Athreos's trigger gets a little tricky when combined with triggers that try to return the card to the battlefield!
Category: Abilities
How Athreos interacts with tokens and with Rest in Peace.
Athreos can't return tokens that die, but the opponent can still choose to pay 3 life for no reason! Also, if a card doesn't actually hit the graveyard, Athreos can't trigger (e.g., with Rest in Peace).
Godsend vs. Hexproof or Protection
Godsend is a pretty epic card, and its trigger doesn't care about hexproof or protection because it doesn't target. That third ability is a little quirky too, so learn the details inside!
Journey into Nyx Mechanics Week – Constellation and Strive
All right, we’re finally getting to the new mechanics of the set! Let’s dive right in, shall we? Journey into Nyx has only two new mechanics (common for a small third set, since it’s also got returning mechanics from the two prior sets). Those mechanics are Constellation and Strive. Constellation ties in with the enchantment […]
Killing Gray Merchant in response to the ETB ability.
Gray Merchant only checks devotion as its trigger resolves. You're able to minimize your losses if you can minimize the player's devotion in response to the trigger!
Responding to evolve by killing the creature that just entered.
If a creature that triggered Evolve is gone by the time the trigger resolves, the trigger just uses the last known information about that creature's P/T when it died. That means Doom Blade or Bile Blight will give different outcomes when responding to an Evolve trigger!
Springleaf Drum and summoning sickness.
"Summoning Sickness" only stops creatures from attacking or being tapped to activate their own abilities that include the Tap or Untap symbol. Being "sick" doesn't prevent tapping a creature to pay the cost of another ability.
Courser of Kruphix and Sphinx’s Revelation.
When drawing multiple cards at once while playing with the top card of your library revealed, each draw is interrupted by revealing the next top card before drawing it.
Courser of Kruphix and Shock Lands from the library.
When playing a shockland from your library, it doesn't actually leave the library until after you've made the decision about whether to pay two life or not. That means you don't get to see the next card down before making that choice!