This is fixed in the next release, which I'm hoping is later this week.
Funnily enough, it is not more expensive to target the older Skybonder, just the newer one. #wotc_staff
Thanks, ShueiHS!
We've been trying to get some QOL improvements in every patch. They're not always something everyone notices, but I'm glad you enjoyed this one.
I take a lot of notes from what people say in threads like these and try to improve things where I can. Thanks for the feedback!
Kale is my hero! #wotc_staff
Thanks for the report, this was an interaction I hadn't thought of. I checked with our paper-MTG rules folks and they confirmed that indeed, a mutated creature only earns you one land with Settle the Wreckage, so I'm fixing it! We hope to have an engine update sometime next week, so I hope the fix will be live then. #wotc_staff
Just to be clear, is this a specific issue with the card or the issue where a disconnect/concede won't notify the user in any way?
It seems to have been an issue with how the client understands the messaging about how cards are attached to other ones. I didn't work on this bug, so take this with a grain of salt, but I think Journey to Eternity transforming and thus stopping being attached to something caused the next time we made a new attachment to be handled incorrectly. #wotc_staff
Looking at our issue tracker, it seems this bug has been fixed for the Ikoria release. #wotc_staff
The event should be live again now! #wotc_staff
Tnx for replies. Wasn't aware of hyphen bug.
Fortunately, it should be fixed with the Ikoria release. #wotc_staff
These glimpses at the engine are fascinating.
It looks less like a game and more like the contents of my course on compilers.
Given that card behaviors are machine-generated code, that isn't surprising! This job is really fascinating to me too, and I'm glad that people in our audience can geek out about the process as much as I can. #wotc_staff
I have one. It's the Hydra for XGG that fights and it comes into play whole I control The Great Henge. Current default is to have the henge trigger go first, then Hydra trigger on top of that. It's almost always better to have the Hydra be put on first then the Henge on top of it.
I haven't played Wicked Wolf with a Henge yet but I suspect it has the same problem. In fact I can't recall if any of the ETB fighting creatures have the Henge stack first.
It's a pity, our system really cuts Voracious Hydra a raw deal. The only context it has for deciding where to stack the trigger is "When CARDNAME enters the battlefield, choose one" - it can't investigate what the options are. Also, it's possible that those options are wildly different in where they would want to be sorted - at the extremes, one option could win you the game and one could lose you the game, but there are many possibilities between.
Annoyingly, both "Double the number of +1/+1 counters on CARDNAME" and "CARDNAME fights target creature you don’t control" would normally be sorted to occur after the Great Henge's trigger, but the "we don't know anything about this modal" sorting weight is the default value, which is stacked to resolve before the Great Henge. #wotc_staff
Read moreChulane triggers should basically always go to the bottom, where Arena loves putting it above other draw cards effects like from Guardian Project.
Chulane's trigger is currently sorted as a draw trigger, which means that the age-order of the triggering cards is the tiebreaker. Our gameplay designer is now aware of this ask though... #wotc_staff
I think creatures' own etb effects should pretty much always go on the bottom of the stack and resolve last. Please point out a scenario where this is not the case, if there is such.
Sure, the etb ability results in a Scry, but you have another ability that says "Whenever a creature enters the battlefield under your control, draw a card." Usually, you want to scry before you draw. #wotc_staff
Out of curiosity, what was the trigger order you disliked? It's nearly impossible to sort them correctly 100% of the time (especially because some trigger interactions sort non-transitively), but perhaps the issue that burned you is one we haven't considered. #wotc_staff
Thanks for the report, I'll take a look tomorrow! #wotc_staff
Following up: The lack of shuffling is due to comparatively peculiar wording of Ranger of Eos compared to newer "may search" cards. Look at [[Heliod's Pilgrim]], for example: "may search... then shuffle", vs. Ranger of Eos's "If you do, shuffle".
Our code currently treats selecting nothing as an answer of "no" - this allows us to make things like "you may sacrifice a creature" be a single request of "choose a creature to sacrifice, or nothing". But "failing to find" in a search shouldn't be treated as a "no" response, so I've now fixed it so it doesn't. Expect this change to go live with Ikoria's release.
Read moreCan you hire me as well?
Never hurts to check out our jobs page. #wotc_staff
I found these on my pc and wanted to share... these still make me happy.
