Space: The Final Frontier. These are the voyages of the Missed Trigger Guide Team. Its continuing mission: to explore strange and new sets, to seek out new triggers and abilities, to boldly go where no Judge has gone before.
Triggers that Upgrade to a Warning if Missed
Will Riker, First in the Field
Will Riker, Captain Picard’s number two, always offers a sharp plan of attack. His combat ability accelerates your mana pool by revealing cards from the top of your library until you hit two lands, putting them straight onto the battlefield and placing the remaining cards on the bottom in a random order. However, that burst of momentum comes at a steep tactical price: a delayed trigger forces you to sacrifice those lands at the beginning of your next end step.
Retaining permanent ramp without paying the sacrifice cost provides a long-term advantage. Failing to sacrifice those lands at the end step is usually detrimental and will come with a warning.
As we travel the universe, we encounter all kinds of strange biological entities like this parasitic Jellyfish Leech. Blastoneuron loves to scavenge through your graveyard when it enters, feeding on a smaller creature card to spawn a fleeting copy with haste. However, that temporary life forms an unstable symbiotic bond with a delayed trigger forces you to sacrifice the copy at the beginning of the next end step. If a player moves past the end step with that token still floating around on the battlefield, expect to issue a Warning for missing a this trigger.
Retaining a token copy beyond its intended temporary duration gives the controller an unearned permanent body and board presence. Failing to clear the token at the next end step is usually detrimental.
Erica Ortegas is one plucky pilot, and whenever she becomes tapped, her ability lets you play a land straight from your hand. However, if you choose to take advantage of that extra land drop, you are locked into a delayed trade-off: you’ll need to return a land you control to its owner’s hand at the beginning of the next end step. If a player bypasses or forgets to bounce that land when the turn rolls into the cleanup phase, it’s time to issue a Warning.
Being forced to return a land to your hand is a mandatory drawback designed to balance the card’s tempo acceleration. Moving into or past the end step such as passing priority without returning a land to its owner’s hand after having utilized Erica’s ramp effect earlier in the turn will be a problem. Failing to bounce the land allows the player to keep both the accelerated land and their hand size intact is consider a generally detrimental trigger.
Tasha Yar, Out of Time
Tasha Yar is a remarkably resilient card. If Tasha is in your graveyard, her activated ability allows you to exile her to spawn a temporal token copy directly back onto the battlefield. While returning a key threat to life generates immense value and potential ETB/attack triggers, it is easy to overlook the critical string attached: a mandatory delayed trigger forces you to sacrifice that copy at the beginning of the next end step. Leaving that token in play past the end step is a clear missed trigger that results in a Warning.
Retaining a temporary creature token indefinitely gives the controller an unearned permanent body and ongoing board presence. Moving past the end step such as declaring a cleanup step, passing priority at the end of turn, or drawing for the next turn while still keeping the Tasha Yar token copy on the battlefield. Skipping the end-step cleanup will result in a warning for a detrimental trigger.
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D-7 Battle Cruise
Klingons are tough and aggressive, and the D-7 Battle Cruiser shows off just how relentless they can be. At the beginning of combat on your turn, it warp speeds a 2/1 red Klingon Warrior creature token with haste right onto the battlefield. While sending in a quick attacker is great for applying pressure, don’t get so caught up in the offensive push that you forget the catch. That token comes bound to a delayed trigger requiring a sacrifice at the beginning of the next end step.
Retaining a temporary attacker beyond its single turn window leaves an extra body on the board to block or attack on future turns. Bypassing the delayed sacrifice trigger is generally detrimental. Leaving that Klingon on the battlefield past the turn’s end will earn you a Warning for a missed detrimental trigger.
Targ Wrangler
I spoke earlier about tough and aggressive Klingons, but maybe I spoke too soon! Here we have a 5/3 creature with menace very menacing, and for only {2}{R}, it hits the battlefield without breaking the bank. What weakness could a card with stats like this possibly have? Well, there it is: almost too good to be true. To swing with that heavy attack power, you have to pay up at the end of the day with a mandatory sacrifice of a nonland permanent.
While the low mana cost and aggressive 5/3 menace stats are great up front, the forced sacrifice is a direct, mandatory self-harm trigger designed to balance the card’s stat line. Forgetting to sacrifice a nonland permanent after attacking lets the player keep resources they were legally required to forfeit, resulting in a Warning under IPG 2.1.
The Naked Time
It’s Naked Time! Everything on this card is awesome. Search for a basic Mountain, every burn player’s dream. Whenever a creature you control enters, put a +1/+1 counter on it and it gains haste; yep, this is the burn player’s formula right there. Sacrifice a land? What? Did we really need to add that last chapter? It was already pretty spicy here and full of energy, but I guess some good things can’t last. With this 3-chapter Saga we have some awesome chapters to build off of, but there is a balance here we need to respect. With the final chapter trigger you have to sacrifice a land; missing this trigger is considered usually detrimental and results in a Warning.
Unlike standard positive Sagas, Chapter III requires the controller to forfeit a land resource without offering a choices-based out or an optional effect. Under IPG 2.1, because sacrificing a land is a pure drawback at the time the trigger resolves, skipping it leaves the controller with an illegal mana advantage over their opponent.
The City on the Edge of Forever
another Saga in the set, and this one is packed with some interesting chapters! Chapter I phases out all artifacts and creatures, then creates a 0/1 white Human token with “Permanents can’t phase in” effectively freezing the board state while keeping your opponent locked out of their phased assets. Chapter II lets you draw two cards while each player loses 2 life. Now we get to the really interesting one: Chapter III requires you to sacrifice a creature token, and if you do, you gain 5 life.
Even though there is a life-gain payoff attached, failing to execute the mandatory sacrifice component leaves the player with an extra creature body they were legally required to clear from the battlefield. Under IPG 2.1, bypassing this mandatory board state cost provides an unearned resource advantage, making it usually detrimental and resulting in a Warning.
Dominion Infiltration
You’ve hit on the exact design pattern running through this set: Star Trek loves spawning temporary token forces—whether they’re Klingon boarding parties, temporal echoes, or covert infiltrators and it strictly limits their lifespan. Dominion Infiltration lets you turn an opponent’s best threat against them for a turn by creating X haste bearing token copies. However, those changeling/covert copies don’t stick around: a delayed trigger forces you to exile them at the beginning of the next end step. Bypassing that delayed cleanup phase keeps extra stolen creatures on your side of the field, earning a Warning for a missed detrimental trigger.
I feel these missed triggers here have a common theme. Look, sacrifices have to be made, life isn’t fair and we can’t have it all but we did learn something important. Sacrifice the things when it says to or expect the consequences of your actions.
Now for a trigger that doesn’t upgrade when missed.
The no win scenario, how well can you handle inevitable defeat? Dang it, I just lost the game too! I feel like not selecting Abandon Ship when you hit that final option would immediately spark a Starfleet Command investigation into why you haven’t chosen it yet especially if you’ve already resolved the other two modes. Yeah, I get it: nobody wants to lose the game (dang it, lost it again!), but this true test of character only ends in a game-loss outcome or a lore investigation, not so much a judge-issued warning.