Who gets to use the death trigger from a Cavalier of Night controlled by someone other than the owner?

Asked by Sinq_ 1 year ago

I have several similar questions

I know that permanents check their existence before they are sent to the graveyard. I controlled a Junji, the Midnight Sky, when it died I chose to return his Cavalier of Night from his graveyard to my battlefield. I thought I would be able to reanimate my creature when Cavalier died, but I was told that because the Cavalier goes to his graveyard, he is actually the one who gets the ability.

Does this work the same if I use something like Mind Control to take a Cavalier already on his battlefield? Is there any way to take control of it so that the controller gets the ability rather than the owner, or is that not possible?

Also in the same vein, if someone had taken control of my Junji, would it be them or me who gets the death trigger? Is there any reason that this might be different from the Cavalier death trigger?

Caerwyn says... #1

A lot of your questions are going to be solved by the fact that your opponent was wrong--because you controlled the creature at the time of death, you are the one to receive the death trigger even though it goes to the opponent's graveyard. The triggering event is the creature under your control dying, which occurred when the creature was under your control--and you control the triggers of permanents you control.

This applies to both Cavalier of Night and Mind Control effects. Your opponent would also receive the triggers if they took control of your Junji.

November 6, 2022 11:51 a.m.

Rhadamanthus says... Accepted answer #2

The key thing here is your correct understanding that "permanents check their existence before they are sent to the graveyard".

"When [something] dies" is the most common type of a leaves-the-battlefield trigger, and LTBs use information from the last moment the object was on the battlefield to determine if and how they trigger. Whoever controlled a creature at the time it died will get any "when [this creature] dies" triggers it had at that time.

November 7, 2022 9:14 a.m.

Caerwyn says... #3

In the future, please remember to hit the green "Mark as Answer" button to indicate your question has been resolved. As this question has been answered for several days, I have gone ahead and marked an answer on your behalf.

November 9, 2022 10:19 p.m.

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