Google, define narrow!
narrow
ˈnarəʊ/
adjective
1.
of small width in relation to length.
"he made his way down the narrow road"
synonyms: small, tapered, tapering, narrowing, narrow-gauged; More
2.
limited in extent, amount, or scope.
"they ate a narrow range of foods"
synonyms: limited, restricted, circumscribed, straitened, small, inadequate, insufficient, deficient, lacking, wanting; More
See, the basis for our misunderstanding is that we are not using the same definition for narrow. I (and Suicufnoc) are calling your definition more narrow because it's scope is limited. Less cards qualify for the label "elegant" under your definition, therefore it is more narrow. This is the second meaning of the word in the definition quoted above (though please note insufficient, lacking, etc. would
not be appropriate synonyms in this case). You are saying my definition is more narrow because it uses less words/rules. You normally wouldn't call this narrow though, you would call my definition simpler, more straightforward, less complex, or less sophisticated than yours, depending on which of the two definitions you liked better.
Secondly, I never said few words was the only requirement for elegance. That's a pretty big assumption to make. Case in point, I wouldn't call the card below elegant, even though it uses even less words that my original modification of Anotak's card.
I wouldn't be able to put my definition of elegant into words as elegantly as you do, but the color pie is not factored in as heavily as it is in your definition, because, as Suicufnoc pointed out, it isn't a basic rule of the game, but more of a guiding principle. On occasion, it's right to break the color pie, and this does not automatically mean a card is not elegant for me. In addition, while flavor and purpose help add elegance, they are not absolutely required for me. While a blatant flavor mismatch is often inelegant, bland cards can still be elegant to me if they're clean executions with a clear purpose.
