Scarabs and Parallel Universe

[travisjhall]

When playing a deck with Scarabs and Parallel Universes, odd things would happen during the end-of-turn adjustment to the PU-produced Scarab's life.

I'd have to play with the relevant deck a few times to remind myself exactly how it occurs, but I believe there are a number of variations on the theme, and they all involve playing Parallel Universe on a Scarab when there are more than one Scarabs already in play. The Scarab from a Parallel Universe will gain more life than it should during the end-of-turn adjustment.

The same also applies to the use of Twin Universe.

I don't think this is intended behaviour. It certainly doesn't look like it.

[Baily18]

I dont think it is a bug. When you Parellel a Scarab, it copies its stats. But since Scarab has the swarm ability, it still gains the amount of hp=the # of scarabs you have.

[travisjhall]

Yes, I do believe you have accurately described the behaviour we are seeing, Baily18. However, that we can understand why it is occurring does not necessarily mean it isn't a bug.

I would have thought that Parallel Universe should produce a creature that behaves exactly as the creature that it copies. That would mean that it should not get the life of the original, which is already adjusted for Scarabs previously in play, and then get an additional adjustment for those very same Scarabs being in play.

It's certainly behaviour odd enough to question whether it is intentional.

[Daxx]

This could well be a bug. I'll ask Zanz whether this is intended behaviour next time I see him in chat.

[bobcamel]

Oh god what

Give an example.

I have three Scarabs, they're 2/3. I PU one, the result is 2/3 Scarab that goes to 2/4 at the end of the turn. However, actually, I get a 2/4 Scarab that then becomes 2/5 at the end of the turn.
Is this what happens to you?

[Delreich]

See this previous thread: http://elementscommunity.org/forum/index.php/topic,238.0.html (http://elementscommunity.org/forum/index.php/topic,238.0.html)

If that's still accurate, and I'm getting it right, if you had three and PUd for another one the three would turn 2/4 while the PUd one would turn 2/6.

Edit: so, scarabs normally have a base health of one with a boost of N-1, where N is the number of scarabs.
PUd scarabs have a base of whatever the targeted scarab's total health was at the time of cast and that same boost.
This seems to be how PU works in most cases; copy stats and forget whatever had already been done (dive, swarm, mutant boost, etc).