Last week I made a quiz highlighting some of the stranger mechanics and card interactions in Duelyst. Here is a thread showcasing more of the same!
Nearly all of this research was done in Sandbox mode (enabled via T2K5’s helper scripts). For the most part I haven’t noticed any discrepancies, but in theory some of these could play out differently in two-player modes. However, Sandbox doesn’t handle ties well, which has made it difficult to test lethal scenarios.
I’ve tried to experiment with everything I can think of, but this is by no means a comprehensive list. In addition, as you can see below, there are still many things which I do not fully understand. If anyone has further insight on any of these interactions, please let me know. Also, please add anything new and interesting you’ve come across and isn’t generally known!
MYTHRONS
- Mythrons are excluded from the card pool of effects that generate minions “randomly” (such as Twilight Reiki and Aspect of Ego).
- A Mythron in your Action Bar can’t ever be replaced (even by Theobule) or ever be transformed by Koan of Horns or Monolithic Vision. (However, Koan will transform a Mythron shuffled into your deck by Mirrorim).
- If the Trial isn’t completed, Evolutionary Apex won’t summon Mythrons from the Action Bar. Once the Trial is completed, Apex can summon the Mythron, but doing so this way will not activate the Destiny.
- You can’t double up on a Destiny, but you can have multiple Destinies active simultaneously.
Strategos:
- For the Trial, only base Attack is counted, independent of on-board buffs (like Zeal effects or Oakenheart) or in-bar buffs (like those of Phantasm).
- Once the Destiny is active, promotion happen up columns, starting on the left (for the purpose of things like Warblade’s Bond effect)
Hideatsu:
- Counts base mana costs for the Trial, modified costs for the Destiny (see Mana Costs section).
- All relevant on-damage triggers proc off of the Destiny, such as Thunderhorn, Bluetip Scorpion, etc.
Xor’Xuul:
- For the Trial, it counts anytime you cast a spell and a friendly minion (which existed since before the spell was cast) ends up dead after all triggers have resolved.
- (However, this is not the full story: sometimes, but not always, the death of a minion made by a spell will proc the Trial. For example, see Questions V.1 vs. V.3 in the quiz linked above. Still under investigation.)
- The Destiny effect takes priority over other Deathwatch and Dying Wish effects such as those of Gor, Bloodtide Priestess, etc.
Hatefurnace:
- For the Trial, it counts anytime you cast a spell and a friendly minion (which existed since before the spell was cast) ends up with +atk after all triggers have resolved. See here for an example of a convoluted setup which increments the Trial. (credit T2k5)
- (It may be the case that this is not completely accurate, based on comparison with the conditions for Xor above).
SENTINELS
- Buffs applied in the Action Bar (i.e., Phantasm or the like) aren’t applied to the Sentinel token, but will appear when the minion flips. The same applies for Build minions.
Minion Sentinels
- If you summon a minion with an Opening Gambit targeting a Minion Sentinel (i.e., a Gambit which requires you to select the target on the board), the effect will apply to the Sentinel token and then be immediately lost when the Sentinel flips. However, if the Gambit manages to kill the Sentinel, it will die cleanly and never flip. (This is the result of a patch implemented at some point; these interactions used to be much buggier). For example, Lavaslasher will kill Sentinels and not make them flip. Some consequences:
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- When Dagona eats a Sentinel token, it causes the Sentinel to trigger (although Freeblade has no effect), but then will not spit out anything upon dying.
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- Mirage Master will transform into a Minion Sentinel. The Sentinel will flip: Bound Tormentor gives a discounted Mirage Master, while the other two Sentinel’s effects fizzle.
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- Sandswirl Reader will bounce a Sentinel token to the Action Bar (just a vanilla 3/3) and won’t cause the Sentinel to flip.
- Minions with untargeted Opening Gambits will first cause the Sentinel to transform before the Gambit applies. For example, playing a Blistering Skorn next to a 1-health Minion Sentinel will flip the Sentinel before damaging it, hence never killing it.
- Most effects which simultaneously kill a Minion Sentinel and summon a minion will work as desired, cleanly killing the Sentinel. For example, trading a Jaxi into a Minion Sentinel won’t revive the Sentinel to trigger on the Mini-Jax. However, Lavastorm Obelysk will trigger the Sentinel on the Wind Dervish it summons and fail to blast it down (even in the case of a Freeblade that swaps places within the same row).
Spell Sentinels
- Spells with at most one target will flip the Sentinel before the spell resolves. Even if the spell kills the flipped Sentinel, its ability will still proc. However, using a dispel spell (all of which are single-target) on an unflipped Sentinel will first flip, then dispel, with the net result being that the Sentinel will not proc. (If the Sentinel is already flipped, the spell trigger will function normally and will proc. See Spell Triggers section).
- Multitarget spells (those that require multiple clicks onto the board to activate) will resolve before the Sentinel flips. This is relevant in particular for Ritual Banishing and Demonic Lure, both of which will result in a flipped, unharmed Sentinel.
MANA COSTS
- Every effect that cares about mana cost (except the Songhai Trial count) takes into account all relevant modifiers. For example, if you use Shadow Waltz on a Gore Horn and replace it back into your deck, it can be pulled by Kaido Expert; Magesworn will allow you to cast your BBS if its cost has been temporarily increased by Keshrai Fanblade; and Atom Klinger will only get +1 attack when equipping a Hexblade generated by Grincher.
- For cards with effects that reduce their own mana costs, these effects apply even while in your deck: Radiant Standard can pull a Chakkram if your general was damaged last turn, and Q’orrhlma’a will erase Pantheran from your deck if you’ve cast all the Scion’s Wishes.
