Evolve is a fun ability. Play out your evolve creatures, then play something big and POP! All those evolve creatures level up and get bigger. What’s not to like? I mean, a creature like Wolfir Silverheart should pretty much always cause your evolve abilities to trigger, since it ends up as an 8/8, right?

Well, not quite.

As we covered before, we check the power of the creature as it enters the battlefield to see if evolve will even trigger. If the new creature’s power and/or toughness are not larger than the creature with evolve, then evolve won’t even trigger and it won’t matter if you pair your Silverheart with anything.

For example, let’s say we have an Experiment One on the battlefield with three +1/+1 counters on it, making it a 4/4. We cast the Silverheart and it enters the battlefield. So let’s check the power and toughness of the two creatures. The Experiment’s power is four, and the Silverheart’s power is four, so the new creature’s power isn’t greater than the One’s power. The Experiment’s toughness is four, and the Silverheart’s toughness is four, so the new creature’s toughness isn’t greater than the One’s toughness. Evolve won’t trigger, so even if you pair the Silverheart with another creature, we’re past the point where the One’s ability would have triggered, and it won’t go back and trigger now that the Silverheart’s power and/or toughness are bigger.

But hey, while you can’t get the evolve ability to trigger, you can still pair them for life. So it’s not a complete wash, right?

Looking at it another way, if your Experiment One only had 2 +1/+1 counters and you resolved Silverheart, Evolve will trigger at the same time as Soulbond. Whichever way you order it, Evolve will still add a counter, because it triggers when your 3/3 is smaller than your 4/4, but can still add a counter if your 7/7 is smaller than your 8/8 when Evolve resolves (after Soulbond gives them both +4/+4).

Today’s Rules Tip written by Nathan Long