Just think for how long this wasn't an issue considering that it was present since the Core Set. I wonder if people will start casting Flame Strike on their enemies after this thread.
They probably will, at least if Arcane Wonders doesn't decide to change it.
Over time we are probably going to see more and more issues like this pop up, and the answer every time will either be to update the rules or errata a card, some combination thereof or to do nothing. And the more times this occurs, the more specific card interactions newer players will have to memorize and the less intuitive the game will become.
One of the biggest differences between customizable strategy games and other kinds of games is that they are far more complex and always growing and changing. They have many more moving parts to them, and it is an endless balancing act to keep it all working right. Mistakes are not just more likely in this genre, they are inevitable.
Other customizable strategy games deal with this problem by hiding from it, by pretending that all mistakes could have been avoided if they only paid attention and play tested better, and when they make a particularly harmful mistake, they choose to either ban it, restrict it or release more cards to balance it.
Since Mage Wars is an LCG-like game, banning cards is not a viable option because that reduces the value of the sets they come in. For mistakes having to do with balance alone, releasing more cards is probably the best option at least most of the time. But when it comes to faulty and ambiguous not-as-intended rules interactions, releasing more cards usually won't help, and doing nothing but saying that card text trump rules as written is not a good permanent solution (at least on its own) because it causes exceptional edge cases to accumulate without end as the game ages, and all of these exceptions must be memorized. This means that older players will have an advantage not just in skill, experience or card access, but in knowledge of obscure and unintuitive rules exceptions, and that knowledge advantage will grow over time without limit. I suspect that the only truly feasible long-term solution to faulty and ambiguous not-as-intended rules interactions will have to involve errata. For an LCG-like game, correcting cards isn't a sign of weakness, it's a sign of a generally healthy meta with a good immune system. This truth is unfortunately lost on most gamers, perhaps in part because most games won't even admit to it.
Maybe when it comes to faulty and ambiguous not-as-intended rules interactions we should just admit to it and fix it, instead of accumulating a bunch of rules exceptions that we have to memorize. It's probably not even necessary to fix all of them. Just enough that the number of rules exceptions that people have to memorize is relatively constant instead of increasing over time.
