Magic Timing

[ShawnieBoy]

Been noticing a few strange AI activities, and think that some of the magic timings are over-used.

MagicTiming.Pump appears on all manner of activated abilities and spells. The AI seems to like using this timing as if it were increasing the power and toughness of a creature, which I assume is what it was originally designed for.

It also appears on abilities/spells that grant an ability. As well as damage prevention. (And generally as a catch-all for any other abilities/spells).

MagicTiming.Pump restricts abilities to the first main phase, declare blockers, and whenever there's something on the stack.

For damage prevention, I would assume that it would either have no restriction (MagicTiming.None), damage can potentially occur at any time. Giving a pre-emptive damage shield during the first main phase is a bit of a waste of time (barring any triggered abilities).

For granting abilities, many times the ability is added multiple times (for permanents that grant an ability to itself, so not having a target picker to stop adding the same ability twice), or after it's useful - a creature granting "can't be blocked this turn" to itself/another creature while already blocked.

I understand that the Timings help reduce the thinking time for the AI, but either adding more variety, or using the MagicTiming.None, should lead for more intelligent plays.

Just an observation