History ObviousRulePatch / MagicTheGathering

* [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=106427 Phage the Untouchable]] has an ability that causes you to ''lose the game'' if you didn't cast her from your hand. Like the above examples, this is done to prevent "reanimation" exploits. (It should be noted that Phage's ''other'' ability is to cause the ''opponent'' to lose the game if she manages to lay a finger on him, so ensuring the "Impractical" part of AwesomeButImpractical was kind of necessary in her case.)

** The batch rules where such that ''all'' damage, not just combat, would be resolved after all other spells and effects in a batch, ''including damage from said spells and effects.'' This was due to how damage and damage prevention was resolved back then as separate phases in the batch. This lead to things such as trying to kill a creature being targeted by Giant Growth using Lighting Bolt failing no matter if it was played before or after Giant Growth since the damage would be resolved last anyway, making the entire thing pointless. Changing to the Stack system fixed this by having noncombat damage being applied when it's effect is resolved, and damage prevention effects acting as shields and Regeneration effects activate beforehand.

* There are effects that make an additional combat phase followed by another main phase to allow the player to attack again (usually also untapping all attacking creatures as well). These used to be restricted to instant, sorceries or hard to trigger enchantments and even on creatures only for the first time they attacked in a turn. Then players figured out that on the creatures they could use flickering effects to reset the creature, allowing it to trigger it's effect again. This got hilariously broken by the time [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=571512 Aurelia, the Warleader]] came out, and got supported by the overwhelming amount of flickering cards from the Innistard block that allowed her to trigger her effect multiple times in a turn. This made it so that future cards wouldn't trigger additional combat phases outside of the first combat phase of a turn without a heavy cost to prevent abuse.

* There are permanents that have abilities that will temporary exile a permanent when it enters the battlefield till it leaves play. [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=397760 Originally]] the triggered abilities to exile a permanent and to return the permanent were separate abilities. This had the unintended interaction that if the ability's permanent left play before it resolves, it would then trigger the "return from exile" ability on the stack before the permanent is exiled, essentially removing it from play for good. This made flickering very powerful in getting cheap removal. Later cards would fix this by combining the two triggers into one ability to avoid this abuse again.
* There are effects that make an additional combat phase followed by another main phase to allow the player to attack again (usually also untapping all attacking creatures as well). These used to be restricted to instant, sorceries or hard to trigger enchantments and even on creatures only for the first time they attacked in a turn. Then players figured out that on the creatures they could use flickering effects to reset the creature, allowing it to trigger it's effect again. This got hilariously broken by the time [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=571512 Aurelia, the Warleader]] came out, and got supported by the overwhelming amount of flickering cards from the Innistard block that allowed her to trigger her effect multiple times in a turn. This made it so that future cards wouldn't trigger additional combat phases outside of the first combat phase of a turn.

* Meant to deal with trolling attempts similar to Maik S.'s saga on [[ObviousRulePatch/YuGiOhCardGame the Yu-Gi-Oh! page]] (and possibly inspired by him in particular), ''Magic'' requires that the player be able to shuffle their deck, using only their hands, in a reasonable timeframe (as decided by the judge, who may also get a proxy for the player if they're disabled). It's 250 cards in the online version ''Arena'', which has no physical limits because the computer handles the shuffling; however, doing it online means it's harder to troll the other player, and a 250-card deck is going to be ''incredibly'' bad unless it's trying to pop [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/pages/card/details.aspx?multiverseid=29942 Battle of Wits]] (which isn't ''in'' Arena anyway).
* [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/pages/card/details.aspx?multiverseid=174818 Lich's Mirror]] is an enchantment that, when you would lose the game, returns your life to 20, shuffles your hand and field into your deck, and draws a new hand of 7 cards. The first rulings to come out for this card were made to prevent certain interactions, like using effects that make your opponent win, or conceding the game, from activating this effect far more easily than intended and giving you potentially a huge momentum boost on demand.

