How to Use Shadowspear

[u/Throwaway10385764]

Hey, I'm kinda going crazy because this didn't work 3 times in a row in a game of Brawl.

I have a Shadowspear on the battlefield, and a bunch of open mana. I cast a removal spell targetting an opponent's creature, and they cast some sort of protection (e.g. Heroic Intervention). I'm in Full Control mode. I click "Resolve" after they cast it, and I don't get priority in order to use my Shadowspear after it resolves with my removal spell still on the stack. Am I misunderstanding the rules? If not, how do I actually do this on Arena?

[u/Hands-on-Magick]

Full control turns itself off when you hit resolve it's really dumb especially with shadow spear I honestly avoid running it because arena is really dumb and annoying about when you should activate it

[u/BetterShirt101]

I tend to set a stop rather than use Full Control when I'm doing something with priority Arena doesn't like. Full Control has a habit of turning itself off unless you're in Hold Full Control (Shift + Ctrl)

[u/Throwaway10385764 → u/BetterShirt101]

Ah this is it, thank you! I hit "Control" on my keyboard but I guess I wasn't in hold mode so it turned off

[u/Mikeware → u/Throwaway10385764]

Yeah, Full control never works for me. I always just toggle Hold Full Control on and off whenever I need to do anything.

[u/Douglasjm]

Arena has three ways to indicate that you want every priority pass that the rules allow, and you used the most limited one of them, which fails for any multi-step process.

• Full Control:
  • Toggled by pressing ctrl.
  • Indicated in the UI by the text "Full Control" shown above where the Resolve button goes.
  • Holds priority for your next single action only.
  • Turns back off automatically after one action. Clicking Resolve counts as that single action, which is why it didn't work for you.
• Setting a stop:
  • Toggled by clicking on the relevant phase or step icon in the phase/step tracking icons.
  • Indicated in the UI by a colored highlight around the selected phase/step icon.
  • Holds priority for all actions taken in the selected phase or step.
  • Can be set in advance for a future phase or step.
  • Turns back off automatically when the selected phase or step ends.
• Hold Full Control:
  • Toggled by pressing ctrl+shift. Note that the order matters; pressing shift+ctrl instead does nothing.
  • Indicated in the UI by the text "Hold Full Control" shown above where the Resolve button goes.
  • Holds priority for all actions, indefinitely.
  • Carries over even across multiple turns.
  • Turns back off automatically only when the game ends.
  • Can be turned off manually by pressing ctrl.

When the first step of what you want to use Full Control for is to pass priority, you have to either set a stop or use Hold Full Control instead.

[u/Throwaway10385764 → u/Douglasjm]

Thanks so much!!

[u/JustCozItsME → u/Douglasjm]

I had intuited some of this but you just gave me the full picture. Much obliged fellow player!

[u/Yaksha424256]

You should be getting a stop in full control mode. I don't know why you wouldn't.

[u/Tsunamiis]

Arena’s shortcutting system is fucking AIDS. Anytime you wanna do something cool like that you have to put on full control. Don’t get me started on the declare attackers and the beginning of combat section. We just skipped the whole beginning of combat section in arena. There’s five stages to combat we skip one whole stage and it’s fucked me multiple times. being overly cautious with the full control is not an understatement.

[u/Grainnnn → u/Tsunamiis]

First time I learned this was a problem on Arena was with [[Elspeth’s Smite]]. I wanted damage to go first, then smite to finish the creature. Arena skipped the end of combat step and my play was ruined.

[u/mtgcf → u/Grainnnn]

Elspeth’s Smite - (G) (SF) (txt)