Hello again, fellow judges!

L2 from Kraków here and ready to share some knowledge (hope I'm posting to the correct forum) :) I've got a lot of questions about Teferi, Hero of Dominaria's +1 loyalty ability on PPTQ last weekend. I've gathered the most frequently asked ones with my rulings and hope that this short FAQ will be helpful for some of you. Let's kick off!

Q: How does it work?
A: This is an activated ability whose cost is putting one loyalty counter on Teferi. On its resolution, you will draw a card and delayed trigger will be created. This trigger will trigger at the beginning of next end step.

Q: May I choose not to untap any lands during end step?
A: No, you have not choice because instruction doesn't contain “may” word in its text. The only exception is the scenario when neither of players controls a single tapped land.

Q: Does it mean that I have to untap my opponent's lands if I control no tapped lands when the trigger resolves?
A: Yes. As I said there's no option to ignore this instruction but you can't untap untapped permanent. Furthermore, player may tap lands in response to the trigger and don't spend it at all (but as a judge you should not tell this to player).

Q: I forgot to untap lands during my end step and passed the turn. What should I do?
A: This is Missed Trigger infraction on Competitive REL. There's no penalty for this kind of missed triggers but your opponent will decide whether trigger is going to be put onto the stack. If he or she does, active player receives priority and players may cast spells and activate abilities.

That's all folks. Thank you for reading :)

Edited Zhenia Starodiedov (May 9, 2018 07:37:35 AM)

Hi Ievgen, one thing I'd like to add.

If a player acknowledges their Teferi's delayed trigger, but does not untap anything, or chooses untapped lands, when we rewind they will not have a chance to tap lands, unlike if they simply miss the trigger.

It's a weird ability that's messing with a lot of players at comp and on MTGO/Arena, and I think all judges should be aware of how this popular standard card works.

Tyrone, very good catch! Thank you!

Originally posted by Tyrone Phillips:

Hi Ievgen, one thing I'd like to add.

If a player acknowledges their Teferi's delayed trigger, but does not untap anything, or chooses untapped lands, when we rewind they will not have a chance to tap lands, unlike if they simply miss the trigger.

It's a weird ability that's messing with a lot of players at comp and on MTGO/Arena, and I think all judges should be aware of how this popular standard card works.

As I understand, you are saying if AP passes turn and forgets to untap lands, then the the new AP does something and messes up and we have to rewind, we go back to the end step and inform the player that since they did not untap lands the first time, this is not a Do over for them and they must pass as they did before and miss the trigger of the untap?

Originally posted by Tommy Lee:

As I understand, you are saying if AP passes turn and forgets to untap lands, then the the new AP does something and messes up and we have to rewind, we go back to the end step and inform the player that since they did not untap lands the first time, this is not a Do over for them and they must pass as they did before and miss the trigger of the untap?

Not quite. If the player misses the trigger entirely we put it on the stack and they can tap lands in response. If they acknowledge the trigger, but resolve it incorrectly (“trigger, target these untapped lands” or “trigger, do nothing”) then we rewind to the last point where everything was good, which was before they choose the lands. At this point we're in the middle of resolving an ability, so its too late to tap any lands.

Originally posted by Tyrone Phillips:

If the player misses the trigger entirely we {edit: ask if the opponent wants to} put it on the stack and they can tap lands in response. If they acknowledge the trigger, but resolve it incorrectly (“trigger, target these untapped lands” or “trigger, do nothing”) then we rewind

This is correct, but it's probably important to point out why: in the first case, it's a Missed Trigger infraction; in the second, it's a Game Rule Violation. Each of those infractions have their own set of possible remedies, and we don't rewind for Missed Triggers, but sometimes can rewind for GRVs.

d:^D

Edited Scott Marshall (May 10, 2018 02:45:35 PM)

Does this mean a player can’t cast a card like Act of Heroism on an untapped creature? I’ve done this myself and seen others do this. Can someone explain the difference?

Edrick the reason is because of templating. Thanks to our friends at Cranial Insertion, you can find the answer here:

Originally posted by Cranial Insertion:

Teferi, Hero of Dominaria, on the other hand, doesn't target the lands to untap. You simply choose two lands to untap when the triggered ability resolves, and you can't make a choice that would result in an impossible action, so you have to choose two tapped lands, if possible.

Act of heroism says “hey, as you cast me, give me a ‘target creature’. I don't care what it looks like. After that, I've been legally cast, I can only affect that card and I'm going to do as much as I can to it - if it's untapped I'll ignore that part of my instructions.”

Where as Teferi says “the world is my oyster, there a ten lands on the battlefield and I need to untap two of them. No, that one's already tapped, I will not rest until I find two of these that are ripe for the tapping”

Originally posted by Edrick Sarkissian:

Does this mean a player can’t cast a card like Act of Heroism on an untapped creature? I’ve done this myself and seen others do this. Can someone explain the difference?