* [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=159249 Animate Dead]] has generally worked as it was originally intended: it enchants a creature and [[AnimateDead brings it back from the dead,]] but the creature dies if the enchantment goes away, just like the various Necromancy spells from ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons''. However, the exact mechanics of this process, if and how a creature that would be immune to Black spells can be targeted by this, etc., have caused Animate Dead to be a nightmare of errata and Magic legalese. There's a reason only two other cards like Animate Dead have ever been made, and every other reanimation spell thereafter is an instant or a sorcery.

** The batch rules where such that ''all'' damage, not just combat, would be resolved after all other spells and effects in a batch, ''including damage from said spells and effects.'' This lead to things such as trying to kill a creature being targeted by Giant Growth using Lighting Bolt failing no matter if it was played before or after Giant Growth since the damage would be resolved last anyway, making the entire thing pointless. Changing to the Stack system fixed this by having noncombat damage being applied when it's effect is resolved.

* There are permanents that have abilities that will temporary exile a permanent when it enters the battlefield till it leaves play. Originally the triggered abilities to exile a permanent and to return the permanent were separate abilities. This had the unintended interaction that if the ability's permanent left play before it resolves, it would then trigger the "return from exile" ability on the stack before the permanent is exiled, essentially removing it from play for good. This made flickering very powerful in getting cheap removal. Later cards would fix this by combining the two triggers into one ability to avoid this abuse again.

* Some creatures have abilities that only trigger "when you cast [the creature]" (which means to play it from your hand manually by paying its mana cost) to prevent reanimation or flicker shenanigans.

* Meant to deal with trolling attempts similar to Maik S.'s saga on [[ObviousRulePatch/YuGiOhCardGame the Yu-Gi-Oh! page]] (and possibly inspired by him in particular), ''Magic'' requires that the player be able to shuffle their deck, using only their hands, in a reasonable timeframe (as decided by the judge, who may also get a proxy for the player if they're disabled). It's 250 cards in the online version ''Arena'', which has no physical limits because the computer handles the shuffling; however, doing it online means it's harder to troll the other player, and a 250-card deck is going to be ''incredibly'' bad.

* There are effects that make an additional combat phase followed by another main phase to allow the player to attack again (usually also untapping all attacking creatures as well). These used to be restricted to instant, sorceries or hard to trigger enchantments and even on creatures only for the first time they attacked in a turn. Then players figured out that on the creatures they could use flickering effects to reset the creature, allowing it to trigger it's effect again. This got hilariously broken by the time [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=571512 Aurelia, the Warleader]] came out, and got supported by the overwhelming amount of flickering cards from the Innistard block that allowed her to trigger her effect multiple times in a turn. This made it so that future cards wouldn't trigger additional battle phases outside of the first battle phase of a turn.

* There are effects that make an additional battle phase followed by another main phase to allow the player to attack again (usually also untapping all attacking creatures as well). These used to be restricted to instant, sorceries or hard to trigger enchantments and even on creatures only for the first time they attacked in a turn. Then players figured out that on the creatures they could use flickering effects to reset the creature, allowing it to trigger it's effect again. This got hilariously broken by the time [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=571512 Aurelia, the Warleader]] came out, and got supported by the overwhelming amount of flickering cards from the Innistard block that allowed her to trigger her effect multiple times in a turn. This made it so that future cards wouldn't trigger additional battle phases outside of the first battle phase of a turn.

* There used to be rather game-breaking combinations of cards owing to a quirk in the rules regarding life. Upon the initial release of ''Magic'', a player would only lose the game if they had zero life at the end of their turn. This allowed players to spend more life than they had to cast super-powerful spells, then crafting some sort of other card combo to bring their life back above zero before their turn ended. The rules were eventually changed so that a player loses instantly when their life hits zero, shelving these card combos.