- Most mana discounts stop applying once the card is played: for example, if you Reassemble an Ethereal Obelysk and replay it, mousing over will show the Obelysk to have a cost of 2 as usual.
- The exceptions are:
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- Astral Crusader maintains its mana discount onto the board. For example, if you replace it twice, play it, and then cast Echoing Shriek, it will be transformed into a Wraithling.
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- Skywing’s mana discount ability also shows up as an “aura” effect on the board, applying to nearby friendly fliers (but not itself).
- If you have a Golem Metallurgist on board and you summon an EMP, it will still only cost you 6 mana but its cost will be treated as 7 for the purposes of Ox’s Destiny effect. The same principle applies with Kujata together with Ephemeral Shroud or Lightbender.
TRANSFORMATIONS
- All transformation effects preserve the activity state of the minion: the ability to move and/or attack for the turn.
- Aspect of Ego and Cascading Rebirth works off of modified mana costs (see Mana Costs section). In some cases, this can cause the spells to fizzle: targeting a Mandrake, Aspect will do nothing and Rebirth will destroy it but not produce another minion.
SPELL TRIGGERS
This is probably the most complicated section.
- Many minions have triggers which activate upon you casting a spell.
- These triggers happen in a certain order depending on what they do:
attack/health buffs (i.e., Chakri Avatar) > healing/damage (i.e., Four Winds Magi) > minions generated (i.e., Prismatic Illusionist) > cards generated (in Action Bar) (i.e., Blue Conjurer) > Blood Surge (buffs (i.e., Thraex) > minions generated (i.e., Prominence) > movement (i.e., Twilight Fox)). - For spells with at most one target, the spell itself resolves after healing but before minions are generated. However, the triggers themselves are queued when the spell is cast and will still go off no matter what happens beforehand short of a General dying. Some examples:
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- If a friendly Prismatic Illusionist is caught in Kinetic Equilibrium, the tokens will still be generated even if the Illusionist dies, but will not receive the attack buff.
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- Sun Bloom hitting your own Owlbeast Sage will provide the health buff to all friendly Arcanysts before it is dispelled. Sun Bloom on Prismatic Illusionist will generate the token.
- For multitarget spells (those that require multiple clicks on the board in order to resolve), the relative order of triggers is the same, but the spell itself always finishes resolving first before any triggers (and all triggers are queued after the spell). In particular, any new spell trigger minions created by such a spell will trigger off of the spell itself. For example:
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- If you Cascading Rebirth a Phalanxar into a Catalyst Quillbeast, the new Quillbeast will ping the board. However, Egg Morph on the Quillbeast will ping the board before the being transformed into an egg.
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- If you cast Fractal Replication on The Scientist, you will draw three cards instead of just one.
OPENING GAMBITS
- Opening Gambits officially take place before the minion enters the board, which makes sense for the most part: for example, Hearthsister won’t take mana tiles and EMP doesn’t dispel itself.
- Obvious exceptions: Krater, Blistering Skorn, and Lavaslasher take damage from their own Gambits.
- Some tricky interactions that follow from this:
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- If you steal a Kujata with Zen’rui the Blightspawned, Zen’rui doesn’t get discounted but will be pinged upon entering the board.
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- If you use Sandswirl Reader to bounce a Phantasm, the Phantasm can be buffed by its own trigger.
- (Something I don’t understand fully: according to the above paradigm, all Opening Gambits should occur before “enters the board” effects, such as that of Venom Toth. However, killing Toth with a targeted Opening Gambit damage effect, like Maw’s, will still trigger the Toth, whereas an untargeted Gambit like Dancing Blade’s will not trigger Toth. Even a targeted dispel effect - Ephemeral Shroud - won’t trigger Toth).
KEYWORDS
- Some Lyonar cards have/grant keywords conditionally based on position relative to the general. Minions with these conditional keywords don’t always interact properly with other effects.
- Crestfallen: Doesn’t get the movement buff from Golden Justicar.
- Sunbond Pavise: If a minion starts the turn with the Pavise buff, it will receive the extra movement from Justicar. Otherwise, it won’t.
- Gryphon Fledgling: isn’t discounted by Skywing (even on the board, see Mana Costs section).
- Solpiercer: Isn’t buffed by Arrow Whistler. However, is given Rush by Xenkai Cannoneer, reactivated by Bombard, and “provoked” by Wind Stopper.
MISCELLANEOUS
- If you use a removal spell on a minion with a static ability, that ability will continue to apply until the spell finishes resolving. I.e., Blood of Air on a Night Watcher produces an exhausted Wind Dervish, and Martyrdom on Indominus won’t heal the general.
- Lavaslasher fails to take double damage from Bluetip Scorpion.
- Oserix’s Dying Wish trigger will fail to equip new artifacts if it would break artifacts you currently have on. (All other spells and abilities which equip artifacts will break old ones).
- “Reactivating” a Battle Pet (via Assassination Protocol or the like), or giving it Rush (via Xenkai Cannoneer), has no effect. “Activating” it (with Sol or Crimson Coil) works as expected. The same applies for your general under the influence of Grandmaster Zendo: Time Maelstrom has no effect.
- When Simulacra Obelysk finishes building, it summons a dervish (even if this happens in the middle of a turn via Timekeeper)
- If you have two Mindlathes equipped, enemy minions hit by you will switch sides twice and end up reactivated but still under enemy control.
- If there are no free spaces next to your general, replacing Dreamgazer will just work like a normal replace.
- If a Zyx is buffed while in the action bar (say by Phantasm), the copy summoned by its Opening Gambit will have the same buffs.
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