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WotC_BenFinkel

WotC_BenFinkel



13 Jul

Do you also experienced not gaining priority after enemy casts a spell during your End Step?

Comment

Originally posted by Grumbul

On a related note, I noticed an issue with priority on Chandra, Awakened Inferno's +2 emblem today:

When the Order Triggers popup for the emblems appears, the "Full Control" and "Hold Fold Control" keybinds both do not work as long as the popup is on screen. It will also not give you priority automatically when the emblem triggers go on the stack, even if you have something to cast. The only way to get priority once the Order Triggers popup for the emblems appears is to click View Battlefield and set a stop on the current upkeep phase, or enter full control/set a stop prior to the popup appearing.

I think if you only have a single emblem and/or have the Auto Order Triggered Abilities option enabled, you would get no opportunity to respond to the emblem trigger unless you had set a stop or entered full control prior to the upkeep phase, similar to the old issue with Warboss. I only noticed this in a game where I had more than 1 emblem, so I'm not 100% sure on the beh...

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Chandra's emblem as well as Captive Audience will also give you priority when the patch hits. #wotc_staff

Do you also experienced not gaining priority after enemy casts a spell during your End Step?

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I just this week implemented changes to give you a chance to act with default settings if your opponent gets a permanent during your Declare Attackers or End step. It will come with the next engine patch. #wotc_staff


11 Jul

"Chandra, Acolyte of flame" minus ability not able to use spectacle cost?

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Originally posted by JMooooooooo

No, this is design issue that happens ALL THE TIME, with all kinds of cards, only reason it was chalked up as a bug that required fixing in Warboss case was visibility.

When two players pass priority at empty stack, game moves on to next step or phase. But for whatever reason, same thing happens when one player passes priority to let spell/ability resolve, and other one automatically passes due to not being able to do anything (even if he shouldn't be gettng priority at this time). Player one casts Warboss, is out of mana. Player two lets it resolve, game sees two players passing priority with empty stack, moves on. Player one flashes in defender before declaring blockers, if player two lets it resolve, does not get chance to kill it before it's declared as blocker (without full control). Player one flashes in creature at end step, player two does not get chance to kill it without full control.

This is design issue that rears it's ugly head all the time, but it sta...

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You are correct that it's a design issue. I just wanted to clarify that the fix was broader than just Legion Warboss - whenever a card with a step/phase based trigger enters a zone where that trigger is active in the step/phase just before the triggering one, the opponent should now get to act (if they have any actions they can afford). For example, if your opponent discards Arclight Phoenix in their main phase, you should get priority to, say, activate your Remorseful Cleric. #wotc_staff

(Bug) Can't pay Spectacle cost from graveyard with Chandra, Acolyte's minus (ability is _not_ flashback)

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This will be fixed in the next engine update. Sorry! #wotc_staff


23 Jun

Turning on the Mythic Championship and see Kai Budde making Day 3

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Originally posted by Aloiciousss

Hiding in witness protection as /u/WotC_BenFinkel

I swear we're not related. #wotc_staff


11 Jun

Kasmina + Spark Harvest on different PW for 5 mana (Bug?)

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Originally posted by rrwoods

This is curious. I wonder if it's a rules-handling bug generally (optional additional costs incorrectly interacting with forced additional costs) or something specific to the way Spark Harvest or Kasmina gets parsed. If a WotC dev reads this comment I'd be super interested to hear what the bug and resolution are!

I just made a reply elsewhere here, hope it's a fun read. #wotc_staff

Kasmina + Spark Harvest on different PW for 5 mana (Bug?)

Comment

Thanks for the report, I've got a fix! The issue is mildly complicated, so bear with me for the explanation.

OrCosts check the individual options to see if the ActionCosts are payable. For example, for for Spark Harvest, it checks whether you are capable of sacrificing any creatures or planeswalkers. If you can't, it doesn't offer that option - and if there's only one option left, it auto-picks it.

Well, it turns out we weren't cleaning up those "we're determining whether this cost is payable" facts for the mana costs. And cost adjustment rules like that of Kasmina specifically check that we're not determining cost payability for them to apply.

So the fix is to clean up the DetermineCostPayability facts when checking whether an OrCost is payable. Hope that makes sense! Fix will go live with the next engine patch. #wotc_staff


31 May

Potential bug/ruling error involving Dauntless Bodyguard

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Originally posted by thesalus

Is it a possibility to use errata to address particularly gnarly text? Or is that a blunt instrument tantamount to admitting defeat?

