Up in the sky! It’s a bird… It’s a plane… It’s… NICOL BOLAS!!!
War of the Spark is certainly a set for the ages, complete with all the Planeswalkers, Gods, and multicolored spells you could ever want. This set looks primed to be opened in droves at your Launch and Draft Weekends, so keep reading to learn more about what cards to look out for, and which triggers to keep an eye on, plus others which might slip up even the best of us.
Without further ado, we’ll introduce the two cards in this set that have Generally Detrimental Triggers:
While the Boar God does reign supreme over other swine, it doesn’t get to permanently keep its minions on the battlefield. If that creature is still on the battlefield and the controller makes an action in the end step that couldn’t happen with a trigger on the stack, we know that trigger was missed. Remember, the IPG has a Additional Remedy for a trigger that undoes a zone change created by a delayed triggered ability.
And for those with finishing up their sweet Boar tribal deck, this unfortunately won’t trigger Crashing Boars because it enters attacking. Sorry friend.
Our loveable gate, always there for us when we get greedy on our draft selections is back; this time with new art! Just like the last few times we saw it, being required to sacrifice a land or pay {1} is still Generally Detrimental.
While reviewing this set for Generally Detrimental Triggers, we encountered a few that were close, but did not meet the intent. We will call special attention to some of those below.
This card looks like a card played in Faeries decks: Bitterblossom. In fact, this card is played because of its first triggered ability, and helps develop the board state for its second triggered ability to function. While losing a life could spell disaster the further game progresses, this card has a valuable trade-off and would not function appropriately without these abilities. The board state should never be taken into account when evaluating whether it was detrimental or not. Always look at the card on its own.
The artwork and flavor of this card make it stand out, while she is making everyone else fall. This card has two triggers can start a chain of dying creatures that can be either beneficial or detrimental, depending on board state. The owner will control when to cast this card for the best value; whether they wipe of their own creatures or not, this trigger would not be considered generally detrimental.
Drawing a card can be very impactful during a game, even if you lose 1 life in the process. This trigger is Not Generally Detrimental.
And finally… Hmm. I thought I had one more in my notes; where is it? Seems it’s gotten Totally Lost… Ah Ha!
What a curious card, isn’t it? Triggers that look like this are often deemed Generally Detrimental: see Illusionary Servant. Fblthp is played for the value attained from both its triggered abilities, similar to Sidisi, Brood Tyrant. Fblthp’s second trigger is generally more good than bad.
Thank you for reading our article on the Generally Detrimental Triggers from War of the Spark!
You can read our other set articles with these links:
Until next time, enjoy Magic and be excellent to each other!