Alchemy: Tarkir really can’t catch a break, it seems. As usual, during the set’s mini-spoiler season, there was plenty to be excited about; however, cracks quickly began to show. Before the set was released, it was revealed that multiple cards were spoiled incorrectly, making them much worse than intended.
As if that wasn’t bad enough, now that Alchemy: Tarkir is available to play, MTG players have discovered a rather frustrating bug. While it’s hardly as bad as past broken combos like Ninja’s Kunai, this is still far from ideal.
Song of Seasons Bug
When Song of Seasons was first spoiled, it didn’t look like it was going to set MTG Arena on fire. Essentially, this card is a slightly random, arguably slightly better, Cultivate in Gruul colors. While this sounds good and definitely has potential, there wasn’t an obvious home that’d capitalize on this card’s existence.
Thankfully, even if you forgo the potential graveyard synergies, Song of Seasons is still rather useful. You get ramp, a guaranteed land drop, and one less land in your deck, ideally improving your draws. In theory, this is exactly what a ramp-based Gruul deck might need to stay ahead of the competition.
At worst, Song of Seasons could see a decent amount of play in Brawl decks alongside Cultivate and other ramp spells. Much like Commander, the singleton nature of this format means you want all the consistency that you can get.
Unfortunately, Song of Seasons doesn’t currently work as intended, as Reddit user Hexanort discovered recently. Rather than Seeking a Forest, a Mountain, and a non-Forest non-Mountain, sometimes this card will only find two cards. After some testing, it’s believed this occurs when the first Seek-ed card is both a Forest and a Mountain, such as Commercial District.
If you’re playing a Gruul deck, especially in Brawl, this is a bit of a problem. There are nine Forest Mountain lands on Arena, so if you’re running a decent amount, you may encounter this bug. Sadly, this will leave you without one land in hand, since you must put one into play and the other into your graveyard.
The Wait Begins
For now, it doesn’t appear this Song of Seasons bug has been seen by Wizards of the Coast, officially at least. Typically, Wizards is pretty quick to comment on social media bug reports like this, ensuring it gets worked on. We can only hope that this bug is seen and fixed sooner rather than later
Sadly, there’s no guarantee that this bug will be an easy fix. Thanks to the immense complexity of Magic: The Gathering, any chance could bring the house of cards tumbling down. We’ve seen this time and time again when simple cards and changes have brought about catastrophic bugs.
With this in mind, I wouldn’t hold your breath for an immediate fix, or even one next Tuesday, when MTG Arena is typically updated. Instead, we’re just going to have to wait and see what happens going forward. Thankfully, in the meantime, the rest of Alchemy: Tarkir seems to be going smoothly, at least.
Well, saying smoothly might be a little bit generous, as there were repeated concerns about the strength of new cards. During the Midweek Magic event celebrating the set’s launch, both Hardened Bonds and Waystone’s Guidance dominated. While it’s still early days, there’s a good chance both these cards will perform well in Alchemy too.