‘Intervening if’ clauses! Fun times. These are handy little things that can stop stuff from happening before it happens. They’re always written as “When/whenever/at…, if SOMETHING IS TRUE, do something.” These abilities check for “something is true” at two times: when the ability would trigger, and when it would resolve. The ability needs something to be true to trigger in the first place, and it needs that thing to still be true in order to resolve.

An example is today’s main card: Demonic Rising. If you don’t have exactly one creature at the beginning of your end step, it doesn’t trigger at all. You don’t get a chance to make that thing true once you’ve passed the point it should trigger. Likewise, if you have exactly one creature to fire that trigger, but by the time it resolves you don’t have exactly one anymore, then the ability will do nothing because the ‘intervening if’ clause is no longer true. You can sort of use that to your advantage, though. For example, manlands like Inkmoth Nexus come in handy. If you activate Nexus at any point prior to the end step, then when your end step begins, you control only one creature, and Rising will trigger. As long as you’ve got just the one Nexus at the start of your end step, and when the trigger resolves, you get your Demon.

Today’s Rules Tip written by
Trevor Nuñez, Level 1 judge from Roswell, NM