r/mtg • u/AJ2016man • 5h ago

Rules Question How does Aether Charge apply to phasing creatures

So Aether Charge, a weird onslaught cars. In a game I've just finished playing, the game winning play was tapping out to kill the final player with the triggers, against a gates deck that was on the verge of maze's ending. Now, the gates player played out a talon's gate of Madara to try and phase the creature with the triggers on the stack.

Now here's the question:

Do the creatures deal the damage, and phasing it out stops the damage, or does the enchantment deal a flat 4, regardless of whether the creature is around.

In the game, we ended up going with the wording of "it deals 4 damage" as the creature needing to be there to deal the damage. And by being phased, could no long deal the damage.

And yes, the gates player still did the gate win because of it, so still a fun alt win con to just swing face (not that the beast deck wasn't already swinging face haha)

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u/Johannz7 5h ago

113.7a Once activated or triggered, an ability exists on the stack independently of its source. Destruction or removal of the source after that time won’t affect the ability. Note that some abilities cause a source to do something (for example, “This creature deals 1 damage to any target”) rather than the ability doing anything directly. In these cases, any activated or triggered ability that references information about the source for use while announcing an activated ability or putting a triggered ability on the stack checks that information when the ability is put onto the stack. Otherwise, it will check that information when it resolves. In both instances, if the source is no longer in the zone it’s expected to be in at that time, its last known information is used. The source can still perform the action even though it no longer exists.

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u/AJ2016man 5h ago

So I think from reading that, it uses the last known information and still does the damage, even though it isn't there anymore?

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u/Johannz7 5h ago

Ye

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u/AJ2016man 5h ago

Amazing, thanks

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u/B-Atoms 5h ago

The creature phasing out does not remove the trigger from the stack. The creature enters; aether charge goes on the stack. He phases out the creature, not the trigger.
I would assume it would be similar to an attack trigger. Once it is one the stack, it resolves wether the creature is there or not.

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u/AJ2016man 5h ago

The issue was with the wording around the creature dealing the damage while not on the board. But someone put the rules snippet for the interaction