Those of you who were playing Magic during Shards of Alara block may remember Exalted, the feature mechanic of the shard of Bant. For the rest of you, let’s break it down step by step.

ʺWheneverʺ signifies a triggered ability, that goes on the stack when a condition is met. ʺa creature you control attacksʺ indicates that exalted triggers during the turn-based action of declaring attackers at the beginning of the declare attackers step, before any player gets priority. And ʺaloneʺ means exalted will only trigger if a single creature is declared as an attacker during this action (sorry, Two-Headed Giant players). It’s also important to note that there is no ʺifʺ in this ability – as long as it triggers, the creature will get the bonus regardless of what happens later.

With that in mind, let’s take a look at what happens if you control two creatures: a Sublime Archangel and Geist of Saint Traft. If you attack with the Geist by itself, three triggers will go onto the stack: one exalted trigger from each creature and the Geist’s token-creation trigger. There are two important things to note here: regardless of how you order the triggers, the token has exalted but it doesn’t trigger, and the presence of the token doesn’t interfere with the resolution of any exalted abilities already on the stack. In both cases, it’s because the token was put onto the battlefield tapped and attacking after the declare attackers step already began, and the exalted ability only triggers, and checks how many creatures attacked, at the beginning of the declare attackers step.

Today’s Rules Tip written by
Jen Wong, Level 1 judge from Irvine, CA