Impossible Cards (tracking, discussing, etc.)

[Xander9009]

I was already planning to do this myself, no worries. And it should work fine with Baral's Expertise, for example. Assuming I'm reading it right, something like Far//Away has a CMC of 5. It is both blue and black, and it's an instant. You can't cast it with Baral's Expertise because its CMC is too high. You could, however, cast Night//Day. Upon casting Night//Day (so, it'll need a self-cast trigger to force the player to choose), it'll take on the characteristics of the chosen half, and have a CMC of either 1 or 3, and it'll be either black or white (and if it was normally an instant sorcery, then it would then be one or the other). But that should all work fine so long as the timing can be done properly to make the target tags work right (and hopefully the game won't flip out when we try to code an instant sorcery)...

[Splinterverse]

Added Nimble Obstructionist and Assault Suit. OP updated.

[Splinterverse]

Added Kopala, Warden of Waves; Mastermind's Acquisition; Siren Stormtamer; and Trove of Temptation. OP updated.

[Splinterverse]

Added Disrupt Decorum; Mairsil, the Pretender; and Teferi's Protection. OP updated.

[fallenangle]

What makes Teferi's Protection impossible? Primogenitus has protection from everything, Platinum Empyreon can keep your life total from changing, and Neo's cards can phase in and out. We can also set abilities to last until your next turn with PLW_My_Turn (I can't remember the exact function name, but it's on Kiora, the Crashing Wave's first ability, among others). It seems like it should be possible to do everything this card asks for, but I could be wrong.

If Goad works properly, then Disrupt Decorum should also be possible by using a CANT_ATTACK_PLAYER test and returning EffectController() as the TriggerPlayer, should it not?

[Xander9009]

I tried to reply earlier but lost my connection. I added those two (in the C17 thread) because they're only able to be approximated.

For Teferi's Protection, the issue is when it phases out tokens. For everything else, it should work fine.

For the other, it's just because goad's ability to properly check if a creature can attack you is limited at best.

They can both be approximated, and I should probably remove them when I get the chance tonight (unless Splinterverse does so first).

[Splinterverse]

Revisting Karplusan Minotaur, I'm thinking it may need to be added to the impossible list.

There are no triggers for coin flip wins and losses. While we could create triggers for these, I don't see how we can fire them in situations like Karplussan Minotaur. The reason being that the coin flip function has to be in a separate RTA from accessing the result (which is presumably where we would fire the trigger). In the case of Karplussan Minotaur, the upkeep age counters are going to cause repeated flips each turn. Capturing those results and firing triggers when the count is unknown seems impossible to me. Although I'm not very skilled with repeating RTAs so maybe it's possible via that technique.

For other cards (like Chance Encounter), we could create triggers and fire them based on result blocks. Chance Encounter is in the CW but it is using a trigger that doesn't work . . . COIN_FLIP_WIN.

[Splinterverse]

I've added Lightning Storm to the list after testing an attempt (https://pastebin.com/HqnxhDY3).

It appears that activated abilities on the stack do not work. Or perhaps it's just this one.

In any case, I'm not sure how we could switch the card's target using it's activated ability even if the card had worked.

[Parabolic]

Regarding Epic spells, would it be possible to approximate them with an Emblem to avoid them self-duplicating on the stack?

Have them generate an Emblem, after doing their non-Epic effects, that exiles the spell under the Emblem. Then the Emblem has "You can't cast spells" and basically the second half of Panoptic Mirror.

Where I'm stuck is that Panoptic Mirror requires you to cast the spell in irl Magic, but I'm wondering if the casting part could be just left out or even if another function could be used instead. My ignorance of the card functions and how they work is letting me down here.

[Splinterverse]

Updates to the OP . . .

No longer considered impossible - newly coded (and removed from impossible list):
Arctic Foxes
Cold Snap
Gangrenous Zombies
Gargantuan Gorilla
Snow Devil
Snowblind
Storm Elemental
Withering Wisps

No longer considered impossible - already coded and in the CW (and removed from impossible list):
Goblin Furrier
Karplusan Giant
Rimewind Taskmage
Ronom Hulk
Viscerid Drone

Added to Impossible List
Arcum's Astrolabe (snow)
Chillerpillar (snow)
Everdream (splice)
Frostwalk Bastion (snow)
Frostwalla (snow)
Icehide Golem (snow)
Splicer's Skill (splice)
Tawnos, Urza's Apprentice (copy abilities)

NOTES:

-- I did not code any cards from GRN, RNA, or WAR, so I don't know if any of the cards from those sets are considered impossible. If so, please let me know so I can update this thread.

