If you’re not familiar with Lorcana’s missed trigger policy and how it applies to abilities like Pete – Games Referee‘s Blow the Whistle that have delayed effects, we’re going to go over it. We’re going to talk about why this policy causes some controversial calls and why some people don’t understand the ins and outs of applying the policy equally across the board. We’ll also take a quick peek at some new cards from Winterspell that may cause similar questions throughout this set.
Note: This article is written referencing the Play Corrections Guide (PCG) published 05/21/2024. Future updates to that document may render some or all of this information incorrect.
So what is a Missed Trigger?
A “missed trigger” is just what it sounds like – when a triggered ability isn’t resolved at the correct time. A lot of people think that mandatory triggered abilities, such as Pete’s, will resolve automatically from the bag, but that is not really the case.
Any trigger must be acknowledged at a point before it affects the game state, which is usually immediately. Many triggered abilities require you to make a choice or perform a game action, either of which will affect the game state. Moving past that point will mean the trigger was missed straight away.
However, delayed effects like Pete‘s give you a little more wiggle room as they don’t have a direct effect on the game state until later on. While you can announce his ability resolving immediately, you don’t have to. The point at which Blow the Whistle will affect the game state is when the opponent attempts to play an action, so that’s the point by which you must have acknowledged the trigger.
Some more examples of triggered abilities that don’t necessarily need immediate acknowledgement.
What happens if a trigger is missed?
We’re going to focus on mandatory triggers for this review, as optional triggers are simply assumed to be declined and the game continues. When a mandatory triggered ability is determined to have been accidentally missed and it has not been too long since that point, the opponent of the player who owns the trigger decides whether that ability will be added to the bag and resolved now. There is never a rewind for a missed trigger, although in some cases choices for the trigger can be limited based on changes in the game state since the trigger should have been resolved.
In order to get to that point with Pete – Games Referee, you would have to fail to acknowledge his ability when you play him during your turn and then fail to remind your opponent of his ability when they try to play an action. It doesn’t happen often, but it does happen.
And when it does happen, the Pete player generally doesn’t love what comes next. Their opponent gets to decide if Blow the Whistle is added to the bag to be resolved after they are done with their current action, and that’s almost certainly going to be a “no”. Pete‘s effect ends up being completely wasted.
Yet more examples of triggered abilities where acknowledgement can be delayed.
What if my opponent knew all along?
It is true that while the Play Corrections Guide makes it clear that both players have a responsibility to maintain an accurate game state by reminding their opponent of mandatory triggers, it is very forgiving of these errors. Arguably, the way the Missed Trigger Policy is written even incentivizes players to “allow” their opponent to forget mandatory triggers intentionally, in order to affect the game in their favor.
This is cheating.
Now, it is obviously very challenging for a Lore Guide to determine whether or not a player is pretending to have forgotten about a trigger, and covering the ways in which such investigation might be handled is outside the scope of this article. It is possible, however, and especially so at smaller events where the patterns of behavior that players exhibit is more easily monitored across an event.
Also, for the purposes of discussion around play corrections policy, we usually assume the players are not cheating so as to not dilute the focus of the topic – cheating is handled by the cheating policy, not missed triggers policy. We will be using this standard for this article.
So how do I avoid missing triggers?
The easiest and simplest way to avoid the pitfalls of missing a trigger with a delayed effect on the game state is just to announce the resolution of the ability when that resolution occurs. This doesn’t mean you have to get all over-verbal and start describing the effect in detail. Any of the following are acceptable:
- Tap the card and say “trigger”
- Say “Play Pete and resolve his trigger”
- Say “no actions next turn”
- Say “no Let It Go for you next turn lol”
- Put a token out that says “No actions”
- And so on…
Why is this important for Winterspell?
Winterspell includes cards with triggered abilities that have delayed effects on the game state that might see some play, and also includes Keep the Ancient Ways which has an effect very similar to Pete.
Keep the Ancient Ways prevents your opponents from playing both actions and items until the start of your next turn. It’s very important to note that this effect will not be treated the same was as Pete‘s if it is forgotten, as it is not a triggered ability. If an opponent plays and action or item after you have played this card, that is a General Rules Error and the game is likely to be rewound to before the error occurred (with all the standard disclaimers about when rewinds are possible).
Knowing how and why the correction of an error may differ between two sets of circumstances is important for both Lore Guides and players. You are always entitled to (and should) call a judge when an error has occurred in a game, but it will help considerably with your headspace if you go into that call with an awareness of the likely resolution. And, as always, be aware that you have a right to appeal if a judge call does not go the way you think it should. For more info on judge calls, please refer to my article on them here.
Here are some of the examples of similar abilities I picked out from Winterspell. Pocahontas‘ ability, Calming Words, triggers when she quests but doesn’t need to be acknowledged until a player tries to challenge with a character. This is likely to happen where an opponent doesn’t realize her ability will affect newly played characters with Rush.
Both Copper and Tamatoa increase characters’ lore counts without requiring an immediate choice to be made. Their abilities don’t necessarily need to be acknowledged until one of those characters quests. This could easily get messy, especially with Tamatoa and trying to recall how many cards were placed under others in a Boost-heavy deck.
But the ability that I think will cause the most issues if it sees play will be Icy Blast on Marshmallow – Cranky Climber. The Ready Step of an opponent’s turn is often completed extremely quickly, and leaves little room for acknowledging his trigger if you don’t do it preemptively. I cannot emphasize strongly enough that you will save yourself (and your Lore Guides) a hefty headache by simply announcing Icy Blast every time Marshmallow quests.
So what’s the takeaway here?
As a player, your best bet to avoid complicating something that should be simple is as follows:
Always communicate your triggers quickly and clearly.
If you do that consistently, such that it becomes an ingrained habit, you should not have any issues with missing your triggers. And that’s what we all want, right?
As a Lore Guide, you should be approaching these calls with intentionality, making sure you can determine to the best of your ability whether or not a trigger has been truly missed. It is essential that you have a clear understanding of when an ability will affect the game state in order to work out whether it has been acknowledged within an appropriate window.
Remember, consistency is our friend!
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