* There are effects that make an additional battle phase followed by another main phase to allow the player to attack again (usually also untapping all attacking creatures as well). These used to be restricted to instant, sorceries or hard to trigger enchantments and even on creatures only for the first time they attacked in a turn. Then players figured out that on the creatures they could use flickering effects to reset the creature, allowing it to trigger it's effect again. This got hilariously broken by the time [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=571512 Aurelia, the Warleader]] came out, and got supported by the overwhelming amount of flickering cards from the Innistard block that allowed her to trigger her effect multiple times in a turn. This made it so that future cards wouldn't trigger additional battle phases only on the first battle phase of a turn.

* The introduction of a "Planeswalker" card type almost fifteen years after the game's inception necessitated such a patch. Planeswalkers needed to be valid targets for damage, but since they hadn't existed previously, all existing damage spells only targeted creatures and/or players, of which planeswalkers were neither. So a special patch rule was added that allowed spells to redirect their damage from a player to their planeswalker. The rules tolerated this ugly workaround for nearly a decade before a [[http://markrosewater.tumblr.com/post/166162774138/what-planeswalker-redirection-rule-change sweeping errata]] was made to change every previous instance of "damage target player" to "damage target player or planeswalker".

* Meant to deal with trolling attempts similar to Maik S.'s saga on [[ObviousRulePatch/YuGiOhCardGame the Yu-Gi-Oh! page]] (and possibly inspired by him in particular), ''Magic'' requires that the player be able to shuffle their deck, using only their hands, in a reasonable timeframe (as decided by the judge, who may also get a proxy for the player if they're disabled). It's 250 cards in the online version ''Arena'', which has no physical limits because the computer handles the shuffling; however, doing it online means it's harder to troll the other player, and a 250-card deck is going to be ''incredibly'' bad.

* Back when they ''did'' errata cards for power reasons, [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=642 Time Vault]] was errata'd multiple times with various awkward wording to ensure there was ''no way'' to easily untap it and gain infinite {{extra turn}}s. The current rules text, while much simpler than even the original card, makes the card obviously broken in half (and banned almost everywhere).

* The standard Constructed Deck construction rules of today are a pretty important rules patch. Originally, there simply were no deck construction rules ([[https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/original-magic-rulebook-2004-12-25 Alpha rules for reference]]). Revised Edition added a minimum of [[https://mtg.gamepedia.com/Revised_Edition/Rules_changes 40 cards in a deck.]] By Fourth Edition, the modern rules played by today came about -- at least 60 cards, and no more than 4 copies of any non-basic-land card. Had there remained no restrictions, theoretically a player could create decks that could win on the first turn nearly 100% of the time (assuming somebody willing to hunt down the requisite number of rare cards to make them work).
* Speaking of [[TabletopGame/MagicTheGathering Magic,]] a few powerful creatures ([[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=5713 Serra Avatar,]] [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=191312 Darksteel Colossus,]] [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=140214 Purity,]] [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=140168 Dread,]] [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=189213 Guile,]] [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=140227 Vigor,]] [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=189214 Hostility,]] [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=179496 Progenitus,]] and ''[[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=193632 Kozilek, Butcher of Truth]]'') have an ability that prevents them from going to the graveyard, shuffling them back into the deck instead. While this looks like an advantage, it was done to prevent players from discarding these powerful creature cards on purpose so that they can revive them using ''way'' cheaper AnimateDead spells. This is not an idle concern, as entire decks are built around this very tactic.
** Note that only the Colossus and Progenitus actually avoid hitting the graveyard. The other 6 simply don't stay there for very long, meaning that aforementioned shenanigans are still possible, albeit a bit more difficult.
** Similarly, some creatures have abilities that only trigger "when you cast [the creature]" (which means to play it from your hand manually by paying its mana cost) to prevent reanimation shenanigans.
** Taking this even further, the card [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=106427 Phage the Untouchable]] has an ability that causes you to ''lose the game'' if you didn't cast her from your hand. Like the above examples, this is done to prevent "reanimation" exploits. (It should be noted that Phage's ''other'' ability is to cause the ''opponent'' to lose the game if she manages to lay a finger on him, so ensuring the "Impractical" part of AwesomeButImpractical was kind of necessary in her case.)
* At one point, the Comprehensive Rules contained a line which read [[ThereIsNoRuleSix "Ignore ]][[LogicBomb this rule".]] This was because the rule no longer existed but Wizards didn't want to change the numbering to close the gap (as it would screw up all references to rule numbers).