-- As of this post, the CW is not updating properly, so even though I've coded some formerly impossible cards, they won't appear in the CW until it is fixed.

[Splinterverse]

UPDATES:
Added the following cards:

Biomancer's Familiar (ability cost; would also require custom Adapt characteristic applied to all Adapt cards)
Font of Agonies -- would need customer trigger added to each card that involves paying life
Forbidding Spirit -- paying to attack
Ravager Wurm -- ability targeting
Teysa Karlov -- impossible for the same reasons as Panharmonicon and Naban, Dean of Iteration
Tithe Taker -- impossible for the same reasons as Suppression Field and Kopala, Warden of Waves

I'm not sure if the following are possible:

Plaza of Harmony -- Needs to know which Gates you control. Might be able to update the manual mana functions to check for them, but would have to keep in mind auras that could cause a gate to lose its mana ability.
Rakdos, the Showstopper -- needs someone to write a repeating block with coin flips (and I'm not sure if it would work; it would have to be tested)

[Xander9009]

For Font of Agonies, it might actually be possible without modifying other cards. If a player loses life, it can only happen from three sources: combat damage, an ability effect, or an ability cost. So, if you're tracking both effects on the stack and life totals, then any time a life total drops while nothing is resolving, then it had to be a payment.

Plaza of Harmonies: This is what RSN_GetCanProduceMana(oCard, nColour) is for from RSN_MANA.LOL. filter for all gates (it's a subtype, so it's simple). For each gate and for each color not yet found, check if the gate can produce that color. Theoretically, even if the land is enchanted to produce something else, it should also be marked as *able* to produce that color. And in the case of losing mana abilities, typically, that only happens by changing the type, which would prevent it from passing the filter anyway. For Instance, Imprisoned in the Moon does this.

Rakdos, the Showstopper: There are two ways that might work, but I'm not sure if the first one would work. However, it's much simpler than the alternative.

| Open

Code: Select all

<FILTER filter_id="0">   --This might need to just be id. I don't recall.
   local oFilter = ClearFilter()
   CW_Filer_Type(oFilter, CARD_TYPE_CREATURE)
   CW_Filter_Subtype(oFilter, CREATURE_TYPE_DEMON, OP_NOT)
   CW_Filter_Subtype(oFilter, CREATURE_TYPE_DEVIL, OP_NOT)
   CW_Filter_Subtype(oFilter, CREATURE_TYPE_IMP, OP_NOT)
</FILTER>
<RESOLUTION_TIME_ACTION filter_id="0" repeating="1">
   local oCreature = FilteredCard()
   if oCreature ~= nil then
      local iParity = MTG():GetActionRepCount() % 2
      if iParity == 0 then
         --Flip the coin.
      else
         --Deal with the coin flip.
      end
      return true
   end
   return false
</RESOLUTION_TIME_ACTION>

<RESOLUTION_TIME_ACTION>
   local oFilter = ClearFilter()
   CW_Filer_Type(oFilter, CARD_TYPE_CREATURE)
   CW_Filter_Subtype(oFilter, CREATURE_TYPE_DEMON, OP_NOT)
   CW_Filter_Subtype(oFilter, CREATURE_TYPE_DEVIL, OP_NOT)
   CW_Filter_Subtype(oFilter, CREATURE_TYPE_IMP, OP_NOT)
   local iCount = oFilter:EvaluateObjects()
   local oChest = EffectDC():Make_Chest(0)
   for i=0,iCount-1 do
      local oCreature = oFilter:GetNthEvaluatedObject(i)
      if oCreature ~= nil then
         oChest:Set_CardPtr(i, oCreature)
      end
   end
</RESOLUTION_TIME_ACTION>
<RESOLUTION_TIME_ACTION repeating="1">
   local iRepCount = MTG():GetActionRepCount()
   local iParity = iRepCount % 2
   local oChest = EffectDC():Get_Chest(0)
   local oCreature = oChest and oChest:Get_CardPtr(math.floor(iRepCount / 2))
   if oCreature ~= nil then
      if iParity == 0 then
         --Flip the coin.
      else
         --Deal with the coin flip.
      end
      return true
   end
   return false
</RESOLUTION_TIME_ACTION>

[Splinterverse]

Are these possible . . . ?

Awakening of Vitu-Ghazi -- how would we change the card's name?

