Authority of the Consuls. Triggers Priority.

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Xibvert
Xibvert Posts: 59 Match Maker

The rules say that triggers priority works like this:

Triggers Priority
When multiple cards from different places trigger their effects at the same time, the priority order - unless said otherwise - is:
Creatures (from first position to last) → Supports (from oldest to newest) → Hand (from oldest to newest) → Graveyard (from oldest to newest) → Exile (from oldest to newest).

Authority of the Consuls says:
When a creature your opponent controls enters the battlefield, that creature is Disabled until the end of your next turn and you gain 1 life.

Authority of the Consuls doesn't explicitly increase it's priority to trigger before creatures.

When a creature your opponent controls enters the battlefield and that creature also triggers off of itself entering the battlefield then because they're both triggering off of the exact same event and therefore triggering at the same time then according to the priority rules the creature should trigger first because creatures trigger before supports.

That's not what is currently happening. Right now Authority of the Consuls is triggering first and disabling creatures before they trigger which then prevents their enter the battlefield ability from triggering at all.

Something isn't right. If this card is working as intended then it needs additional text to increase it's trigger priority to be before creatures. If the wording is correct then it's not following the rules and should be allowing the creature to trigger first.

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  • Xibvert
    Xibvert Posts: 59 Match Maker
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    It was decided to keep the original functionality of Authority of the Consuls and to resolve the difference between how the card is working and the how the rules say the card should be working by updating the trigger priority rules.

    This issue is that the rules update didn't change anything.

    Triggers Priority
    When multiple cards from different places trigger their effects at the same time, the priority order - unless said otherwise - is:
    Creatures (from first position to last) → Supports (from oldest to newest) → Hand (from oldest to newest) → Graveyard (from oldest to newest) → Exile (from oldest to newest).
    Whenever a card’s text directly contradicts this rule, the card takes precedence.

    First there was already an unless said otherwise clause in the trigger rules that says a card can use different priority rules as long as it says what they are. Adding an additional sentence that says if the card text has priority rules that conflict with the default priority rules then the card text has precedence doesn't functionally change the rules in any way. It's just a longer worded version of the unless said otherwise clause that the rules already had.

    Second there was never an issue with the text of Authority of the Consuls conflicting with the rules. It was the cards effect that conflicted with the rules. They card text doesn't have any trigger priority rules on it, so there's nothing in the card text to conflict with the default trigger priority rules.

    That puts us mostly back where we started with the card effect conflicting with how card text should resolve using the trigger priority rules.
    It's already been decided that the care effect is what we want to keep. That leaves either updating the card text or updating the rules as the ways to resolve the conflict.

    The low effect fix would be to update that sentence that was added to say:
    Whenever a card’s effect directly contradicts this rule, the card takes precedence.

    It's bad for card readability though because it effectively revokes the default trigger priority rules and makes them more of a guideline for the most common way cards work. Any card could use different trigger priority rules without telling you what they are.The only way to know a cards trigger priority is would be to use it and then guess what it was doing by observing the outcome.

    If we're trying to prioritize disable effects then ideally it would be better to put a little more thought into it and go with something like:
    Triggers Priority
    When multiple cards from different places trigger their effects at the same time, the priority order - unless said otherwise - is:
    Supports whose triggered effect disables one or more cards (from oldest to newest)
    → Creatures whose triggered effect disables one or more cards (from first position to last)
    → All other Creatures (from first position to last)
    → All other Supports (from oldest to newest)
    → Hand (from oldest to newest)
    → Graveyard (from oldest to newest)
    → Exile (from oldest to newest).

    That seems like it would be more consistent with how most players are wanting triggered effects that disable cards to be prioritized. It would be much better for card readability because as long as you know these rules you should still know what to expect a card to do before you play with it.

    Alternatively the card wording could also be updated to match the effect. That's probably the most effort but it's also best for the card readability. An example of more accurate wording Authority of the Consuls could use would be Kinjalli's Sunwing. Its disable effect is worded to be a continuous effect rather than a triggered effect.

    While this creature is on the battlefield. creatures your opponent control enter the battlefield Disabled until the beginning of your opponent's next turn.

    A modified version of that would allow Authority of the Consuls to make your opponent's creatures enter disabled instead of waiting until after they enter to trigger to disable them.

    I know the card effect has been updated twice and the rules once, so hopefully someone still cares about this. We're really close to getting the card text and the card effect to agree again and be the card effect that players want without much effort if the rules could be updated one more time.