[confirmed]Poor man's Mindslaver

[Korath]

The AI can be forced to activate just about anything during its upkeep, just by clicking on it. If you've got a Telepathy or Zur's Weirding or Revelation or such in play so that its hand is visible, it can be forced to cast most instants in its hand, too. Lands are (mostly) exempt, since they (mostly) don't have Flags:Activate set; but it'll cheerfully let you force it to activate its own Pestilence or Orcish Artillery or such until it dies, even paying the mana for the former (but at least targeting the latter by itself).

This is, as they say, bad.

Armageddon Clock relies on this behavior; I found this while trying to figure out what it was doing special that let either player activate it. (The answer: it doesn't do anything special.)

No idea how long this has been going on - almost certainly for years, maybe all the way back to Shandalar. It's only gone unnoticed because the cards don't light up. Would appreciate it if someone were to check old versions; if anyone has a functioning Shandalar installation they could check, that would be especially helpful. (The nonfunctional Shandalar.exe that I have half-decompiled looks like it'll do the same thing, though I'm not certain yet what causes it.)

Also, can anyone think of any other cards that might rely on this? Things like Ifh-Biff Efreet that create visible legacies for you to click on won't.

To repro:

1. 1. Put a stop on the AI's upkeep phase.
   2. Advance to that phase.
   3. Debug AI's life to 2.
   4. Debug an Orcish Artillery or an Ancient Tomb or a Pestilence and a couple Swamps or whatever else into play under the AI's control, and debug away its summoning sickness if it's a creature.
   5. Push F12 to turn off debug mode, just in case.
   6. Click on the card you added.
   7. Weep quietly to yourself in the corner as the AI kills itself.
2. 1. Debug a Telepathy into play under your control.
   2. Put a stop on the AI's upkeep phase.
   3. Debug a Psionic Blast into the AI's hand and three Islands into play under the AI's control.
   4. Debug AI's life to 2.
   5. Push F12 to turn off debug mode, just in case.
   6. Advance to the AI's upkeep phase.
   7. Click on the Psionic Blast in the AI's hand.
   8. More sobbing ensues.

[stassy]

Tested on Shandalar Ciroth version and indeed you can activate Pestilence AI at AI or player upkeep.

I think there was originally an issue with AI land able to be tapped by player and original devs or Mok did try to fix that, but maybe that is how it ended...

[HarlequinCasts]

Thanks Korath! I did not realize this was such a generally reproducible thing.

I remember reading about tips and tricks for the original Shandalar game, and it included the fact that you could click your opponent's Mana Vault during their upkeep and force them to take a damage and/or spend mana pointlessly untapping it. An obvious exploit but cool to know that its a general thing.