God-Eternal Kefnet -- how do we decrease the cost of a copy?

Ashiok, Dream Render -- how can we prevent library search?

Nahiri, Storm of Stone -- how can we lessen the Equip costs?

[Splinterverse]

2019-07-19 updates to OP

Removed Kaervek's Torch. (It's now in the CW and tested.)

Added these cards to impossible list: Alms Collector; Awakening of Vitu-Ghazi; Baird, Steward of Argive; Chandra's Embercat; Chandra's Regulator; God-Eternal Kefnet; New Blood; Nicol Bolas, Dragon-God; Repeated Reverberation; Tale's End; Vivien, Arkbow Ranger; Yarok, the Desecrated.

Added these cards to require coding many other cards list: Aven Mindcensor; Nahiri, Storm of Stone; Ashiok, Dream Render.

[Splinterverse]

2019-07-20 Updates to the OP

Removed from the Impossible List: Accursed Witch/Infectious Curse, Blessed Breath, Candles' Glow, Consuming Vortex, Dampen Thought, Desperate Ritual, Elderwood Scion, Everdream, Glacial Ray, Goryo's Vengeance, Hideous Laughter, Horobi's Whisper, Hundred-Talon Strike, Into the Fray, Kodama's Might, Lifted by Clouds, Mirrorwing Dragon, Overblaze, Psychic Puppetry, Reweave, Roar of Jukai, Soulless Revival, Spiritual Visit, Splicer's Skill, Strange Inversion, Through the Breach, Torrent of Stone, Veil of Secrecy, Vital Surge, Wear Away

Most of the above have also been added to the CW.

The majority of the Splice Onto/Splice Onto Arcane cards will be available in the next CW repack (tonight).

Here's the status of the ones that won't be included (yet):
Evermind -- splice piece works but I can't get it to not be castable/playable (per the card text that says since it has no casting cost, it can't be cast normally). I've tried considered for casting and can't be played characteristics, but no luck; it might continue to be impossible due to this issue.
Minamo's Meddling -- this one really doesn't make any sense given the current rules for splice. The card being spliced onto doesn't take the names of any of the cards being spliced onto it, so we'd have to track them somewhere I guess for this to be viable.
Shifting Borders -- the splice piece works, but I've written the control change code from scratch twice and tried every similar piece of code I could find and none of it results in control changing. If I can get that fixed, this card will be good to go.
Through the Breach -- the splice piece works as does most of the rest of the card. The only problem piece is giving the card haste. I've tried it from scratch repeatedly and copied working haste code from several other cards, but to no avail. If we can get the haste working, this card will be ready to play.
Wear Away -- this code is bizarre. I have coded it from scratch twice and every time I add it to a deck, the game crashes when I try to load into an actual match with it. I've tried changing the MID just in case that was conflicting, and it didn't work. Not sure why it's crashing.

===== ATTENTION MODDERS AND TESTERS =====

If you want to try and fix any of the problem cards above, let me know and I'll send you the code.

Also, it is very important to note the following: since splice allows the text of abilities to be added to entirely different cards, we must use different target numbers for each potential card. Why? Because if the card you are splicing onto is using target ID #2 and you splice a card on it that is also using target ID #2, it will use the target chosen by the first ability to use that number. So, I deliberately made all of the Splice Onto cards that have targets use increasing numbers.

Here's a list in case new ones need to be coded (and yes, I know I skipped a number here and there):

Blessed Breath -- 20
Candles' Glow -- 21
Consuming Vortex -- 23
Dampen Thought -- 24
Glacial Ray -- 25
Goryo's Vengeance -- 26
Horobi's Whisper -- 27
Hundred-Talon Strike -- 28
Into the Fray -- 29
Kodama's Might -- 30
Lifted by Clouds -- 31
Overblaze -- 32
Psychic Puppetry -- 33
Reweave -- 34 and 35
Shifting Borders -- 36 and 37
Soulless Revival -- 38
Strange Inversion -- 39
Through the Breach -- 40
Torrent of Stone -- 41
Veil of Secrecy -- 42
Wear Away -- 43

Splice cards not listed above don't have any targets, so they don't need numbers assigned to them.

In the case of the Modern Horizons splice cards, they have more possible bad interactions since they can splice onto any sorcery or instant. As a result, the target numbers could still encounter conflicts since there are so many instants and sorceries out there. But, hopefully, that will be rare, and if reported, we can easily fix it by giving those cards new target numbers.