Some cards with upkeep triggers, like Tidal Force, work great in twos and threes. Other cards…not so much. Let’s look at one of the cards from the recent Commander 2013 expansion, Ophiomancer. If you control two of them, and you control no Snakes at the beginning of your upkeep, both of them will trigger. However, because Ophiomancer has what’s known as an ‘intervening-if’ clause, each triggered ability will check both before it goes on the stack AND when it tries to resolve, to make sure you still don’t have any Snakes. That means that the Snake created by the first Ophiomancer will “fizzle” the ability of the second one… unless you sacrifice the first snake while the second trigger is still on the stack! While you may not be able to muster a giant Snake army, a Commander with sacrificing shenanigans like the Shattergang Brothers will sure be happy!

Today’s Rules Tip written by Jen Wong