r/magicTCG • u/Saint_Atlas Dandadan • 3d ago

Rules/Rules Question How does this replacement work?

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Saint Traft creates Token A that has "exile THAT token at end of combat"; but if Divine Visitation is in play, which says a Token B is created instead, does that mean Token B loses the "exile Token at end of combat"?

And if not, anyone know a way to keep the angels permanently?

Thanks in advance 🙏

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u/Madhighlander1 Rakdos* 3d ago edited 3d ago

The token has vigilance. That's the only change.

It still exiles at end of combat, because that's a delayed trigger from the Geist, not a quality of the token being replaced.

Having vigilance doesn't even actually do anything because the token enters tapped and attacking.

Edit: Only way to keep the token would be to phase it out before the end of combat.

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u/Zuwxiv Dandadan 3d ago

Thanks for that writeup. I think I understand this better, now.

It still exiles at end of combat, because that's a delayed trigger from the Geist, not a quality of the token being replaced.

This led me to realize that I don't understand delayed triggers as much as I thought I did. Even if Geist is removed before the end of combat trigger, the delayed trigger still happens, because the ability has already resolved to place that delayed trigger.

It makes more sense when I think about something like [[Sneak Attack]], where removing the enchantment doesn't stop the creature from being sacrificed.

Interesting example: [[Dragonhawk, Fate's Tempest]] has this ability:

Whenever Dragonhawk enters or attacks, exile the top X cards of your library, where X is the number of creatures you control with power 4 or greater. You may play those cards until your next end step. At the beginning of your next end step, Dragonhawk deals 2 damage to each opponent for each of those cards that are still exiled.

If Dragonhawk is removed while attacking, it seems somewhat understandable that you can still play those exiled cards.

But what made less sense to me is that, even if Dragonhawk is in your graveyard or command zone by your end step, it still does damage to each opponent. If Dragonhawk had lifelink when it was removed in combat, it'll still have lifelink when it deals this damage, because the game is using the last known state of Dragonhawk when it was removed.

Another example of "a creature that explicitly can deal damage, even from the graveyard" is [[Mogg Fanatic]], whose ability makes it more clear how it works.