I posted a few years back about a pair of scenarios, and just recently in a conversation the topic came up again. The link to the old post is here: apps.magicjudges.org/forum/topic/32441

The first of those scenarios is actually already answered by a Gatherer ruling on Wild Defiance; if a spell has multiple instances of the word “target”, and the same object is chosen for several/all of them, that object has only “become the target” of the spell once.

From that, my understanding is that the focus of “becomes the target” isn't on specific instances of the word “target”; rather, (1) once targets are chosen/changed, the game checks if any trigger conditions have been met. (2) This object previously was not a target of this spell, and now it is. (3) It has “become a target” of the spell.

Given that, the second scenario: I control Leovold, Emissary of Trest. Opponent 1 controls a Perplexing Chimera. Opponent 2 casts Fate Transfer, targeting Leovold first, then Chimera. Both creatures trigger. When the Chimera's trigger resolves, its controller exchanges it with the spell, and changes the targets to Chimera first, then Leovold.

In this scenario, Leovold would not trigger again on “becomes a target”, because in the gamestate immediately prior to the targets being changed, Leovold was a target of that spell, and then in the next state immediately after changing the targets, Leovold is still a target of the spell. Even though which target Leovold was chosen for is different, the state of “targeted by that spell” did not change, and a “becomes” trigger requires an actual change of state.

Is that all correct?

Edited Beau (April 20, 2019 07:28:12 AM)