Copypasted to not be tiny

In English there has been a push for a singular gender-neutral pronoun. If one is "officially" added to English how do you think it would alter the format of how cards are phrased? If a "new" pronoun, like xe is added, would the cards be "he, she, or xe discards..."? If they were to also become a singular gender-neutral pronoun would that just become the default "that they controls"? Alternatively pronouns could probably be avoided entirely with by just referencing a person as player "unless that player pays..."

One doesn't need to be added, because English already has one. "They" is a gender-neutral pronoun that had been used in that context for hundreds of years. (Other interesting arguments for it at the link as well.) Even CMOS, which is what Wizards users, endorsed it until the 90s. The only people who criticize it are assholes (either language prescriptives, which is often racist, or anti-LGBT bigots).

Double down on 'They'. It may sound awkward to our ears but 95% of the time it's grammatically correct and avoids the he/she awkwardness.

As an aside, when I did my Scrabble's Two Letter Words article on He & Hi I happened upon the words 'ze' and 'hir'. The two words were intended to be gender neutral pronouns put forward by the queer community back in the 80s. They never stuck. Mostly, I suppose, because nobody wants to have their gender mis-labeled, whether you're gay, straight, trans or gender fluid.

Still, it's a cute idea. It's a pity there isn't some sort of language judge who changes the way we speak for expedience sake. But maybe I shouldn't be so hasty. Reading Shakespeare is tough enough, and hirs verboseness comes with only organic changes to the language.

For what it's worth: the only time 'they' is an inappropriate pronoun is when the gender of the pronoun is known. So...

"I don't know who drank my Crystal Pepsi I've been saving since 1991, but I hope they enjoyed it."

...is grammatically correct, but...

"Sarah ran her penny-farthing off a cliff and broke her cervix. I hope they have medical insurance."

...is not. But we wouldn't use 'he or she has' in this scenario either, so the choice to use 'he or she' over 'they' is moot.

You say "never stuck". There are several people in my Livejournal extended circles who use things like "ze" regularly. But it always looks unnatural to me. I think "they" is perfectly sufficient. (The one nonbinary person I know f2f prefers "they", fortunately.)

@Alex/JM and in furry circles were herm characters are common, you'll see "shi" and "hir" a lot. Still in the broader populace, I agree these aren't picking up.

I'm firmly in the "they" camp. Although I generally defer to Wizard's awkward templating, I cannot abide their insistence on wasting invaluable card space using "he or she".

I advocate alternatives only for the sake of brevity and efficiency, not for nefarious ideological purposes. Like to shorten the mouthful phrase 'he or she', 'his or her'.

thus I propose the shortest and easiest to pronounce and spell and remember. "e, em, er" respectively for subject, object, and possessive. 'em' is already contraction of 'them': eg. let 'em.

X has no standard sound in English, and looks unnatural since so few words start with it.

I think that singular "they" is OK as long as it is not unclear (in some contexts it is; in those contexts, they write "that player" instead, so it is OK). It is like singular "you". "You" is plural, and "they" is also plural, but both words can also be used singular, but will be gramatically plural. Singular "they" is also not really that new; it dates from the fourteenth century. "That they controls" is as wrong as "that you controls"; omit the final "s" on the verb.