Hi everyone, and we’re back! Let’s get right to it and talk about our final creature/planeswalker, Nissa!

Nissa, Vastwood Seer will transform into Nissa, Sage Animist, if you play a land and you control seven or more lands after that land has entered the battlefield. This trigger checks the number of lands you control at two times: when the trigger is put on the stack (to see if it should trigger in the first place), and again when the trigger goes to resolve. That means if you play your seventh land, but then your opponent destroys one of your lands with the trigger on the stack, the trigger won’t transform Nissa because the condition isn’t true as it resolves.

Also note that Nissa’s first triggered ability is not optional! Even if you have no intention of searching for a land, that trigger will still go on the stack, and your opponent will get priority to cast a removal spell on Nissa before you can play a land.

But here’s a nifty trick: Nissa’s ability isn’t triggered off of you playing a land, but a land entering the battlefield under your control. If you have a Nissa and enough lands and someone points a Shock at Nissa and you have a fetchland (like Wooded Foothills), you could sac it and put a land onto the battlefield, causing Nissa to trigger. Nissa will transform and will be safe from the Shock. Pretty sneaky!

Alright everyone, I hope you all enjoyed us going over these new planeswalkers. They seem pretty nifty to me, and I’m sure we’ll see a lot of them in standard as long as we have Magic Origins around. See you tomorrow!

Today’s Rules Tip was written by Nathan Long