I was trying to use Memory Theft to exile a card that my opponent had in exile that he had just used it's adventure capability, and was left with the card in his "hand" as a card he can re-cast. I am playing MTG arena. i tried to exile THAT card, but i accidently exiled a copy of the card he had in his "hand" instead of the one i wanted to. The one in exile previously was already there from a different effect. Why does this happen and how can i properly pick the right card to exile when they both look exactly the same?!?! This actually almost lost me the game because of this.
Memory Theft doesn't exile any cards; rather, the targeted player discards the card you choose from their hand, which means the card goes to the graveyard, not to exile (C.R. 701.8a). Then, if that player owns at least one card that has an Adventure in exile (no matter how it got there), you may put one of those cards into their graveyard.
Target opponent reveals their hand.
You choose a nonland card from it.
That player discards that card.
[Then] You may put a card that has an Adventure that player owns from exile into that player's graveyard.
Memory Theft doesn't exile anything, it puts up to two different cards in your opponent's graveyard - one from their hand, and one from exile.
Those effects are followed in order. So you need to first pick any nonland card that is actually on their hand (the "used" Adventure that "shows" in their hand is actually in exile, so it can't be chosen at first); it can be a non-Adventure card. This is mandatory, as long as they have at least one nonland card in hand. The selected card is discarded (goes to their graveyard).
Then, you may select an Adventure card they own in exile (either an "usable" one that the game shows on their hand, or one that was exiled some other way and is not usable), and it also gets put on their graveyard. This part is optional, so you may accidentally skip doing it.
Sorry for the miscommunication, I meant taking one of their cards from exile, and placing it in their graveyard. They had 4 cards with adventure in exile (one of which was the one that was recently used to go on an adventure) and was still able to be played later from exile.
I was unable to select the correct card from exile to send into the graveyard. There was 2 copies of a card that I was trying to send into the graveyard. Instead of sending the one that was playable from their recent adventure, it sent the one that was already sitting in exile. There was no way to tell the two cards apart.
I don't think it's supposed to be this way. They are not identical cards as one was already in exile and unplayable and one was playable from exile after going on an adventure.
To further clarify, they had no cards in their hand, so i cast the spell to specifically take the card that was playable after going on an adventure, and when doing so, i was unable to select the correct card, as all 4 cards from exile appeared identical.
If MTG Arena has no way for you to distinguish two or more cards with the same name in exile in the manner you describe, then that is an issue in MTG Arena. See also C.R. 406.5 ("Exiled cards that might return to ... any ... zone should be kept in separate piles to keep track of their respective ways of returning").
Magic specifies that each card in exile should be able to be distinguished from the others while they aren't in piles together. (Cards in face-down exiled piles cannot be referenced, but you can choose to "choose one of a pile at random" for those piles.)
If Magic Arena or another software is not able to provide access to the cards in Exile in a way that lets you verify continuity of your choice with the card you've previously made a note of, that is an error in that software.
Whether or not that technical possibility exists is for a support forum of that software to answer, and this rules forum doesn't extend to explaining or accounting for how MTG Arena works.
I can discuss though, that it introduces the question of what exactly the software is meant to do here. The two cards are the same printing. To know one from the other, you have to attach some quality to one and not the other, and see this quality while you're making your choice with Memory Theft or anything else. The quality of being able to cast a card with an inset Adventure from exile, because of the fact that Adventure had been used, is given in the fact of being a party in a currently existing effect that says just that. That effect's existence cannot be concealed, as a matter of communication between players, because it cannot be derived from anything. So what you should have access to is the effect that relates to the one card as a quality of that card.
At minimum, you'd have to be able to pick the card through an interface with a "continuity" property, which is basically this: You can track the card's identity from the time it becomes exiled so that you always know "where" that card is in the interface (i.e., how to address it). With continuity, you can combine your own memory of what is relevant to "that card" in order to make the choice you want. Essentially, the interface needs to support the concept "that card".
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Target opponent reveals their hand.
You choose a nonland card from it.
That player discards that card.
[Then] You may put a card that has an Adventure that player owns from exile into that player's graveyard.
Memory Theft doesn't exile anything, it puts up to two different cards in your opponent's graveyard - one from their hand, and one from exile.
Those effects are followed in order. So you need to first pick any nonland card that is actually on their hand (the "used" Adventure that "shows" in their hand is actually in exile, so it can't be chosen at first); it can be a non-Adventure card. This is mandatory, as long as they have at least one nonland card in hand. The selected card is discarded (goes to their graveyard).
Then, you may select an Adventure card they own in exile (either an "usable" one that the game shows on their hand, or one that was exiled some other way and is not usable), and it also gets put on their graveyard. This part is optional, so you may accidentally skip doing it.
I was unable to select the correct card from exile to send into the graveyard. There was 2 copies of a card that I was trying to send into the graveyard. Instead of sending the one that was playable from their recent adventure, it sent the one that was already sitting in exile. There was no way to tell the two cards apart.
I don't think it's supposed to be this way. They are not identical cards as one was already in exile and unplayable and one was playable from exile after going on an adventure.
To further clarify, they had no cards in their hand, so i cast the spell to specifically take the card that was playable after going on an adventure, and when doing so, i was unable to select the correct card, as all 4 cards from exile appeared identical.
If Magic Arena or another software is not able to provide access to the cards in Exile in a way that lets you verify continuity of your choice with the card you've previously made a note of, that is an error in that software.
Whether or not that technical possibility exists is for a support forum of that software to answer, and this rules forum doesn't extend to explaining or accounting for how MTG Arena works.
I can discuss though, that it introduces the question of what exactly the software is meant to do here. The two cards are the same printing. To know one from the other, you have to attach some quality to one and not the other, and see this quality while you're making your choice with Memory Theft or anything else. The quality of being able to cast a card with an inset Adventure from exile, because of the fact that Adventure had been used, is given in the fact of being a party in a currently existing effect that says just that. That effect's existence cannot be concealed, as a matter of communication between players, because it cannot be derived from anything. So what you should have access to is the effect that relates to the one card as a quality of that card.
At minimum, you'd have to be able to pick the card through an interface with a "continuity" property, which is basically this: You can track the card's identity from the time it becomes exiled so that you always know "where" that card is in the interface (i.e., how to address it). With continuity, you can combine your own memory of what is relevant to "that card" in order to make the choice you want. Essentially, the interface needs to support the concept "that card".
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