Been watching your videos for a while now, and I greatly appreciate your attention to detail when answering these problem statements. This method has helped me be better at explaining concepts in my work/speedrunning community. Thank you for all you do!
Thank you for your kind words! Communication is absolutely key for judges. Explaining a technical topic at a high enough level to be accurate and useful, yet at a low enough level to be accessible and entertaining is a difficult line to walk, and one that I still strive with every video to get right.
Neat, thanks for answering my question! (Also, good editing of the question with the Striped Bears. I forget what exact card I used with Delney in my example, but it was something familiar from Standard, not something simple that raised the same key question.)
I appreciate how Magic's rules can be grammatically intuitive. Not Dead After All splits the ability's effect with "then" to show there is a sequence of events. Undying Malice uses "with" to tell the player to do all the steps of the ability together. When I tried to puzzle out the original example, I didn't know the right answer. I knew that "then" was the operative word, and the ability could work differently if it said "with" instead. I feel satisfied seeing Dave give a second example showing that exact difference.
I thought the point of the video was going to be covering the fact that Not Dead After All gives the bear a triggered ability which Delney doubles. Glad you covered that, as always. Got everything right on this one, for once. Sincerely, a player just trying to understand the game.
A weird corollary to this rule happens with Slime Against Humanity. You create the token, then put the counters on it. Because of that, it enters as a 0/0 creature. This means cards that look for creatures with small power entering the battlefield will trigger.
Does Return Triumphant work the same way as Not Dead after All, despite not having a "then" in the rules text? For example, if you bring back a Carven Caryatid with Return Triumphant with Delney and A Tale For The Ages in play, would the Caryatid's etb trigger once or twice?
Hi Dave, great video! I have a tangentially related question I'm hoping you can look into, since it stumped those of us on the Judgechat. The active player controls Delney, Streetwise Lookout and Psychosis Crawler with one card in hand, Wheel of Fortune, which they then cast. How many times does Psychosis Crawler trigger? The available judges reached a consensus with how they'd rule it at the table but weren't 100% confident it was correct. Any insight you have on the situation would be appreciated. :)
From what I understand. The persist trigger occurs when the creature changes zones. So Kitchen Finks, a 3/2, dies and as it hits the graveyard the trigger goes on the stack and it then returns to the battlefield with a -1/-1 counter on it making it a 2/1, as it enters a trigger goes on the stack for you to gain two life and then Delney sees this trigger and the 'gain two life' trigger triggers again. So yes, you would have two instances of gain two life.
1:45 about the time where the question I have comes up. Let's say I have this whole setup with Delney, and the Bears. I cast my Undying Malice and trade the bear for something. Two Undying Malice triggers go on the stack? If my opponent Stifles one of them, then the other one will successfully resolve because the game can still see the bears in the graveyard? Someone please answer I'm way too lazy to try and set this game state up on Arena against ol' Sparky.
Follow up Question: So does that mean that if you were to say do something similar on a Stonecoil Serpent (or any 0/0) then undying malice would keep it alive as it enters with the counter but Not Dead After All wouldn’t because it would enter with 0 toughness and die before the role token can be placed on it?
How does Delney interact with Teysa, Opulent Oligarch? Delney makes Teysa's abillity trigger "an additional time" alto the Teysa ability states "triggers only once each turn"
My rules question if anyone can answer is with Delney and Rune-Tail, Kitsune Ascendant. Does Rune Tail infinitely trigger and I have to concede due to not being able to resolve or does it only trigger twice and runetail stays as a 2/2?
When Academy Rector dies, Delney causes the dies trigger to happen twice. When you do the first trigger, if you say yes to the effect, you exile it from your graveyard, and then if you do, you can search for an enchantment. Then you resolve the second trigger, and since you've already exiled Academy Rector, you can't say get the effect a second time.
The errata’s text for rector reads, “When Academy Rector dies, you may exile it. If you do, search your library for an enchantment card, put that card onto the battlefield, then shuffle.” Since the clause to search is reliant on Rector being exiled, one of the two triggers you do get will be next to useless. So to answer your question, technically, yes, you get two triggers, but you can only get one search.
I got everything right except the case involving the Wicked Role Aura. Aura's always seem to confound me regarding their timing, the application of their static abilities and enter the battlefield triggers. As such, I have a scenario which could use your ruling expertise, as it actually happened in an MtG content creator's video recently: Player controls no basic lands. Player casts Doppelgang for X > 1 targeting Opponent's Ossification, as well as other nonbasic land permanents. What happens to the created Ossification tokens? And what happens to their ETB ability? I already know the outcome for this case, assuming what played out in the creator's video was correct, and not MTGArena bugging out/getting it wrong; but I won't say it here to see if you can arrive at the same ruling. And as a bonus, what would happen if Player casts Doppelgang for X > 1, but this time also targets a basic land?
I think the token Ossifications would not be created in the first place in either case, as they won't have anything to enter attached to. I'm basing this off of how replacement effects work (which just feels similar timing-wise), in particular Clones. If you have a Clone and another creature enter the battlefield at the same time, the Clone won't be able to choose that creature to copy because it isn't in play yet for the Clone to see. > 303.4f If an Aura is entering the battlefield under a player’s control by any means other than by resolving as an Aura spell, and the effect putting it onto the battlefield doesn’t specify the object or player the Aura will enchant, that player chooses what it will enchant as the Aura enters the battlefield. The player must choose a legal object or player according to the Aura’s enchant ability and any other applicable effects. > 303.4g If an Aura is entering the battlefield and there is no legal object or player for it to enchant, the Aura remains in its current zone, unless that zone is the stack. In that case, the Aura is put into its owner’s graveyard instead of entering the battlefield. If the Aura is a token, it isn’t created.