I can confirm that Maxx is a member of #wotc_staff - we were hired on the same day!
Do you use a custom rule engine or do you use something like Drools?
The rules engine is custom to M:tG Arena. #wotc_staff
Workshops remind me of Tavern Brawl in Hearthstone, where the developer also gave little looks behind the curtain every so often. One of the things that surprised me was how work-intensive they were, for something that the player base ended up taking for granted--does that match your experience too? I'm glad these exist but I hope it's not a huge pain.
Yes, a lot of these are a lot of work! For the rules engine, there's especially a lot of coordination problems for juggling data around, e.g. for adding novel cards to Momir events. Not to mention the challenges for our designers! #wotc_staff
I'm not sure if this is a bug or if I just don't understand the rules of the game.
I played Theros draft. My opponent attacked with a Venomous Hierophant (3/3) equipped with Aspect of Lamprey (doesn't affect the power). I blocked with my Soulreaper of Mogis (2/3) and Gary (2/4). The result was that both of my guys died. Shouldn't one of them have lived on, as the Hierophant had enough power to kill only the first blocker? Or am I just mistaken? Nothing else was played to affect the power of the Hierophant or the defense of my guys.
The Hierophant has deathtouch - a single point of damage from a deathtouch source is lethal, so it is able to assign one damage to the Soulreaper and the rest to the Merchant (which is the default assignment in Arena). #wotc_staff
This doesn't seem to have been fixed yet, are there any updates coming?
We release tomorrow. Sorry, I think I got the date of the release wrong. #wotc_staff
it's straightout nonsensical that ability loss is not layer 1
That's because you're only trying to solve the situation where dryad loses its ability, and not thinking about all the other possible interactions.
Alright, first off, let's do as you say and put it in layer 1. That puts it before copy effects, such as clone. Imagine the following situation. I have a [[clone]] that copies a [[wind drake]]. You put [[Ichthyomorphosis]] on it. Does my clone still have flying? Well, if ability loss is in layer 1, the answer is yes, because it loses its abilities first, then becomes a copy. Is that more intuitive?
Alright, so clearly, copy effects need to happen before. What about if we put ability loss as layer 2. That means it happens before control changing effects. Imagine you have [[Archetype of Imagination]] and a wind drake. Your opponent uses [[control magic]] to steal your wind drake. Does the stolen wind drake have flying? If ability loss was layer 2, yes, the drake would have flying, because archetype of imagination removes flying from your opponent's creatures before wind drake has changed control.
Ok, what about at layer 3. That puts it before text changing effects. Imagine you have an enchantment that says something like "all blue creatures lose flying" and you have a wind drake. You then use [[alter reality]] to change blue to red, such that it now says "all red creatures lose flying". Does your wind drake have flying? No, because the effect is applied before the text changes, so when it applies, it still says "blue".
Ok, so let's put it at layer 4, so that it's before type changing. This is really the crux of the issue, right? Ok, imagine your opponent turned a land into a creature using Nissa, then you cast [[humility]]. Does the land lose all its abilities? If we do as you suggest, no. Because the "lose all abilities" is applied before the type changing effect, so the land isn't a creature at that point.
To add to this, you have to consider that ability loss and ability gain are in the same layer. They have to be, otherwise you get really weird stuff. For instance, if ability loss was applied before ability gain, if there's a creature enchanted with an aura that grants flying, and you cast a card that says "target creature loses flying", it wouldn't actually lose flying, because "loss" would apply before "gain". That means you have to keep them together in the same layer. Why does that matter? Because if you say "you know what? I'm fine with the humility interaction you said earlier", the interactions with ability granting effects would be much more impactful.
Imagine you have a goblin that says "all goblins have haste". You also have [[arcane adaptation]] naming goblin. You cast wind drake. Does it have haste? If ability granting was before type changing, then the answer would be no.
Remember that Magic has existed for over 25 years now. They've been refining the rules since. Everyone knows layers have issues, so there's no doubt they've looked at it to see if something better could be done. The fact that they are still used means that they're the lesser evil, or at the very least, there is no easy alternatives. Perhaps one day someone will think of a revolutionary solution, but such a solution isn't going to be as trivial as "just reorder the layers!" They didn't order the layers randomly, they're ordered such that they are intuitive in most scenarios.
Awesome exploration of the topic! #wotc_staff