Quite a few cards in Return to Ravnica trigger when you cast a spell of some sort, and Guttersnipe is one that a lot of people are rather excited to build around. He turns all of your spells into burn, and your burn into better burn. But when does he actually trigger? When does the damage happen, before or after the spell?

The way that Guttersnipe is worded is “Whenever you cast an instant or sorcery spell, Guttersnipe deals 2 damage to each opponent.” What that means is he triggers then the spell is ‘cast’; when you move it from whatever zone it was in (which will typically be your hand, but sometimes the graveyard thanks to Snapcaster Mage, etc.) to the stack, pick targets, and pay costs. As such, the trigger will go on the stack above the spell that triggered it, and will hit your opponents for 2 before the original spell resolves. Bad news is, you won’t be able to use something like Moment of Heroism to make your Guttersnipe gain lifelink ‘in time’ for the trigger to gain you life. Good news is, even if the original spell gets countered or stopped somehow, the Guttersnipe trigger doesn’t care, and will still resolve normally.

Today’s Rules Tip written by
Trevor Nuñez