Hello folks!

In a WhatsApp discussion, we were talking about a strange but possible scenario:

Amy casts Animate Dead targeting a creature in her graveyard, but for some reason, she forget to bring it back to the battlefield with its trigger. It is noticed a turn later on the game, and a judge is called.

The discussion was about Missed Trigger and the remedy to be applied. When reading through the IPG, we find this:

“Three types of triggered abilities do not expire and resolve immediately if they are discovered: …
… An enters-the-battlefield trigger of an Aura that affects only the enchanted permanent and causes
a visible change to that permanent.”

The way it's worded, we thought that it's not the case for Animate Dead, since the card in the graveyard is not a permanent, but it sounds quite strange to the game state when we compare to other auras enter-the-battlefield triggers.

What are your thoughts about this?

Edited Leonardo da Luz (Nov. 7, 2017 04:47:52 AM)

Animate Dead is such an old and convoluted card, current policy isn't written with it in mind.

I'd agree that by the exact wording, this effect does not cover Animate Dead because the card in the graveyard is not a permanent. Therefore, we could rule Missed Trigger (nondetrimental, clearly) and give the opponent the chance to put it on the stack if they would like – most likely No, so we would just put the enchantment in the graveyard.

However, I believe the passage you quoted fits better philosophically with what's happening. If I encountered this situation I would consult the HJ and seek approval to deviate from official written policy.

Originally posted by Leonardo da Luz:

“Three types of triggered abilities do not expire and resolve immediately if they are discovered: …
… An enters-the-battlefield trigger of an Aura that affects only the enchanted permanent and causes
a visible change to that permanent.”

the philosophy and reason d'etre of this clause is well explained here, “Even more communication” paragraph:

https://blogs.magicjudges.org/telliott/2017/04/24/policy-changes-for-amonkhet/

Originally posted by Brook Gardner-Durbin:

Therefore, we could rule Missed Trigger (nondetrimental, clearly) and give the opponent the chance to put it on the stack if they would like – most likely No, so we would just put the enchantment in the graveyard.

Doesn't Animate Dead stay on the battlefield if the trigger is missed? “Enchant creature card in a graveyard”.

Call me when it happens.

Nobody is casting Animate Dead and forgetting to do literally the only
thing that the card does.

In the (very unlikely) scenario that a card is not pulled out of the
graveyard and put onto the battlefield, it is very likely that the players
played as if the card were put back onto the battlefield. If the players
have been playing as if it were the case, turns out it was the case, and
you should update the physical representation of the board state to make it
clear to you.

Originally posted by Phil Lancaster:

Doesn't Animate Dead stay on the battlefield if the trigger is missed? “Enchant creature card in a graveyard”.

Originally posted by Comprehensive Rules:

303.4c If an Aura is enchanting an illegal object or player as defined by its enchant ability and other applicable effects, the object it was attached to no longer exists, or the player it was attached to
has left the game, the Aura is put into its owner’s graveyard. (This is a state-based action. See rule 704.)

If an aura says “enchant blue creature” or “enchant creature with greater than 5 power” or any other condition like that, it will be checked constantly, with SBAs. If the condition ever stops being true, the enchantment will fall off.
The most common example of this I can think of is in the Modern Boggles deck, with Daybreak Coronet. If Andy has a creature with a Rancor and a Daybreak Coronet on it, and Natasha casts Naturalize on the Rancor, she gets the Coronet off the field too.

In this case, as Animate Dead says “enchant creature card in a graveyard” and it has no creature card in a graveyard attached to it (and its wording hasn't changed because the trigger was missed), the condition isn't being met and the aura should go to the graveyard.

Why wouldn't it still be attached to the creature card in the graveyard, if the creature card in the graveyard didn't move?

Originally posted by Jake Eakle:

Why wouldn't it still be attached to the creature card in the graveyard, if the creature card in the graveyard didn't move?

My understanding from the initial question was that the creature was still in the graveyard, the animate dead was on the battlefield and not attached to anything.

When we have an aura on the battlefield which isn't attached to anything, or isn't allowed to continue enchanting the permanent it's currently attached to, it goes to the graveyard next time we check SBAs.

Originally posted by Brook Gardner-Durbin:

In this case, as Animate Dead says “enchant creature card in a graveyard” and it has no creature card in a graveyard attached to it (and its wording hasn't changed because the trigger was missed), the condition isn't being met and the aura should go to the graveyard.

I disagree here. Animate Dead's triggered ability does 2 things: returns the enchanted card to the battlefield and changes its own rules text to “enchant creature put onto the battlefield with animate dead.” If the trigger is missed, neither of those things have happened, so animate dead isn't (technically) enchanting anything illegal and wouldn't be put into the graveyard. Changing only its text without moving the creature would be a GRV (though I'm not sure how you'd pull that off in practice), and we'd apply the “missed zone change” partial fix to the creature card.

Well, the Animate Dead is an Aura that should be on the battlefield (where
it belongs) and the ‘creature in a graveyard’ is in the graveyard (obv). A
legal target was chosen for the aura, so it attached to the card. It's
kinda hard for the two cards to be physically touching and be in different
zones, so I see no reason to believe that the Aura is not attached to the
card.

Note: we are deep in a corner case involving a ancient card with templating
that's barely able to make the card work within the confines of current
Magic rules. Please don't think too hard about how current policy handles
player mistakes involving such things, especially when these mistakes don't
actually happen.

Originally posted by Brook Gardner-Durbin:

My understanding from the initial question was that the creature was still in the graveyard, the animate dead was on the battlefield and not attached to anything.

Originally posted by Leonardo da Luz:

Amy casts Animate Dead targeting a creature in her graveyard, but for some reason, she forget to bring it back to the battlefield with its trigger. It is noticed a turn later on the game, and a judge is called.

I can't read this any other way than “Animate dead enters the battlefield legally attached to a creature card in Amy's graveyard, which then does not move.”

This:

Originally posted by Joshua Feingold:

Call me when it happens.

(except, I'm not generally giving out my number, so … pffft.)

Shawn Doherty also summed it up nicely. Or at least, he tried to; with me closing this (silly?) thread, that accomplishes the conclusion Shawn was probably hoping for…

d:^D