Hi ho fellow mates,
this problem was brought to my attention most recently. I'm gonna show you two situations, in the first one I'm pretty sure about the outcome, but the second is concerning me.

1. I control a Starfield of Nyx and three other enchantments, now in my upkeep i get a fifth, and it enters the battlefield as a creature, this i'm pretty sure about. Now, since this was also brought to my attention and my researches didn't really point me to a solution, what if i control permanents which give me 4 devotion to green and then play a Nylea, God of The Hunt, will she for example trigger Aura Shards? And what if i controlled permanents which give me a total of 5 or more devotion to green and then play Nylea? Someone supposed that in the first case, she doesn't enter the battlefield as a creature, but in the second case she does. I'm a little confused about this because i read that devotion is a static ability respectively the state of gods being creatures or not is, so I think its own devotion also comes into count. Please correct me if I'm wrong! :)

2. I play a Replenish and receive a Starfield of Nyx along with a God. Now, if my devotion is not enough to have him be a creature, he's abviously a creature with p/t=cmc. But what if i receive enough devotion later in the game, is his static ability only type-changing or also p/t-setting respectively linked? And what if my devotion is enough to have him be a creature due to devotion in the first place. Two effects in the exact same (sub)layer without a different timestamp. And since they aren't triggers, the player can't choose. My guess would be that he can choose, but i'm really unsure so please send me your help :)

Greetings, Kaspar

1) Talking about whether something “enters the battlefield as a creature” can be confusing, because it conflates two different questions with two different answers–which replacement effects are applied to an object that is entering the battlefield, and which abilities trigger as a result of that object entering the battlefield. I'll cover the latter here, since that seems to be what you're concerned about.

In order to determine what abilities trigger when something enters the battlefield, you look at the very first moment after that object has entered the battlefield to see if that object, as it exists at that moment, matches the conditions of any ETB triggers, those abilities trigger. All three cases you mention here will trigger Aura Shards, because in the very first moment after it has entered the battlefield, it is a creature–there is never a time when the object has already entered the battlefield, but is not yet a creature.


2) The Starfield and the God do not have the same timestamp, because if multiple objects would receive a timestamp simultaneously (for example, when Replenish returns multiple enchantments), the active player determines their timestamp order relative to each other. (CR 613.6j)

If the active player chooses to give the God the earlier timestamp, then the Starfield's animation ability will always apply last, so no matter what the God will always be a creature with P/T equal to its CMC.

If, on the other hand, the active player chooses to give the Starfield the earlier timestamp, the God's “de-animation” ability is applied last, so whether or not the God is a creature at any given moment will depend on whether or not its controller has sufficient devotion at that time. While it's a creature, though, it will always have P/T equal to its CMC.