IntelliJ 12 doesn't use Tomcat context descriptor?

IntelliJ 12 doesn't use Tomcat context descriptor?

I have a spring MVC web application which runs just fine when built with
maven and deployed to Tomcat.
But when launching it from IntelliJ the application is failing because it
can't find context parameters defined in context descriptor.
I set the "Tomcat Context Desciptor" in the Web facet and I even tried to
break the context file making it invalid XML. Nothing ever changed, the
app gets deployed and dies when trying to resolve
#{contextParameters.myProperty}
To make it even more weird it worked once. Then cleaned the project and it
doesn't work since then.
Using:
Spring 3.1
IntelliJ 12
Tomcat 6
Any help much appreciated since it's driving me crazy :)