The most complicated new mechanic of Avacyn Restored is Soulbond. I had dozens of questions regarding Soulbond at my local prerelease, so I will try to explain how it works.

Soulbond means this: “When a creature with soulbond enters the battlefield, if you control another unpaired creature, you may pair the creature with soulbond with an unpaired creature you control. Whenever another creature enters the battlefield under your control, if you control an unpaired creature with soulbond, you may pair it with the creature that just entered.” Note the use of the word pair — only 2 creatures can be paired; no more, no less.

An interesting situation can come up in AVR limited. Let’s say that you control a noncreature Angel’s Tomb and no other creatures. If you cast a Nearheath Pilgrim, its soulbond ability will not trigger when it enters the battlefield, because you don’t control any other unpaired creature. This is because the ability has an “intervening ‘if’ clause”, which stops the ability from triggering if the requirements are not met. So the only trigger is the one that can animate the Tomb, and there can be no pairing.

This scenario changes if you control another unpaired creature and an Angel’s Tomb. If you order the triggers the right way, you can let the Tomb become a creature first, then (because soulbond doesn’t target anything, and you simply choose any unpaired creature you control as the ability resolves) you can pair the Pilgrim to the animated Angel’s Tomb. Of course, that pair will break when your turn ends and the Angel stops being a creature, but you can still gain your 3 life from the Angel’s lifelink.

Today’s Rules Tip written by
Jorge Pinto, Level 1 judge from Santiago Chile