Magic Online Bugs: Real or Fake?

Posted on Friday, October 23rd, 2015 Drkdstryr, LSK
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Posted in mtg

We all love Magic Online! And one of the best things about Magic Online is that, 4 out of every 5 times, it works exactly like you’d expect, without any bugs to get in the way of your digital card experience. Of course, nobody’s perfect, least of all the vigilant MODO programmers, so we created this quiz as a little tribute to the things that slip between the cracks. We’ve mixed up some real and historic Magic Online glitches with some we just made up, and it’s up to you to figure out which is which!


1. Zooming in on a card exiled by a land with hideaway shows an additional basic Swamp.

2. Knight of the Reliquary incorrectly allows the player to sacrifice any permanent when activating its ability.

3. Mishra, Artificer Prodigy will freeze the client when used as a Commander.

4. Fact or Fiction allowed the player casting the spell to arrange the piles, instead of an opponent.

5. Unhallowed Pact incorrectly returns token creatures to the battlefield.

6. If Balance causes a player to sacrifice lands, that player won’t be able to activate abilities of permanents for the rest of that phase.

7. Stomp and Howl unable to select the same target twice if it’s both an artifact and enchantment.

8. You can no longer use both halves of split cards to pay a total of 2 mana for Delve costs.

9. Costs that include a snow mana symbol require an additional snow mana.

10. Magmaw incorrectly allows the player to sacrifice lands or discard cards from their hand to activate its ability.

11. Chandra, Pyromaster’s -7 ability no longer restarts the game when Exquisite Firecraft is the only instant or sorcery exiled this way.

12. The triggered ability on the promo version of Relic Seeker does not function correctly. The non-promo version of this card, however, works as intended.

13. Spellweaver Helix would freeze the game if used to cast a card without a mana cost.

14. Fatespinner’s triggered ability would halt the game after an opponent makes a choice, forcing them to either concede or time out.

15. Daru Spiritualist made you sacrifice Clerics instead of giving them +0/+2.

16. Mogg Assassin’s activated ability no longer restarts the game.

17. When rules text is added to Unhinged lands and then zoomed, the client crashes.

18. In some scenarios, casting Mulch would crash Magic Online.

19. Spellskite incorrectly allows a player to redirect spells or abilities to the Spellskite, even if it’s no longer on the battlefield.

20. Field of Souls incorrectly makes Eldrazi Spawn tokens instead of Spirit tokens.

Want to see how you did? Scroll down!


The fake bugs are numbers 5, 7, 10, 13, 15, and 20. All of the rest are real bugs that exist or have existed.

If you scored…

16-20: You are the Magic Online Bugmaster! You should be part of the bug-finding team. I bet they’ll love you!

10-15: You scored slightly better than chance. That means you probably knew at least one bug! Was it the Fact or Fiction one? That’s one’s my favorite.

5-9: You scored worse than chance! That means you probably guessed at random. I don’t think you’re taking this seriously.

0-4: You are fuel for the Magmaw! That’s not related to your performance on the quiz, it’s just a general fact.