Does Metamorphic Alteration override triggered abilities?
Asked by reseune 3 years ago
Hey all,
I believe I found a bug in MTGO, but before I try to report it as such I want to make sure I am not an idiot (well, no more so than usual), so here I am checking my understanding of the rules.
My opponent has a Mortis Dogs in play. I have a Mystic of the Hidden Way played face down. I cast a Metamorphic Alteration on my opponent's doggies choosing my face-down card as the one to copy. The Mortis Dogs did appear to change to a copy of my 2/2 creature; however, when my opponent attacked, a triggered event went on the stack (and it even said it was the Mortis Dogs trigger), increasing his 2/2 copy of my face-down creature to 4/2. When it took lethal damage and went to the graveyard, the second trigger from Mortis Dogs went on the stack, and I lost life equal to the dogs' power. (We were actually both surprised by this turn of events.)
Regarding Metamorphic Alteration, Gatherer says, "The enchanted creature will be a copy of the chosen creature as it dies, so any “when this creature dies” abilities it gains from the copy effect will trigger. Any “when this creature dies” abilities it normally has will not trigger." I believe that neither of the normal Mortis Dogs triggered abilities should have gone on the stack. Am I mistaken? Or was this an actual bug?
Thanks!
Rhadamanthus says... Accepted answer #2
If you selected all the targets correctly to make Mortis Dogs a copy of the face-down Mystic of the Hidden Way then this shouldn't have happened. The face-down status changes the copiable characteristics of a card. Mortis Dogs should have become a colorless 2/2 creature with no name, creature type, or abilities. Its first ability shouldn't have triggered when it attacked and its second ability shouldn't have triggered when it died.
April 22, 2020 8:19 p.m.
Thank you for the quick response. We have the game number, but we are going to set up a test in order to record and screenshot it just to make sure it wasn't a fluke. Like I said, we were both pretty surprised.
And yes, I am familiar with WOTC's, um, lack of alacrity in responding to MTGO issues. :\
Again, thanks for the quick response!
April 22, 2020 11:01 p.m.
In case you are interested in seeing the bug at play (pun intended), screenshots and gameplay captured here: https://1drv.ms/u/s!AoyHZiRU1jT-zeEsPJev2ylC6T09xw?e=8m2ZUr . I reported it to WOTC... fingers crossed.
Of course, I also pulled that card from my decks. Lol
Tylord2894 says... #1
Assuming that Mortis Dogs was enchanted (which I assume it was), then there shouldn't have been any trigger. The Dog should have been a vanilla 2/2 because that's what the morph creature was.
I would report what happened, but WOTC doesn't get to MTGO issues very quickly
Best of luck!
April 22, 2020 8:18 p.m.