Hey everyone, situation came up on #mtgrules today where a player wanted to know what happened when he had feather counters on a creature and Aven Mimeomancer left the battlefield.

Gatherer has a ruling for this which says:

5/1/2009 The affected creature remains 3/1 and has flying as long as it has a feather counter on it. The effect continues even if Aven Mimeomancer leaves the battlefield.

Which tells us the answer to the question, but I'm interested in why this works this way. My impression is since that Aven Mimeomancer is no longer on the battlefield, the ability that gives creatures 3/1 and flying no longer exists, but I have a feeling that because this is within a trigger it might work differently.

Either way, if anyone could clarify I would be very much so appreciative.

Thanks,
Eric

Edited Eric Papaluca (Dec. 1, 2013 11:59:32 PM)

The effect that makes it 3/1 flying is part of the resolution of the triggered ability, which you can tell by several signs:
- it's in the same paragraph,
- part of the effect talks about how the trigger resolved - it says “if you do”,
- the effect talks about “that creature”, not “creatures with a feather counter.”
While the paragraph break is occasionally hard to see and not always a precise guide to know whether two abilities are separate or not, the other two indicate very clearly that all of this is a single ability.

The effect is created by the triggered ability, so once it has triggered it's completely independent of its source and will continue to apply even if its source disappears.

Daniel Kitachewsky
L3, Paris, France
Rules NetRep