AI targets creatures with damage spells without considering their toughness?

[CodeOptimist]

This seems so basic I feel kind of dumb creating this issue, but seen it many times, e.g. AI opponent, with 1 creature and 0 equipment, casts Slash of Light on my 7/7 (1/1 with 6 +1/+1 counters). Obviously doesn't kill my creature, just a waste of a spell.

This is also the strangest GitHub/Issues page I've ever been on, is it 100% LLMs? Curious to find out what creating this issue does...

game-state-turn-11-2026-07-24T03-12-08-610Z.zip

Very impressive/exciting project!

[CodeOptimist]

Okay maybe this has nothing to do with counters and the AI is just dumb? They just played Slash of Light for 1 damage on my 1/3. (Not the only card I've seen this with just FYI.)
Sorry this issue just became a lot less useful. If I can't improve it enough I will eventually delete it. Maybe this is just a generic AI issue reported elsewhere / being worked-on.

game-state-turn-8-2026-07-24T03-25-46-542Z.zip

[parthmishra]

Yeah it's for sure the AI opponent and not an issue with the counters (though there are likely various counters related bugs atm). This kinda of behavior has been observed and reported at least in the discord not sure if they've been synced over to GitHub yet

[matthewevans]

Haha, not 100% LLMs. Welcome @CodeOptimist :)

The AI is still getting worked on, so thanks for calling this out! In theory this should have been addressed - it sounds like the AI might be looking at the base P/T instead of actual or something. Will look into it.

The reason you see a ton of LLM issues is because most bug reports go to the #bug-reports channel on Discord and are then sync'd over as GitHub issues.

[mike-theDude]

Triage analysis

Clarified summary
The AI casts damage spells at creatures it cannot kill — reported both against a 7/7 and, in a follow-up, against a 1/3 with a one-damage spell — wasting the card for no board effect.

Investigation findings
The follow-up comments narrow this usefully: the behaviour is not counter-specific (it reproduces against a creature with no counters), so this is a general targeting-evaluation problem rather than a case of the AI reading base power/toughness instead of the current value. A maintainer has acknowledged the report.

Two game-state captures are attached to this issue. Those are directly usable as AI scenario fixtures, which is the fastest way to pin the evaluation path and to keep the behaviour from regressing once fixed.

Likely scope
area:ai — damage-spell targeting evaluation. The engine's damage and toughness handling is not implicated; the question is why a target that survives is scored as worthwhile.

Acceptance criteria

• The AI does not spend a damage spell on a creature whose toughness exceeds the damage dealt, absent a specific reason (an incidental trigger, a damage-based payoff, or forcing a blocker's removal).
• Both attached game states are added as AI scenario fixtures asserting the expected action shape.