Welcome back to the Rules Tip Blog! Keeping the Kaladesh train rolling, today we’ll be discussing Strionic Resonator‘s big brother: Panharmonicon! Panharmonicon likes to double up some of your triggered abilities; specifically, any that fire off of an artifact or creature entering the battlefield. So what does that work on? Would it make your Endless One come down with twice the counters, or make your Thing in the Ice harder to transform? The answer to both of those is “no”; those cards have replacement effects which modify the way they enter the battlefield (notably, telling you they come down with counters). A triggered ability will always contain the words “When”, “Whenever”, or “At”; for the abilities that trigger from artifacts and creatures hitting the board (which are the kind Panharmonicon likes), you’re going to want “When” and “Whenever”, specifically. For example, the Fabricate trigger on Angel of Invention (“WHEN Angel of Invention…”), or the trigger on Contraband Kingpin (“WHENEVER an artifact…”).

So, if one of those triggers happens, Panharmonicon makes it trigger twice. It doesn’t copy the original like Strionic Resonator used to, so if the trigger is modal (such as the trigger on the not-in-Standard Aven Surveyor) you can choose a different mode for your second trigger. If the trigger is targeted, you can select the same target for both triggers, or select different ones. If the trigger has you make a choice on resolution (like the Fabricate example!), you make the decision per-trigger; you could choose the same mode both times, or different modes each time, but your opponent won’t know your choice until the trigger resolves. It’s also important to note that Panharmonicon might only double YOUR triggers, but they don’t have to be set off by YOUR cards. Panharmonicon will double up when your Authority of the Consuls or Essence Warden trigger from your OPPONENT’S creatures!

Today’s Rules Tip was written by Trevor Nunez