The Lost Caverns of Ixalan has just released digitally! Players can now flock to MTG Arena and Magic Online to start testing their brews infused with crazy prerelease interactions that they discovered over the weekend. Between that and the new Draft format, the online platforms, as per usual, are packed at the start of a new set release.
Since everything is new to everyone, it’s quite rare that set releases happen without a few hiccups. Most of the time, these hiccups seem to occur in the form of MTG Arena’s servers just getting overloaded. This time, however, the release for The Lost Caverns of Ixalan was quite stable… except for one card.
It turns out that one Lost Caverns of Ixalan rare had a major bug upon release and, as a result, the card has been temporarily disabled on MTG Arena. Be sure to avoid Fabrication Foundry in your Drafts during this temporary ban!
Fabrication Foundry Temporary Ban
Fabrication Foundry is a white rare from The Lost Caverns of Ixalan that cares about artifacts. This card only costs two mana to cast, so its abilities aren’t too powerful. That said, in a dedicated artifact deck, Fabrication Foundry can ramp you white mana, as long as you play an artifact. Otherwise, you can use the card’s second ability to swap your redundant artifacts for more relevant ones from your graveyard, as long as they have the same mana value. However, in the case of MTG Arena, while the cards are supposed to have the same mana value, that didn’t necessarily work in-practice.
As pointed out by MTG personality Mythicmeebo on Twitter who first discovered the glitch, Fabrication Foundry’s second ability wasn’t working properly. Instead of making sure you swap your artifact for something of equal mana value, you could swap it for anything you wanted. A Wizards of the Coast employee elaborated on the temporary ban after getting some questions:
“Just to add some context as I see a lot of folks asking “why” on this one.
Essentially, the “X” was calculating properly allowing you to return cards are a higher cost than what was exiled.”
I_am_JesseH
This means that, on Arena, you could swap an artifact token for a massive beater like Metalwork Colossus or Cityscape Leveler. Heck, you can even use a Blood Token to get the artifact into your graveyard, while also utilizing another as sacrifice fodder!
This is, obviously, much more powerful than the printed ability. As such, Fabrication Foundry has been temporarily banned in MTG Arena.
Read More: MTG Arena Khans of Tarkir: Everything You Need to Know
Some Confusion
Needless to say, the unexpected temporary ban of Fabrication Foundry is leaving some people confused. It appears that you can still open this card in Sealed and Limited pools even though the card has been rendered unusable. While Fabrication Foundry may get taken out/may already be taken out of Sealed and Draft pools while MTG Arena developers find a fix, do be aware that this card, until a fix is found, is literally unplayable.
Until then, for players who missed it, a reminder is in your inbox, stating that Fabrication Foundry has been temporarily banned until a fix is found.
A Better Fix Than Last Time
This isn’t the first time that MTG Arena has had a potential game-breaking glitch in recent times. Not too long ago, a glitch involving Ninja’s Kunai and Blazing Torch turned these Limited removal pieces into lethal damage machines in exchange for your board. Instead of simply sacrificing themselves and dealing damage, your entire board would be sacrificed and damage would be dealt for each sacrificed permanent. This easily allowed for turn three kills, even in Standard.
Unlike this glitch, which ravished Arena for quite a while, Fabrication Foundry was immediately disabled upon discovery, preventing players from abusing it heavily. While this is frustrating for players who are opening it in their Draft and Sealed Pools, it is a better alternative to losing your games to a bugged card.
If your Draft or Sealed pool has been negatively impacted by the unplayability of Fabrication Foundry, do consider heading on over to Wizards Customer Support for MTG Arena and issuing a support ticket. You could have your event refunded.
Still Lots to Do!
While Fabrication Foundry unintended power was indeed a small hiccup, there’s still a lot players can do to enjoy the release of The Lost Caverns of Ixalan. Draft and Sealed seem to be working just fine outside of this card, and there are tons of other new cards to brew around for whichever format you’re excited about.
Hopefully, it won’t take too long for MTG Arena’s development team to find a fix to Fabrication Foundry. The card may not end up being a constructed all-star, but opening a dead rare in your Draft pack is rather frustrating.
Read More: Underrated Lost Caverns of Ixalan Sacrifice Outlet has Multi-Format Potential!
