Eternal witness token and populate interaction
Asked by AoE_Freak 6 years ago
Yesterday I ran into a situation where I had an Eternal Witness token on the battlefield and I cast Sundering Growth, populating the token. In this case, can I get the sundering growth back to my hand with the new eternal witness' etb trigger? My friends said I couldn't, but I don't think they ecplained why not that well, so I hope I get a better explanation here. Thank you!
Thank you so much Gidgetimer, your explanation was great! I can't wait to tell my friends I was right, even if it wasn't because of any superior understanding of the rules on my part.
Gidgetimer says... Accepted answer #1
There are four contributing factors that must be understood to understand this interaction.
You choose targets as a spell or ability goes on the stack.
Triggers can trigger at any time, but wait to go on the stack until a player would receive priority.
No player receives priority during a spell's resolution.
The last part of a spell resolving is putting it into the graveyard.
The combination of these factors means that Sundering Growth will be in the graveyard, and therefore be a valid target for Eternal Witness's ability, when the Witness trigger choses targets.
December 23, 2018 5:18 p.m.