{"id":9542,"date":"2020-04-21T23:46:43","date_gmt":"2020-04-21T20:46:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.magicjudges.org\/rules\/?p=9542"},"modified":"2024-08-08T03:39:30","modified_gmt":"2024-08-08T00:39:30","slug":"ikoria-missed-triggers-guide","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.magicjudges.org\/rules\/2020\/04\/21\/ikoria-missed-triggers-guide\/","title":{"rendered":"Ikoria Missed Triggers Guide"},"content":{"rendered":"

We\u2019re back again with a new set! This time around, Ikoria brings us beasties of all shapes and sizes (sometimes several at once), but as far as triggered abilities go this set is surprisingly tame. Monsters tend towards straightforward approaches like eating you or stepping on you and their cards seem to reflect that. Still, best to keep a sharp eye out – on Ikoria and<\/em> handling the cards below. Sometimes \u201cto the point\u201d just means the nuance isn\u2019t as noticeable.<\/p>\n

And that brings us to our guide, with light cast into the unlit corners and warning signs helpfully decorating the path. Since we have fewer triggers to discuss this go-around, we\u2019ve provided a bit more in-depth information about handling each one, and common problems that might arise.<\/p>\n

Four cards have triggers that upgrade when missed:<\/h4>\n

<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Hunted Nightmare<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    \u201cWhen Hunted Nightmare enters the battlefield, target opponent puts a deathtouch counter on a creature they control.\u201d<\/p>\n

    This card hearkens back to the \u201cHunted creature cycle\u201d of Ravnica with below-rate creatures that, as a drawback, give your opponent almost<\/em> enough to answer them. The Nightmare makes use of new rules tech to put a Deathtouch counter on an opponent\u2019s creature – permanently applying the ability.<\/p>\n

    Something important to keep in mind is that an opponent isn\u2019t obligated<\/em> to point this trigger out right when it\u2019s missed. And waiting can be advantageous; deciding which creature to put the Deathtouch counter on after combat\u2019s done for the turn, or even after drawing at the start of their own turn, gives the opponent more information to work with.<\/p>\n

    Two things to remember when this happens: a trigger that\u2019s older than the current phase in the previous turn (and doesn\u2019t have an exception) is outright missed, so the opponent can\u2019t wait too long. And they can\u2019t put that counter on a creature that wouldn\u2019t have been a legal choice when the trigger should have resolved. Both of these points are mentioned in the Additional Remedies section of Missed Triggers – don\u2019t forget to read carefully!<\/p>\n

      \n
    1. Colossification<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      \u201cWhen Colossification enters the battlefield, tap enchanted creature.\u201d<\/p>\n

      This card makes creatures big<\/em>. Bigger than just big; it truly earns the world \u201ccolossal\u201d. But that much growth has got to be exhausting, so it\u2019s no wonder that when a creature grows this much this quickly it\u2019s tapped and can\u2019t do much else for a while.<\/p>\n

      Players won\u2019t often forget this trigger, but when they do, our fix is to tap the creature immediately; no matter how long it\u2019s been since it should have happened, or where in the game we are. That\u2019s because this is an enters-the-battlefield ability of an Aura, and it only affects the enchanted creature. Crafty opponents could use this to their advantage by reminding a player of the trigger right before attackers or blockers are declared\u2026 But only if it was actually missed in the first place.<\/p>\n

        \n
      1. Excavation Mole<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

        \u201cWhen Excavation Mole enters the battlefield, put the top three cards of your library into your graveyard.\u201d<\/p>\n

        Excavation Mole has a trigger that\u2019s the simplest of the bunch; churning cards from your library into your graveyard can be helpful, sometimes. But since the Mole isn\u2019t getting any value from this on its own this is definitely a generally detrimental trigger. This trigger doesn\u2019t fall into any of the special exceptions so if it isn\u2019t remembered until more than a turn later, it\u2019s just missed.<\/p>\n

        <\/p>\n

          \n
        1. Song of Creation<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

          \u201cAt the beginning of your end step, discard your hand.\u201d<\/p>\n

          There are plenty of ways to circumvent or make use of the Song’s drawback – but that doesn\u2019t change that discarding your hand is<\/em> a drawback, and a hefty one at that.<\/p>\n

          Since this trigger only happens on its controller\u2019s end steps it is possible for it to go out of the window to be put on the stack, if the game gets back to the controller\u2019s next untap step. But more often we should see opponents pointing it out before then. And if a player\u2019s hand happens to already be empty when this trigger should happen, we assume that it resolves invisibly without needing to be acknowledged; the opponent can ask to respond if they want to, but if they don\u2019t it won\u2019t count as missed.<\/p>\n

          Lastly, if a player adds cards to their hand after missing this trigger and then<\/em> it\u2019s put onto the stack, they\u2019ll discard their hand – including the new cards. When we discard the entire hand no choices are being made, so we don\u2019t have to worry about what would or wouldn\u2019t have been in their hand at the time. Any choices that result from that discard (like putting a discarded Commander back in the Command zone) still work like normal.<\/p>\n

          \n

          And that\u2019s a wrap! Thanks for joining us on this brief tour of Ikoria, and hopefully you\u2019re now better equipped to handle some of the issues these behemoths bring. Be sure as always to examine the situation carefully; this guide is a resource, but don\u2019t follow it blindly into a monster\u2019s lair. Read up on mechanics in the set, the abundance of triggered abilities that don\u2019t upgrade, and other tools that\u2019ll keep you alive and well. We’ll see you all again in Core 2021!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

          We\u2019re back again with a new set! This time around, Ikoria brings us beasties of all shapes and sizes (sometimes several at once), but as far as triggered abilities go this set is surprisingly tame. Monsters tend towards straightforward approaches like eating you or stepping on you and their cards seem to reflect that. Still, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":483,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"language":[6],"class_list":["post-9542","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","language-en"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.magicjudges.org\/rules\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9542","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.magicjudges.org\/rules\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.magicjudges.org\/rules\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.magicjudges.org\/rules\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/483"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.magicjudges.org\/rules\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9542"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.magicjudges.org\/rules\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9542\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10827,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.magicjudges.org\/rules\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9542\/revisions\/10827"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.magicjudges.org\/rules\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9542"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.magicjudges.org\/rules\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9542"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.magicjudges.org\/rules\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9542"},{"taxonomy":"language","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.magicjudges.org\/rules\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/language?post=9542"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}