written by Garrison Fogt, edited by Stephan Classen

Welcome to a new edition of rules about everybody’s favorite card: Tishana’s Tidebinder! Now with some updated (or redacted) rules to make it work how the WotC Rules Team told us it should work. There have been a few relevant Comprehensive Rules (CR) updates that matter – from both Final Fantasy and Avatar: The Last Airbender (TLA) sets! Some of the past two articles of Tidebinder Rules tips may not be as relevant anymore, so please consider the rules change below!

Delayed and Reflexive Triggers

We have a relatively new rule change as of Avatar: The Last Airbender that has changed how Tidebinder works with Delayed and Reflexive Triggers. The Relevant CR Citation is: 603.2e – Some effects refer to a triggered ability of an object. Such effects refer only to triggered abilities the object has, not any delayed triggered abilities (see rule 603.7) that may be created by abilities the object has.

Wait, why is that all Strikethrough’ed? Because with TLA’s release, 603.2e has been removed. Before TLA, 603.2e told us not to trace delayed (and by extension reflexive) triggers back to the initial permanent that created them. With 603.2e gone, Tidebinder can follow a reflexive trigger back to the permanent that it is initially from, even when there’s some other trigger or activated ability in between.

If you counter a delayed or reflexive trigger with Tidebinder, it will shut off the abilities of that permanent.

Now we have 603.7e to follow for these interactions:
603.7e If an activated or triggered ability creates a delayed triggered ability, the source of that delayed triggered ability is the same as the source of that other ability. The controller of that delayed triggered ability is the player who controlled that other ability as it resolved.

For example, countering the Reflexive Trigger of the Agatha’s Soul Cauldron (putting a +1/+1 counter on a creature you control) would shut off the abilities of Agatha’s Soul Cauldron (and stop it from granting abilities to any creatures with counters on them).

If a Badgermole Cub earthbended a land and the land dies, Tidebindering the return trigger would shut off the triggered mana ability of Badgermole Cub.

Let’s start off with some new specific card interactions that are relevant to current standard:

Tidebinder and Kaito, Bane of Nightmares

If a player activates Ninjutsu for Kaito, you can Tidebinder the Ninjutsu activated ability. If you do, the unblocked creature will still be returned to hand as part of the cost for the activated ability, but Kaito will stay in the player’s hand. If they have enough mana and another unblocked creature, they can activate Ninjutsu for that creature as well.

If Kaito is on the battlefield and you Tidebinder a loyalty ability activation, Kaito will lose all his abilities. On his controller’s turn, he will still be a 3 / 4 Blue and Black Ninja with no abilities. On his opponent’s turn, he will just be a planeswalker.

Tidebinder and Saga Creatures

If a Tidebindered Saga is a creature as well (from Final Fantasy), it will lose its abilities after getting Tidebindered. It will not die due to the changes to Saga rules from Final Fantasy; instead, it will stay at the current number of counters for as long as Tidebinder stays on the battlefield.

Tidebinder and Enduring Curiosity

Enduring Curiosity triggers for each creature that deals combat damage to a player, so Tidebinder will only counter one of the triggers. But if you counter one of the triggers, Curiosity won’t have the ability to return to the battlefield as a non-creature enchantment if it dies while you still control Tidebinder.

Warp (note: article 2 covered Tidebindering Blitz’ed cards, Warp has some ETBs that change the context a little bit and are more relevant to current standard) Warp operates differently than Blitz or Dash in this case!

A spell cast for Warp sets up a delayed trigger to exile it at the end of turn, and the source of that delayed trigger is the spell, not an ability the permanent has. If you Tidebinder the ETB trigger of a Nova Hellkite that was cast for its Warp cost, Hellkite will lose its abilities (flying and haste), but it will still be exiled on endstep. Alternatively, if you Tidebinder the end step exile trigger of your own Quantum Riddler, that Riddler will get to stick around and it will still have its abilities (and get to stick around forever, because Warp only tries to exile it at the beginning of the next end step, not every end step).

Tidebinder losing its own abilities

If Tidebinder resolves and counters an ability from a relevant permanent type, but then it loses its own abilities (from something like an Azure Beastbinder ), the permanent will still be Tidebindered, because that duration is purely linked to Tidebinder existing as a permanent on the battlefield.

So now you can see – if something has a triggered ability, delayed, reflexive, or otherwise, something like Tidebinder, which cares about an ability’s source, can track back to the permanent creating it, unlike previously. We would love to hear more examples from you, and hope we can keep bringing (occasional) rules tips to you!