Dovin's 3rd ability didn't work

srfin

I was fighting Noxious Gearhulk in the event and used the 3rd level ability to create a support. The ability fired, but no support was created. As a result I lost the battle several turns later. It would have been a simple win if the ability had fired. It may be that the whole board was energized which prevented the support being played. Anyone else seen this?

Topic moved from General Discussion // Alve

wereotter

If the whole board is energized, then yes. That's why it wouldn't play. You can't play a support into void gems, planeswalker gems, activate gems, or energized gems. So if there's no place to place the support, the support won't place. Sorry!!

I know this because this is the tactic I use to shut down the Torrential Gearhulk battle. If the board is energized, he can't place servos.

Delnai

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't this inconsistent with how planeswalker abilities whose effects cannot happen normally work? I'd expect the support not to be placed, but for the planeswalker to keep loyalty. Isn't this what happens for example with Kimora's fetch ability if there are no remaining creatures in your deck?

octal9

Delnai wrote:

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't this inconsistent with how planeswalker abilities whose effects cannot happen normally work? I'd expect the support not to be placed, but for the planeswalker to keep loyalty. Isn't this what happens for example with Kimora's fetch ability if there are no remaining creatures in your deck?

From what I've seen, not quite - Ob Nix will lose health & not draw if his hand is full; Sorin can spam his first ability to no result with no creatures on the board, and I've personally failed Arlinn's fetch with a full hand (not sure if this one still happens, of course).

Delnai

Hmm thanks for pointing this out. Kinda annoying.

Irgy

This happened to me too because of a full board (didn't lose though in my case).

Whether this is technically a bug or not is one thing, but either way it's bad design. Firstly it's unexpected, I knew why it had happened when it did but I certainly wasn't expecting it. Secondly it's not strategic in any interesting way, it doesn't lead to interesting decisions, it's just a trap. And finally even if you're aware of it, it's far from obvious whether there's a spot for a support or not on a busy board. On the whole it takes a whole lot of mental effort to remind yourself to check for it at the appropriate times, and the payoff for that effort is not satisfaction but simply avoiding getting completely ripped off.

It should just replace an energised gem in this situation.

Failing that (and probably the more general solution), it should prevent you from using the ability, not take all your PW energy. Yes it's consistent with a bunch of other abilities, but you know what? They should be changed as well. A positive side effect would be fixing the idiotic AI that uses these abilities for no gain.

Though I must say I hate to think of the complaints people would start making about Ob-Noxious if the AI started playing him intelligently...

Delnai

Totally agree with all this, Irgy.