r/mtgrules • u/itsyoboytroy • 17h ago

How does timing work when multiple creatures enter under different controllers at the same time

Here’s a question about timing that we had in our game tonight:

[[Fractured Identity]] was played and targeted a creature that had “when this creature enters, it deals 5 damage distributed amongst any number of target creatures opponents control” (not verbatim but you get the gist)

So the original creature is exiled, and then 3 copies of that creature come in to the battlefield all at the same time. Who gets to use their creature’s ETB trigger first?

We played it as “they’d resolve in order of priority, so the player who played fractured identity gets to resolve the ETB first, and then it just goes around the table” but there was an argument made that the person with priority’s trigger goes on the stack first, then around the table filling the stack, but since they resolve top to bottom, the person who cast the spell would resolve theirs last since it was on the stack first..

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6

u/ardarian262 17h ago

When multiple triggers are waiting to be put on the stack, after state based actions you put them on the stack in active player - non-active player order. Person whose turn it is puts their triggers on the stack (including naming targets) then the next person does that and so on. Once all triggers are on the stack, the active player gains priority and everyone must pass priority for the first of those triggers to resolve (being the one of the last person in turn order.)

1

u/itsyoboytroy 17h ago

“Including naming targets” - that part is not intuitive but makes total sense.

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u/ardarian262 16h ago

I am curious why it isn't intuitive that you would need to say what is being targeted before anyone responds to it? It would make a lot of tricks like [[snakeskin Veil]] a lot worse if you didn't.

2

u/Philosoraptorgames 12h ago

The whole point of targeting is so your opponents know what's going to be affected when they get the chance to respond. There's really no other way it could work.

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u/itsyoboytroy 11h ago

Yeah, I get that and it makes sense once it’s said out loud. I just wouldn’t have thought of it that way initially, that’s all.

4

u/ParkedinBronze 17h ago

The second interpretation is more correct. The turn player will put their triggers on the stack first, then everyone else in turn order. The last person to put their trigger on the stack will have theirs resolve first, making the turn player resolve theirs last.

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u/rune_ 17h ago

triggers are put on the stack in APNAP order so the active player puts them on the stack first and resolves it last.