I believe the rule that supports the fact that they must untap lands that are tapped is 608.2d

608.2d If an effect of a spell or ability offers any choices other than choices already made as part of casting the spell, activating the ability, or otherwise putting the spell or ability on the stack, the player announces these while applying the effect. The player can't choose an option that's illegal or impossible, with the exception that having a library with no cards in it doesn't make drawing a card an impossible action (see rule 120.3). (…………..)
Example: A spell's instruction reads, “You may sacrifice a creature. If you don't, you lose 4 life.” A player who controls no creatures can't choose the sacrifice option.


While targeting an untapped land to untap it is okay, CHOOSING an untapped land to untap is not ok because the action is an impossible choice.

This is also relevant for a gatherer ruling for one of my favorite cards: prophery nodes.

——————-

I am, however, unhappy with the policy resolution behind dealing with this situation, and find it inconsistent with how we treat similar untargeted triggers in the begin combat step.

I do not believe AP should receive priority after saying “go”. If the opponent “catches” this in end-step with AP not having untapped lands, the trigger was forgotten, not missed; and AP has just passed priority with the trigger on the stack.

I do know + understand how the situation is being adjudicated on a global scale, and after bringing this to my local L3's attention on release weekend I have been ruling in conformity with what I've been told to do (which is to give AP priority before resolving the trigger).

I do, however, feel as though that's incorrect. If someone wanted to point me to an already-existing situation that we treat this way, I'd like to know about it so I can correct my thinking.

Russell, I see what you're saying - although I'm not sure I share your concern with how we're handling this; it seems fine, to me.

Originally posted by IPG 2.1:

the opponent chooses whether the triggered ability is added to the stack. If it is, it’s inserted at the appropriate place on the stack if possible or on the bottom of the stack. No player may make choices involving objects that would not have been legal choices when the ability should have triggered.

Note that this MT remedy clearly states that the trigger may be placed on the stack; like anything else on the stack, players will get priority before it resolves.

As I noted previously, if the trigger is not missed (or forgotten - I'd argue it's splitting hairs to make the distinction in this scenario), then the MT remedy may allow the player to tap lands before choosing which lands get untapped when the trigger resolves; if the trigger is not missed, but is handled incorrectly, it's a Game Rule Violation, and that remedy allows us to rewind, and force the player to choose tapped lands, regardless of who controls them, to resolve the trigger correctly. (I know I'm getting a bit pedantic, esp. as Russell states that he understands all of that; I'm just aiming for those who might not have been clear on that.)

Now, I think Russell might be suggesting that what we could do instead, is to treat the forgotten (missed) trigger as though it were on the stack, such that when NAP passes priority, the trigger resolves and AP must untap two tapped lands (if possible), regardless of controller - and, most importantly, AP will not receive priority again.

That approach will, in a few unusual cases, allow NAP to cast something during AP's end step that they otherwise wouldn't be able to. Most of the time, two NAP lands get untapped, then the rest are untapped almost immediately afterwards in the Untap step of the next turn. I'm not convinced the benefit (enabling occasional EoT actions by NAP, at AP's expense) outweighs the cost ((re)educating everyone on how this is handled). The moments when this will matter are going to be fewer each day, as more players become used to using Teferi (I hear it's seeing a little bit of play?)(heh)…

d:^D

Edited Scott Marshall (June 8, 2018 05:59:10 PM)

Curiosity: does the last line of the text Scott quoted not cover us here? “”No player may make choices involving objects that would not have been legal choices when the ability should have triggered” certainly suggests to me that the AP may tap all the lands they want, but as they were not tapped when the ability should have triggered, they are not eligible choices when the ability resolves. Is that not the case?

Originally posted by Justin Miyashiro:

Curiosity: does the last line of the text Scott quoted not cover us here? “”No player may make choices involving objects that would not have been legal choices when the ability should have triggered” certainly suggests to me that the AP may tap all the lands they want, but as they were not tapped when the ability should have triggered, they are not eligible choices when the ability resolves. Is that not the case?

It does not. That sentence applies to choices made when the ability is put on the stack, such as targets, this trigger has choices made on resolution.

Deleted

Edited Russell Deutsch (June 9, 2018 05:14:46 AM)

Hi All

@Russell since the latest update to the Combat shortcut, the ruling would not go against AP. After using the combat shortcut if NAP doesn't wish to do anything AP gets priority at the beginning of combat, this was updated just over a year ago. The rule was changed partly for these exact reasons, as players were missing opportunities to do things, unless explicitly stating ahead of time or being forced into situations and decisions.