* Want to give a would-be rules expert a headache? Ask about [[LogicBomb the interaction between]] [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=HUMILITY Humility]] and [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=opalescence Opalescence]].

* Meant to deal with trolling attempts similar to Maik S.'s saga on [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/ObviousRulePatch/YuGiOhCardGame the Yu-Gi-Oh! page]] (and possibly inspired by him in particular), ''Magic'' requires that the player be able to shuffle their deck, using only their hands, in a reasonable timeframe (as decided by the judge, who may also get a proxy for the player if they're disabled). It's 250 cards in the online version ''Arena'', which has no physical limits because the computer handles the shuffling; however, doing it online means it's harder to troll the other player, and a 250-card deck is going to be ''incredibly'' bad.

** Back when mana burn existed (it was later deleted for being not particularly impactful), there was a special rule that if it didn't apply when someone else controls your turn. Otherwise the correct thing to do would be to simply tap all lands and deal a ton of damage to yourself, which is less cool than using your own cards against you and making terrible decisions.

* The card [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=46724 Mindslaver]] lets you control a player's turn. Despite multiple rulings from the beginning that say "no, you can't make your opponent concede the game with this", there will always be somebody who tries to get away with this. An interesting corollary is if Mindslavering someone (perhaps endlessly) can ''stop'' them from conceding by denying them ever getting a turn, but no, there is a special rule ([[http://media.wizards.com/2017/downloads/MagicCompRules%2020170925.txt 104.3a]]) that says concession is a special action that can be taken at any time by a player and is completely unstoppable by anything else.
** It's irrelevant now, but the other Obvious Rule Patch with Mindslaver at the time of release was to just arbitrarily say that when another player controls your turn, you don't suffer "mana burn". Otherwise the correct thing to do would be to simply tap all lands and deal a ton of damage to yourself, which is less cool than using your own cards against you and making terrible decisions. Not needed anymore after the mana burn rule itself was abolished for almost never doing anything.

There are times ''TabletopGame/MagicTheGathering'' has had to give cards errata. It is currently not their policy to reword a card for simply being too powerful, but there are quite a few cards that have different wordings due to rules changes, or interactions that literally break the game (as in, "create situations that the rules don't cover"). This was exacerbated with two major rules changes ('96 and '09).
** The old errata policy allowed cards to be errata'd for power reasons, but this has since been reverted. Overpowered cards are now banned. For example, [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=642 Time Vault]] has been errata'd multiple times with various awkward wording to ensure there was ''no way'' to easily untap it and gain infinite [[ExtraTurn extra turns.]] The current rules text, while much simpler than even the original card, makes the card obviously broken in half (and banned almost everywhere). However, a few cards have errata intended to make them function as they would have under the rules at the time, such as [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=5193 Mox Diamond]] and [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=4593 Lotus Vale]] not allowing you to "cheat" past their requirements (as would have been true at time of release).

* Meant to deal with trolling attempts similar to the Yu-Gi-Oh! case above (and possibly inspired by him in particular), ''Magic'' requires that the player be able to shuffle their deck, using only their hands, in a reasonable timeframe (as decided by the judge, who may also get a proxy for the player if they're disabled). It's 250 cards in the online version ''Arena'', which has no physical limits because the computer handles the shuffling; however, doing it online means it's harder to troll the other player, and a 250-card deck is going to be ''incredibly'' bad.