Cycling sometimes doesn't use mana on the cycling card [Can’t reproduce]

Magic: The Gathering - Puzzle Quest MtGPQ Bugs & Technical Issues
1

MECHANIC

  • Is it related to a specific mechanic or an interaction between mechanics?

Yes

  • Which mechanic(s)?

Cycling

  • Is it related to the text or its behavior?

Behavior

  • What is the problem?

It appears that how cycling uses mana was updated at some point (probably in v4.2 when IKO was released - I was not able to find an announcement related to any functional change, but the cycling reminder texts were noted as updated in the v4.2 announcement thread).

Previously (in AKH), cycling a card from any position in hand with any amount of mana assigned to it always drained mana from the first card in hand equal to the cycling cost of the cycled card. This meant that if there was mana assigned to the cycled card and that card was not also the first card in hand, its mana was simply removed when the card was exiled. This meant that in order to optimize mana usage, cards with cycling and mana assigned had to be moved to the first position in hand so that mana would be used and not wasted.

Today, from some testing I did, it appears that cycling a card from any position in hand will now use the mana associated with that card, but only if there is enough mana assigned to this one card to pay for the cycling cost. If there is not enough mana assigned to the cycled card, the entire cycling cost is paid from the first card in hand.

This bug report is two-fold:

  1. Cycling does not behave today as it was originally described in the v2.1 release notes (“The ability will only trigger if you have the listed number’s worth of mana in your cards - if you do, that much mana is drained from your cards, from top to bottom in your hand…”). This is the only functional description of cycling in release notes; the v4.2 release notes details an update to the description Cycling ability hint to “Whenever you exile a card with Cycling from your hand, if you have a total amount of mana in the cards in your hand that is equal or greater than that card’s Cycling value, you drain that amount of mana and draw a card”, but this doesn’t specify from which cards mana is drained. Interestingly, there is a hint that the cycling functionality may have been updated: “Cycling Mechanic Ability Hint…has been updated and rephrased to better reflect the current implementation”, suggesting there was a “previous implementation”.

  2. While I like this apparently updated implementation to prioritize using mana from the cycled card, it only seems to drain mana from the cycled card when there is enough mana on the cycled card to pay for the full cycling cost. If there is some but not enough mana, that mana is not used. This is inconsistent and should use the mana on the cycling card and then the mana from the first card in hand.

2

Thank you for the information provided.
This issue is now under investigation!

3

We could not reproduce this issue. If you face it again please let us know.

In order to help us, please provide the following information if you have it (you can PM me the answer if you prefer, or send it to Customer Support in-game):

  • A screenshot of the battle log?

  • The Planeswalker you were using and its level.

  • Which Event and Node.

  • All cards in the deck and possible interactions that might have happened.

Thank you,

Marcela.

4

I always play Kiora for cycling, so that much I can give you, but how you think I have a decklist or a battle log more than two months later is beyond me. I used your recommended bullets for reporting this issue and did a ton of research on these forums to build a framework of understanding for you, but I don’t even get an acknowledgment that anyone has read or understood this report.

As if this timeline and result wasn’t frustrating enough, I asked questions here about what you implemented with the rerelease of cycling in a set. “Can’t reproduce” isn’t a sensible response to this request.

I report bugs because this is a massively complex product and you need players to submit bug reports and I want to contribute to a game I have enjoyed for five years, but having so many reports passed off en masse is demoralizing.

I’m done reporting bugs and contributing to Q&A. The level of frustration and the feeling of disrespect it brings to my life is not worth it.