Which triggers first, The Rack or Dark Confidant?
Asked by supermill 7 years ago
I've been testing my Modern Discard deck and I've been wondering, since both The Rack and Dark Confidant say "At the beginning of your upkeep," which triggers first? This has been relevant in a couple games as the opponent has had two cards in hand at the beginning of their upkeep. Thanks!
That was as sort of confusing way to put it.
The only way this matters is if player A controls Dark Confidant and player B controls The Rack, because otherwise the cards will trigger at different times.
So it's player A's upkeep and both abilities have triggered, the game puts Dark Confidant's trigger on the stack first since it's controlled by the active player, and then puts The Rack's ability on the stack since it's controlled by the non-active player. Then the abilities resolve in reverse order.
So in every situation where this is relevent, The Rack gets to deal its damage before Dark Confidant's ability resolves.
Be aware that in a situation where two or more simultaneous triggers are controlled by the same player, that player gets to choose the order that they are put on the stack, and subsequently the order they resolve in. A similar situation where this would be important would be if you controlled both The Rack and Howling Mine (I don't know why you would, but w/e...); in that case you would get to choose how many cards your opponent had in hand when The Rack dealt damage.
acbooster says... Accepted answer #1
It depends on who controls what. It has to do with how the game handles multiple abilities that trigger from the same event. It goes in Active Player, Non-Active Player order, or APNAP order. What this means is that when multiple players control abilities that all trigger from the same event, the game will put all of the abilities that the active player (the player whose turn it is) controls first, then will go around in turn order. Once all abilities are on the stack, they will resolve from the top down.
So say your opponent controls Dark Confidant and you control The Rack in this situation. Your opponent's upkeep begins. Your opponent will put the Dark Confidant's ability on the stack, then you put The Rack's ability on the stack. The Rack's ability will resolve first, and since your opponent has two cards in hand at the time of resolution, they will take one damage. Then the Dark Confidant's ability will resolve.
May 20, 2016 10:14 p.m.