WotC Files Patent for New AI Gameplay Assistant Software

Last updated on April 27, 2026

Kilo, Apogee Mind | Illustration by Tuan Duong Chu

Wizards of the Coast filed a patent for a “virtual artificial intelligence-based gameplay assistant” that would be used to respond to rules questions and adjudicate game questions posed by users. The patent, #US-20260045140-A1, was filed October 7, 2025, and published February 12, 2026.

How Could This Be Implemented?

Irma, Part-Time Mutant | Illustration by Mirko Failoni

The patent outlines an AI gameplay assistant that could be used by players to answer rules questions. The general idea is that the player sends a rules query to an AI chatbot, which would calculate an answer, then rate it with a confidence score; depending on the confidence score, the gameplay assistant would then either deliver a ruling or request additional details. One of the figures in the patent, Figure 6, displays an example of the chat bot answers a rules interaction between Tom Bombadil and the saga Elspeth Conquers Death:

Source: Public Patent Search

In addition to providing an example of how the chatbot would respond to a rules question, the figure displays the chatbot on a smartphone, which provides a hint to how it could be implemented: An app.

It’s likely Wizards could add it to the Companion app as an additional feature, as it’s already a popular life counter app and used by many local games stores to run events like Friday Night Magic. Alternatively, it could be added as a unique app that might use other features. Perhaps a way to identify cards to track a collection? While adding it to an app players can consult at paper events makes sense, it seems unlikely the bot would come to Magic Arena or Magic Online since they already have game engines that implement the rules.

Is This Useful?

Counterspell | Illustration by Mark Poole

I’m generally very suspicious of generative AI, though I will grant this seems to be one of the better use-cases: A tool used under specific circumstances to help people perform small tasks. It also seems reasonable that it would be more reliable than a generalist chatbot in answering rules questions.

A general AI like Google AI can get rules questions very wrong, as it scrapes an incredible amount of information and may get it muddled. Also, AI is very capable of hallucinating data. But a dedicated AI trained on the Magic rules system could circumvent these issues. As noted, Magic Arena and other digital platforms successfully implement the rules on a grand scale every single day. A program can be written that tracks Tom Bombadil getting reanimated by Elspeth Conquers Death and performs the correct game actions; it seems like a very simple task to write a program that expresses that in text. I am not a programmer, though, so take that with a grain of salt. The main issue would be tracking how a player asks the question. That said, it’s unlikely this would be accurate 100% of the time—even MTGA and MTGO have bugs that need answering, like that time Jumbo Cactuar broke Arena:

This gameplay assistant has the potential to be a useful tool that could help players, especially new ones, learn the rules on a deeper level and perform better as players. But potential doesn’t always work out in practice and AI has a history of problems. It seems inevitable that Wizards would get in on the AI game—we might be lucky it’s taken this long—but it’s too early to say whether or not this will be a useful tool or another example of a company forcing unwanted, unnecessary AI on its costumer base.