colors of magic. It can support the horde strategy of having a wide board. It can be a great cascade commander. I could go on.
How MTG nerfs Ashling, an unlimited command deck
One potential caveat some players noted was that Ashling says it gives 4 elemental spells to evoke and that it creates elemental tokens that you sacrifice, but it didn't specify the word “permanent”, meaning it could work with related instants or sorceries. To the veteran MTG players, this may be implicit since evoke has always worked exclusively with permanents anyway, so why would Ashling let you cast allied instants and sorcerers and then copy them when they're not permanents and don't need to be sacrificed? Therefore, why MTGAn errata comes into play that affects Ashling before it's even released, with a clause that explicitly mentions permanents.
MTG mechanics and keywords are too complex and allow for mistakes
That's fine, and frankly, it's probably for the best. However, it shows how addicted he is MTG has become a buzzword and there are too many of them, frankly. Some even do mostly the same thing, like Tarkir: Dragonstorm's mechanical flurry is the same as z's flurry of strikes DnD set, which is just naming something that has been in the game forever, or saddle is exactly the same as crew. This also shows that the game can be quite complex at times, to the point where errata are needed to simplify.
Rampaging Baloths in is a great example MTG was changed to MTG Arena reduce the number of steps and clicks, even if it meant “nerfing” the card by limiting its options. This is the card that allowed you to choose whether to create a 4/4 creature token whenever a land entered the battlefield, while the errata removed the “has” so there's less clicking on Arena. This can create some rare scenarios where you don't want to create a token, but now you're forced to because otherwise the game would be too complex, hard to track, and even harder to micromanage.
Before it was banned in Standard, MTG's Vivi Ornitier was nerfed via an errata in MTG Arena. This was a proper nerf rather than a rules clarification, but it still shows how fragile and subtle the MTG rules ecosystem is.
So while I understand the decision behind adding a permanent clause to Ashling, even if it remains the OP Lorwyn Eclipsed card in MTG however, I believe a more structured approach to the rules and the wording of each rule is needed. Instead, the game has very obscure parts that even some long-time fans and players don't know about, like how exactly layers work and the permanence order of effects that change the behavior of existing cards on the field. However, this is easier said than done, which means that errata are inevitable for the foreseeable future.

- Released
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September 27, 2018
- ESRB
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T for Teenagers // Blood and Gore, mild fantasy violence
- Developers
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Wizards of the Coast, Wizards Digital Games Studios
- Publishers
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Wizards of the Coast