Is the Magic Lifegain after match ever going to be fixed

Grixis197

The RtO red node objective is to have 40hp or less I won a match with 38hp but then it went back up to 48hp so lost 2 points, I didn’t gain life on the final turn this has been like this for a while why hasn’t it been fixed, its not the first time either I’ve lost points due to this.

ArielSira

It's because you gained 10 life when at max health. Very annoying bug I agree.

Dodecapod

Hopefully this bug will be fixed eventually, as it's persisted in some form since SOI block if not earlier (I believe it originated with a fix for in-battle life gain failing to register for objectives at all, so the current functionality partially inverted the old issue), but for those unfamiliar with the mechanics and implicit workaround (and, by extension, the exploitability for "X or more hp" objectives), the post-battle change in life total occurs due to gaining life above your PW's max at any point during the game, with the excess later added to your ending life total after the battle when the objective is evaluated.  For example:

-If you are at 100/100 hp and gain 5 life, then the excess is 5 and the target needed to hit the objective decreases by that amount (so "40 or more/less" would functionally become "35 or more/less")
-If you are at 97/100 hp and gain 5 life, then the excess is 2 and the target again decreases by that amount (so "40 or more/less" would functionally become "38 or more/less")
-If you are at 92/100 hp and gain 5 life, there is no excess and the objective remains the same

-If you were at 97/100 at one point in the battle and gained 5 life, and at another point you were at 94/100 and gained 7 life, then the target is adjusted cumulatively to account for both instances (so "40 or more/less" would become "37 or more/less", because one instance alters the target by 2 excess hp and the other by 1 excess hp)
-If your opponent uses Axis of Mortality for Y of your turns while you are at Z/100 hp, then the target is decreased by (Z - 95)*Y, with any such instances below 0 disregarded (each trigger would result in either 0 or (Z - 95) excess life)

The simplest solution to avoid this issue altogether is not to run any life gain, but if that's too restrictive for deck construction, then avoiding any life gain above max during the game would still allow cards like Gideon's Defeat or Renewed Faith to be used selectively after taking some damage without affecting the end result or necessitating ad hoc adjustments to the objective that aren't readily surfaced through any in-game information (though it might be possible to reconstruct the target using the battle log).

However, in cases such as Axis of Mortality that are difficult to avoid, or in instances where a mental lapse occurs (e.g. involving cards like Unesh in a deck with no independent sources of life gain), the template above covers how to account for all instances of this issue I've encountered in the last several months.

Sorry to hear this affected event performance, and good luck with future events involving similar objectives and life gain.

Grixis197

ArielSira said:

It's because you gained 10 life when at max health. Very annoying bug I agree.

Never knew that’s it worked I’ll be careful not to gain life at full hp next time 

Kinesia

Thanks for the detailed explanation @Dodecapod

I didn't know it was only excess health gained. That explains the inconsistencies I've seen probably.

Tilwin90

Ah but that silly bugs has been there for ages...and what's funny is that it works against you both when you are supposed to gain with X or more life, and X or less life. Talk about ironic!
Now the issue is not that excess life is counted at the end of the combat. I am sure the developers built it this way. What is inconsistent is that
- For X or less life, it calculates the life amount AFTER the excess is pushed into the health pool post-game
- For X or more life, it calculates the life amount BEFORE the excess being pushed into the health pool

The most elegant way to handle this would be to calculate objectives, THEN adjust planeswalker HP. That way you get the benefits of both worlds and nobody gets upset   (I admit I use the excess HP trick quite a lot to avoid spending on potions...)