Yes to both. It's almost always "hidden errata", or what we call a substitution. Just the parsed text is changed, the displayed text remains the same. [In Oketra's Name] is my favorite example of a card we subbed, to change "other creatures" to "non-zombie creatures".#wotc_staff


30 May

Potential bug/ruling error involving Dauntless Bodyguard

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Originally posted by JoeScylla

As a software developer myself, i find this very interisting. It's that kind of solutions that nobody thought off and after someone implemented it - it kinda feels obvious solution to this problem.

Can you (are you allowed to) share some trivia about this? Who had that idea? Did you know this will kinda work out or did you do a prototype? How satisfied are you with this solution - how good does it work - how many work does this save to add a new set?

Many of the things you want to know are from before my time (Arena's was quietly in development for quite a while!). It's hard to really estimate how much work this solution saves per set - after all, we've never done a set for Arena without using this system. As a general rule of thumb, a set has around 75% of the cards in it work right away with no need for developer work, around 10% work with less than a couple hours of work, 10% need around a day, and 5% are really hairy. #wotc_staff

Potential bug/ruling error involving Dauntless Bodyguard

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Originally posted by HackworthSF

Can you share some details on how the parser works? I've heard of people training neural nets to do the job, though I suppose you developed an "MtG grammar" that can break down the abilities of most modern card deterministically. Or something else entirely?

Neural nets are a bad fit for the problem because they're pretty "noisy" - they have lots of potential to make pretty much undiagnosable mistakes. We have a pretty classic-AI approach - a spelled-out grammar and dictionary that covers all of the rules texts we support, and a system that takes the resulting syntax trees, gleans their semantics, resolves anaphora (e.g. what does "it" mean?), and compiles the resulting ambiguity-free instruction flow into the final code. #wotc_staff

Potential bug/ruling error involving Dauntless Bodyguard

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Originally posted by AnalphaBestie

I can imagine that writing software to parse magic cards is absolutely great and terrifying at the same time.

You are correct on both fronts. :D #wotc_staff

Potential bug/ruling error involving Dauntless Bodyguard

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Originally posted by DragonXDoom

Out of curiosity, is the code for each card parsed from English, and then can be manually altered?

To put the question another way, to fix this bug, are you changing the card or the parser?

Thanks in advance! :-)

The parser. I like to describe my job as teaching a computer how to read M:tG cards. #wotc_staff

Potential bug/ruling error involving Dauntless Bodyguard

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Originally posted by igot8001

Can somebody explain why this works differently than, say, prevention effects (other than the fact that the behavior of prevention effects is explicitly codified in these instances)?

It's more about what "the chosen creature" means. It's actually lies, as rule 700.7 quoted by OP indicates. It really means "the chosen game object", but that reads worse in English. The problem is that the Arena rules-parser is using that English to write the ability's code, so... #wotc_staff

What is the little crown icon with the number 3 on the pteramander?

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Originally posted by Tesla__Coil

Just something I've been wondering - why not change the mana cost in the text box, in the same way that cards in your hand change their displayed casting costs? I'm sure it's not that easy, but it seems like the most natural way to represent the cost imo.

Ability texts are localized as entire strings, so modifying costs in those texts is non-trivial. We also don't want to raise the expectation that we'll do other such text modifications. Adding information is much simpler than changing it for us. #wotc_staff

What is the little crown icon with the number 3 on the pteramander?

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The crown represents a generic "numeric aid" - something on the card has a variable that we've identified as worth communicating to the player, but it doesn't match some particular mechanic (like, say, Undergrowth). We use this "crown badge" to represent that number. #wotc_staff

Potential bug/ruling error involving Dauntless Bodyguard

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Thanks for the report - I've confirmed that the Indestructible-granting layered effect is indeed constraining its recipient to be a creature incorrectly. I'll fix this up today. #wotc_staff


22 May

Any update to the Narset, Parter of Veils and Mass Manipulation bug?

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Originally posted by [deleted]

[deleted]

There will be a list in the patch notes themselves, like always. #wotc_staff

Any update to the Narset, Parter of Veils and Mass Manipulation bug?

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Originally posted by PhantomVyper

Probably going to be patched in tomorrow's update.

Yup! #wotc_staff


20 May

Is this interaction between new Saheeli and new Sarkhan correct?

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I made this mistake a lot when playtesting the set. It's just such an appealing idea! #wotc_staff


15 May

Opponent's Servo Token Has Menace for No Reason *bug*

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Originally posted by [deleted]

crossing my fingers that the similar bug is the stolen narset one

It's different, but I've already fixed the stolen Narset one. The bug I'm referring to here also has to do with "invisible menace". #wotc_staff