Thanks to everyone for their comments and discussion - as well as pointing out my copy / paste error (Sorry!!)!
As should be apparent, this set of scenarios was meant to test everyone's ability to successfully detemine when triggers of certain creatures had either been acknowledged or missed. The current wording on Missed Triggers (in part) is as follows:
2.1 Game Play Error - Missed Trigger
Definition
A triggered ability triggers, but the player controlling the ability doesn’t demonstrate awareness of the trigger’s existence the first time that it would affect the game in a visible fashion.
The point by which the player needs to demonstrate this awareness depends on the impact that the trigger would have on the game:
•
A triggered ability that requires its controller to choose targets (other than ‘target opponent’), modes, or other choices made when the ability is put onto the stack: The controller must announce those choices before they next pass priority.
•
A triggered ability that causes a change in the visible game state (including life totals) or requires a choice upon resolution: The controller must take the appropriate physical action or make it clear what the action taken or choice made is before taking any game actions (such as casting a sorcery spell or explicitly moving to the next step or phase) that can be taken only after the triggered ability should have resolved. Note that casting an instant spell or activating an ability doesn’t mean a triggered ability has been forgotten, as it could still be on the stack.
•
A triggered ability that changes the rules of the game: The controller must prevent an opponent from taking any resulting illegal action.
•
A triggered ability that affects the game state in non-visible ways: The controller must take physical action or make it clear what the action is the first time the change has an effect on the visible game state.
Once any of the above obligations has been fulfilled, or the trigger has been otherwise acknowledged, further problems are treated as a Game Play Error — Game Rule Violation.
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Here's a repeat of part #1 and the associated answer:
While playing in a local PTQ, Alfred controls an
Assault Griffin, a
Thraben Valiant and
Geist of Saint Traft, while Mr. Nigma has 3
Brushstriders and a
Rage Thrower.
Alfred declares all three of his creatures as attacking, placing an Angel token on the battlefield tapped and attacking.
Before declaring blockers, Mr. Nigma casts
Tower Defense, then declares his
Brushstriders as blocking the
Assault Griffin,
Geist of Saint Traft and the Angel token.
Before moving to Combat Damage, Mr. Nigma also casts a
Searing Spear, targeting the
Thraben Valiant, which Alfred puts in the graveyard.
The players move to combat damage, where things become confused and they call for a judge. While both players are agreeing that all of Alfred's creatures should be in the graveyard, Mr. Nigma believes he should be able to do 6 damage to Alfred.
How many triggers (if any) have been forgotten and why?
Answer for #1:
Given our 4 main categories of triggers and when they are considered missed, we can go through all the creatures with triggers here and determine when those triggers were either successfully remembered or missed.
In this example, only
Geist of Saint Traft and
Rage Thrower have triggers, so lets step through those two cards.
The Geist triggers when it attacks, putting the Angel token into play (tapped and attacking) - this would be “A triggered ability that causes a change in the visible game state…” - Alfred put the token into play at the appropriate time, so that one is considered remembered.
Rage Thrower triggers whenever something else dies - it requires a target be declared, so it is “A triggered ability that requires its controller to choose targets…” , so let's step through when things die in this scenario. The first creature to go the graveyard is the Thraben Valiant. At this time - specifically before moving on to combat damage - Mr Nigma does not make any mention of this trigger, so it is considered missed. The next time creatures die is as a result of combat damage and at that time, Mr Nigma is incorrectly noting that his opponent should take 6 damage, which would include the 4 damage that Alfred should be taking from the 2 remembered triggers.
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And a repeat of scenario #2 and its answer:
While playing in (another) local PTQ against a familiar opponent, Alfred controls an
Angelic Skirmisher,
Frontline Medic and 2
Serra Angels, while Mr. Nigma has 3
Hamlet Captains and a
Feral Ridgewolf on the battlefield.
As before, Alfred declares all four of his creatures as attacking.
Before declaring blockers, Mr. Nigma again casts
Tower Defense, then declares his
Hamlet Captains as blocking the
Angelic Skirmisher and each of the
Serra Angels.
Before moving to Combat Damage, Mr. Nigma also casts a
Searing Spear, targeting the
Frontline Medic. Alfred sighs and puts the Medic in the graveyard.
The players move to combat damage, where things become confused and they call for a judge. While both players are agreeing that all of Alfred's creatures should be in the graveyard, Alfred maintains that his creatures have lifelink from the Skirmisher and he should be gaining 12 life.
How many triggers (if any) have been forgotten and why?
Answer for #2:
Again, given our 4 main categories of triggers and when they are considered missed, we can go through all the creatures with triggers here and determine when those triggers were either successfully remembered or missed.
In this example, the
Angelic Skirmisher,
Frontline Medic and
Hamlet Captain are cards with triggers.
Angelic Skirmisher triggers at the beginning of combat and requires the controller to make a choice upon resolution, falling into the “A triggered ability that causes a change in the visible game state (including life totals) or requires a choice upon resolution”. Given that Alfred makes no mention of this trigger before moving to declaring attackers, he has missed that trigger (and thus will not be gaining any life later in combat).
Via its Battalion ability,
Frontline Medic makes all of Alfred's creatures indestructible. This is “ A triggered ability that affects the game state in non-visible ways” and it is not necessary to make anyone aware of the trigger until it becomes relevant to the game. In this case, it would be the first time one of his creatures takes lethal damage from a source - specifically, when the
Frontline Medic itself takes 3 damage from the
Searing Spear. Since Alfred puts the creature in the graveyard, he has clearly missed the trigger.
The
Hamlet Captains all have the ability to make other humans Mr Nigma controls bigger - this is “A triggered ability that affects the game state in non-visible ways”, which is only relevant if something tries to interact with the
Hamlet Captains. The first time this happens is during combat damage - given that both players agree that all of Alfred's creatures should be in the graveyard - and this is only possible if the
Hamlet Captains have 4 or more power (they each should be 4/9 creatures with reach), Mr Nigma has remembered his triggers.
Edited Michael Zimmerman (March 26, 2013 11:06:09 AM)