Alesha, Who Smiles at Death, and attacking creature triggers...

Asked by crabopolis 9 years ago

Hello, a friend and I were wonder when I pay to trigger Alesha, Who Smiles at Death and bring forth say Preeminent Captain, does the captains ability trigger. My friend says no because he was never declared as an attacker, I who aren't a rules lawyer say yes, the card clearly states "whenever he attacks" not when he is declared as an attacker.

Rhadamanthus says... Accepted answer #1

"Whenever (something) attacks" does have a specific in-game meaning, and it means "whenever (something) is declared as an attacker at the beginning of the declare attackers step". The full meaning takes up way too much space on a card, so the smaller phrase is used to stand in for it. Your friend is right. Even though Preeminent Captain is currently "attacking", it never actually "attacked". Yes, that's weird, but it's how the game needs to handle the situation in order to make other things work properly.

February 20, 2015 1:36 p.m.

Epochalyptik says... #2

In general, it's a good idea to check Gatherer before asking a question.

Preeminent Captain has the following ruling:
7/18/2014: Any abilities of the Soldier creature card that trigger "Whenever [this creature] attacks" won't trigger because the creature was never declared as an attacking creature.

While this isn't exactly the same as what's happening in your scenario, we can apply the principle and see that "whenever ~ attacks" abilities only trigger when a creature is declared as an attacker; they don't trigger when a creature is put onto the battlefield attacking.

February 20, 2015 2:02 p.m.

Rhadamanthus says... #3

Alesha does have a similar Rulings Note in Gatherer, if that's the angle you want to approach this from:

11/24/2014: Although the creature you return is attacking, it was never declared as an attacking creature (for purposes of abilities that trigger whenever a creature attacks, for example).

February 20, 2015 2:08 p.m.

Epochalyptik says... #4

Does it? I normally check mc.i for Gatherer rulings because they also have prices, but it seems Alesha, Who Smiles at Death's page was never updated.

February 20, 2015 2:10 p.m.

Rhadamanthus says... #5

It looks like as of right now, magiccards.info has no Gatherer Rulings Notes for any cards in Fate Reforged.

February 20, 2015 2:22 p.m.