Which card?
Nissa of Shadowed Boughs
Type and Subtype
Support Card - Vanguard Nissa
Is it related to trigger, mechanic, text, or other?
Yes
All cards in the deck and possible interactions that might have happened.
Playing Garruk, Cursed Huntsman vs. Spectral Shepherd in the Avacyn’s Madness event, this happened three times so far (every time I played the card in this match). This is an account from the third instance where I was watching carefully enough to note what happened at the time of the issue:
My board: Ranumap Hydra, Vicious Wolf (token, reinforced once), Nissa of Shadowed Boughs, Hunting Grounds
Greg’s board: Drogskol Cavalry, Always Watching (reinforced once)
(Battle Log available) On turn 17 I played Nissa. On my next turn, I used Nissa’s +1 ability, deactivating Nissa, and then Garruk’s first ability to generate two Vicious Wolves. On Greg’s following turn, he cast Declaration in Stone to destroy Ranumap Hydra, triggering Vicious Wolf’s ability and granting Nissa +1 shield (now at sox shield). On my next turn, Nissa remained inactive, appearing as a standard, unlit gem on the board and not allowing the +1 ability to be activated. On this turn, a landfall granted Nissa +1 shield from her always-active ability and Vicious Wolf attacked into and was killed by Drogskol Cavalry, triggering Vicious Wolf to grant Nissa a second +1 shield on the turn. On my next tyrn, Nissa, now with eight shield, was again active. On my next turn I did not activated Nissa’s +1 ability after a match-5 (triggering Nissa) and using Garruk’s ultimate (third) ability, adding five Vicious Wolves to the board, but Greg failed to kill anything on his turn and once again, Nissa failed to reactivate on my next turn. Nissa remained inactive despite gaining additional shield from Vicious Wolf and landfall triggers for several turns until another match-5 granted an additional swap, at which point Nissa became active again, mid-turn. I used Nissa’s +1 ability and the gem conversions matched and destroyed Hunting Grounds, which triggered Multani. Nissa was then active again in the same turn, so I used her +1 ability again before attacking for the win that turn.
Even recognizing that vanguards are supposed to reactivate after gaining an extra swap, there are clearly issues with how Nissa activates for use.
Deck:
Multani, Yavimaya’s Avatar
Ramunap Hydra
Snarespinner
Glowstone Recluse
Skyway Sniper
Pride Sovereign
Mutilate
Hunting Grounds
Nesting Grounds