Evolve/devolve bug

Bug Report
1

While playing a shaman I encountered the following situation:

  1. I play a corrupted “Strongman” which cost “0” mana and when hit with devolve it was turned into a “whisp” which looks like the card was considered a “zero” mana card and not 7 as it originally is.

  2. On the other hand, the opponent played a “Mogu Flashshaper” for 6 mana (he had 3 other minions on the table) and when hit with evolve it turned into a 10 mana card. So evolve looked at the actual mana cost of the card and not the cost of playing it… as it was in my case.

To me this seems to be a bug. You have the same discount mechanism for both cards, but in the case of “strongman” the discounted cost actually changes the cost of the card and is imprinted on the card itself as such when played, while in the case of “flashshaper” the discounted prices seems to be lost once the card is played and it is considered a 9 mana card for the rest of the game.

So either evolve/devolve looks on the original mana cost of the cards, or if a discounted (for any reason) card is played, the new cost of playing that card should be imprinted on the card once it’s played. (eg: if a “fleshshaper” is played for 6 mana it should be considered a 6 mana card and not a 9 mana)

PS: I get why the strongman new cost is imprinted on the card since you can play it any turn later for “zero mana” and it’s not a temporary discount, however evolve/devolve mechanics should not look at the fact that a certain discount is temporary or permanent. It should either look at the original cost of the card or the discounted cost of the card in all cases.

2

Corrupted cards are considered completely different cards from their uncorrupted counterparts, so the corrupted Strongman is a 0 mana card. If you had instead discounted an unoccorrupted Strongman to 0 somehow and it had been devolved, it would have become a 6 mana minion.

3

As I said, I get why that happens, I still consider it a bug. In order for me to play a corrupted strongman, I actually have to play an 8 mana or more card, which is penalty enough to actually get the discount.

A shaman can play a fleshshaper at 5 mana if he has 4 minions on board.

So, you have to look at it from the perspective of the discount mechanism. They are both discounted cards.

To further understand why I think it’s a bug you have to think about “corrupted” as a “flag”. Which means, once a card get’s corrupted it performs an extra action and the card is flag as “corrupted”. After that you can resummon corrupted minions, you can redraw, replay corrupted cards etc.

In this case, corrupting a “strongman” doesn’t just discount the card, it actually changes the card’s cost to “zero”. It should actually read: “corrupt: playing this card cost zero”. So the playing cost should be “zero” when corrupted, not the cost of the card itself should be changed to “zero”.

I think it was just easier from the programming point of view to just set the cost of the card to “zero” once it get’s corrupted and this had an unfortunate consequence when the card is hit by devolve. Otherwise the card cost and playing cost should be kept separately which means an attribute more attached to the card.

Later edit: Y’Shaarj has the exact mechanics I am talking about, it changes the cost of playing (this turn, but it doesn’t matter for our purpose) of the cards and not the cost of the cards themselves. I believe corruption on “strongman” was supposed to follow the same mechanics.

Basically the only difference I see is the “permanent” and “temporary” aspect of the discount. In case of the strongman card, since the discount is permanent, as mentioned before … it was easier to simply overwrite the card cost, rather than keep the “playing cost” and “card cost” as separate attributes. Most likely they didn’t foresee the synergy with devolve…

4

That’s not how it works. The card is corrupted, not discounted. Every other discout in the game that I can think of would have worked the way you suggest, but the Strongman is the exception. He became a 0 mana card, he wasn’t merely discounted to a 0 mana card.

1 Like
5

The difference is that one is a base card and one is a buff…

No…

Corruption, when triggered actually transforms it into a completely different card. Different ID in the database and everything. It’s not a mana cost enchantment which would be indicated by sparkling in your hand, and why if you were to send the card backwards into the deck or back from the field to your hand, it doesn’t change back like a card with an enchantment would. That’s why they behave different.

This isn’t a bug.

6

Maybe I am not clear enough. You have to think in terms of “COST” and “VALUE” of the card.

The text on strongman reads: “Corrupt: This costs (0)”

The text on Y’Shaarj reads: “Add a copy… they cost(0) this turn”

So, while the text reads on both of them that playing them cost(0), while playing the corrupted strongman the cost is zero but also the value of the card is changed to zero, when playing a redrawn corrupted card with Y’Shaarj the cost is ZERO, but the value of the card is preserved.

So yeah, I feel it doesn’t work as intended. The cost should change to zero, but not the value of the card.

Evolve\devolve are targeting the value of the card not the mana cost of playing that card.

Even if a corrupted card is saved separately in the database as a new card, it should change the COST to “zero”, but preserve the VALUE of the card of “7 mana”

7

What you’re arguing is that if I were to Hex your War Golem into a Frog, you should be able to Evolve that Frog into an 8 mana minion…no, that’s not how transformation works.

When a minion is corrupted, it transforms into a different minion. In this case, the new minion loses the Corrupt keyword and has a base mana cost of zero. Like all transformations, it doesn’t know, or care what card it came from.

When you evolve something, it uses the base mana cost of the card. A card enchanted with a mana cost reduction is still just an enchantment and it’s base cost is still whatever is on the card. A transformed card changes into a different card, base cost and all, and has no memory of the base stats of the prior card.

How you feel about the interaction is irrelevant. This isn’t a bug. It doesn’t become one just because you don’t like it. If you want to discuss changing it, use the discussion forums. It doesn’t belong in bug report.

1 Like
8

That wasn’t at all what I was saying. You create your own arguments to sustain your own idea.

I gave a very specific example and if you want to answer please stay on topic.

Y’Shaarj text literally says the same thing (they cost (0)) as strongmen text (this cost (0)) with the addition that in Y’Shaarj case you have to play the cards in the same turn you played Y’Shaarj.

What I am arguing is even though both cards have the same text, apply the same mechanics, in one case the (0) mana cost is imprinted on the card which literally transforms it into a (0) mana card, while in the other case it isn’t. WHY ?

Your argument is completely invalid since Hex clearly states : “Transforms a minion” - so… different mechanics.

As long as the text says “This cost (0)”, that means the card is not “transformed”, it’s discounted.

If the intended purpose was for the strongman to be transformed into a (0) mana card, the text should state exactly that: “Corrupted: Transforms this minion into a (0) mana strongman 6/6 taunt”… basically the same text as in Hex case.

So, either way you look at it, it is a bug. Either the text is wrong and misleading implying a discounted card and it is in fact a transformation mechanics or the intended mechanics was for the card to be discounted and the end result is that it is transformed into a 0 mana card.

9

Maybe it would help to look at another corruptable card, Fairground Fool. When corrupted, he has 7 health instead of 3. This is a new card with a new base health. If corrupted Fairground Fool is silenced, he retains all 7 health, it isn’t reverted to 3. This is because corrupted Fairground Fool is a different card than uncorrupted Fairground Fool.

Because corruption transforms every corruptable card, they wouldn’t print the word “transforms” in addition to the word “Corrupt” on Strongman. “Transforms” is already part of the word “Corrupt”.

1 Like
10

never mind 20 characters