Must've been the timing?

Asked by MickMacHugh2 7 years ago

Ok, I'm a returning player after a decade and cahnge, and I was just playing MTGO. I had a Morphling in play and attacked; my opponent had Circle of Flame. After declaring attack, when Circle of Flame triggered and hit the stack, I responded by activating Flying, then after that resolved, I pumped twice up to 5/1. I expected Circle of Flame's effect to fizzle since I gained Flying and it only hits non-flyers. It didn't fizzle, it did D1 and killed me. I'm guessing this has something to do with the fact Circle of Flame is a "triggered effect", so maybe I just don't fully understand the distinction...what went wrong here and how can I avoid this misplay in the future? Did I for some reason need to activate flying before declaring attack because the effect is triggered? Thanks.

Epochalyptik says... Accepted answer #1

Circle of Flame's ability only checks whether the creature has flying at the time the ability triggers. It doesn't check on resolution.

In order to save your Morphling, you should either activate its last ability (to give it -1/+1) or activate its second ability (to give it flying) during the beginning of combat phase, before you declare it as an attacker. Once you declare Morphling as attacking, if it doesn't have flying at that exact moment, Circle of Flame's ability will trigger and eventually deal 1 damage to Morphling.

Side note: if an ability checks a condition both at triggering and on resolution, it'll be worded with an intervening "if" clause. For example, Angel of Deliverance checks the number of card types among cards in your graveyard both at the time it deals damage and at the time the ability would resolve. If the condition isn't true when damage is dealt, the ability won't trigger. If it isn't true at the time the ability resolves, the ability does nothing.

July 26, 2016 7:16 p.m.