I learned something new yesterday, and I wanted to share it with folks, since evidence suggests you’ll all get to learn it too! (Note: this is for judges. It’s irrelevantly technical for everyone else). There’s also an IPG update to go with it, but it won’t have much impact.

The reflexive trigger change was one of the easier ones to word in the last update. We have a term that encompasses them, I went to the Comp Rules to make sure I understood the exact formulation of the “when you do,” and wrote it up. People looked over the change, and the update bulletin, and all was good.

Until I learned that exert isn’t a reflexive trigger. I’ll bet a lot of you are saying “huh, what?” as I’ve had this conversation repeatedly with judges since. It turns out that 603.12 exists for only one card: Heart-Piercer Manticore, because 603.12 only applies when a resolving spell or ability is followed by the action and subsequent trigger. Exert is a static ability linked to a subsequent trigger, so even though it feels like the same structure, and everyone talks about exert as a reflexive trigger, it’s secretly not!

We could have just left this alone, as everyone understands the intent (and hadn’t noticed), but it is technically inaccurate. I’ve updated the paragraph in the IPG to remove references to reflexive triggers, spell out the structure, and put in exert as an example, and you can carry on not worrying about the change. I also took the opportunity to pull it out into a separate paragraph, as it’s really about the ability being properly communicated, rather than unmissable, and I think it’s clearer that way.

Anyway, nothing to worry about, but there’s a new IPG posted if you want to make sure you have the most recent version.