Interaction between "Until leaves the battlefield" and "when leaves the battlefield"
Asked by sophomore 2 years ago
The situation:
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I have Reyhan, Last of the Abzan and Hostage Taker on the battlefield, and my Hostage Taker has exiled a creature I own.
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Damnation resolves, destroying both of my creatures.
My question:
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Does the creature exiled with Hostage Taker return to the battlefield in time for Reyhan, Last of the Abzan's ability to target that creature in order to successfully trigger?
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Is there anywhere this interaction is clearly explained? I believe it should work in my favor, but to my eye, rule 611.2a doesn't unambiguously clarify whether the "until ~ leaves the battlefield" effect waits to stop applying until a player would receive priority (by which time I conceive it would be too late for my purposes above), or if it stops applying immediately and in the middle of the resolution of another effect (in which case I conceive it should be early enough for my purposes above).
To clarify the Reyhan side, since it's a death trigger, it will trigger when Damnation destroys Reyhan but will not go on the stack until state-based actions are checked after Damnation finishes resolving. By this point the other creature is back, so it will be a valid target for the death trigger.
Polaris says... Accepted answer #1
Yes, it will return in time.
The part of Hostage Taker's ability that returns the creature is a one-shot effect, covered in rule 610. The only things Rule 610 says about the timing are that it happens immediately after the event causing it and it does not use the stack or wait for state-based actions. Nothing happens between Hostage Taker leaving and the creature returning, even if this is mid-resolution of a spell; any abilities triggered by either event will wait until state-based actions are checked.
See also the ruling on Hostage Taker:
If it’s still in exile, the exiled card returns to the battlefield immediately after Hostage Taker leaves the battlefield. Nothing happens between the two events, including state-based actions. (2017-09-29)
March 30, 2022 8:25 a.m.