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Trigger Happy
Instant
uncommon
Choose a triggered ability of target permanent. It triggers. You control that ability.
Semantic Tags
A triggered ability that can counter spells or abilities that target the permanent with ward. See rule 702.21, “Ward.”
Format Legality
Price history
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Printings (2)
| Set | Rarity | TCGplayer | Card Kingdom | Cardmarket |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Unfinity#411 | uncommon | · | · | · |
| Unfinity#125 | uncommon | · | · | · |
Related Rules
A Royal Role token is a colorless Aura Role enchantment token named Royal with enchant creature and “Enchanted creature gets +1/+1 and has ward {1}.”
One card (Golgothian Sylex) refers to permanents with a name originally printed in the Antiquities™ expansion. Those names are Amulet of Kroog, Argivian Archaeologist, Argivian Blacksmith, Argothian Pixies, Argothian Treefolk, Armageddon Clock, Artifact Blast, Artifact Possession, Artifact Ward, Ashnod’s Altar, Ashnod’s Battle Gear, Ashnod’s Transmogrant, Atog, Battering Ram, Bronze Tablet, Candelabra of Tawnos, Circle of Protection: Artifacts, Citanul Druid, Clay Statue, Clockwork Avian, Colossus of Sardia, Coral Helm, Crumble, Cursed Rack, Damping Field, Detonate, Drafna’s Restoration, Dragon Engine, Dwarven Weaponsmith, Energy Flux, Feldon’s Cane, Gaea’s Avenger, Gate to Phyrexia, Goblin Artisans, Golgothian Sylex, Grapeshot Catapult, Haunting Wind, Hurkyl’s Recall, Ivory Tower, Jalum Tome, Martyrs of Korlis, Mightstone, Millstone, Mishra’s Factory, Mishra’s War Machine, Mishra’s Workshop, Obelisk of Undoing, Onulet, Orcish Mechanics, Ornithopter, Phyrexian Gremlins, Power Artifact, Powerleech, Priest of Yawgmoth, Primal Clay, The Rack, Rakalite, Reconstruction, Reverse Polarity, Rocket Launcher, Sage of Lat-Nam, Shapeshifter, Shatterstorm, Staff of Zegon, Strip Mine, Su-Chi, Tablet of Epityr, Tawnos’s Coffin, Tawnos’s Wand, Tawnos’s Weaponry, Tetravus, Titania’s Song, Transmute Artifact, Triskelion, Urza’s Avenger, Urza’s Chalice, Urza’s Mine, Urza’s Miter, Urza’s Power Plant, Urza’s Tower, Wall of Spears, Weakstone, Xenic Poltergeist, Yawgmoth Demon, and Yotian Soldier.
To cloak a card, turn it face down. It becomes a 2/2 face-down creature card with ward {2}, no name, no subtypes, and no mana cost. Put that card onto the battlefield face down. That permanent is a cloaked permanent for as long as it remains face down. The effect defining its characteristics works while the card is face down and ends when it’s turned face up.
Ward
Ward is a triggered ability. Ward [cost] means “Whenever this permanent becomes the target of a spell or ability an opponent controls, counter that spell or ability unless that player pays [cost].”
Some ward abilities include an X in their cost and state what X is equal to. This value is determined at the time the ability resolves, not locked in as the ability triggers.
Disguise is a static ability that functions in any zone from which you could play the card it’s on, and the disguise effect works any time the card is face down. “Disguise [cost]” means “You may cast this card as a 2/2 face-down creature with ward {2}, no name, no subtypes, and no mana cost by paying {3} rather than paying its mana cost.” (See rule 708, “Face-Down Spells and Permanents.”)
To cast a card using its disguise ability, turn the card face down and announce that you are using a disguise ability. It becomes a 2/2 face-down creature card with ward {2}, no name, no subtypes, and no mana cost. Any effects or prohibitions that would apply to casting a card with these characteristics (and not the face-up card’s characteristics) are applied to casting this card. These values are the copiable values of that object’s characteristics. (See rule 613, “Interaction of Continuous Effects,” and rule 707, “Copying Objects.”) Put it onto the stack (as a face-down spell with the same characteristics), and pay {3} rather than pay its mana cost. This follows the rules for paying alternative costs. You can use a disguise ability to cast a card from any zone from which you could normally cast it. When the spell resolves, it enters the battlefield with the same characteristics the spell had. The disguise effect applies to the face-down object wherever it is, and it ends when the permanent is turned face up.
Rulings
You can use Trigger Happy to cause abilities to trigger at unusual times. Sometimes that will make sense and be great. Sometimes it won’t.
The ability that triggered will think that it triggered at the normal time and for the normal reason. It may refer to attacking creatures you control, except it’s your opponent’s end step. It may be looking for a card in the graveyard after a dies trigger, but the creature is still sitting on the battlefield. It may be looking for the spell that caused it to trigger, but there was no spell. If the triggered ability can’t determine the information it needs, or if it can’t find the objects it expects to find in certain zones, those parts of the effect just do nothing.
Triggered abilities are abilities that start with “When”, “Whenever”, or “At”, generally at the start of a paragraph on the permanent. You can’t choose reflexive or delayed triggered abilities; these are triggered abilities that occur in the middle of a paragraph, usually after some kind of action or choice.
Some triggered abilities have an “intervening if” clause—that is, they are written in the form of “When/Whenever/At [trigger event], if [condition], [effect].” If you choose such an ability with Trigger Happy, you ignore the trigger event, and the ability will go on the stack even if the intervening if condition is not fulfilled, but the ability will still check the intervening if condition as the ability tries to resolve. If the condition is not fulfilled at that time, then the ability won’t resolve. For example, Tatyova, Steward of Tides has the ability “Whenever a land enters the battlefield under your control, if you control seven or more lands, [effect].” If you choose that ability, it will go on the stack regardless of how many lands you control. However, as the ability tries to resolve, if you don’t control seven or more lands, the ability fails to resolve and the effect doesn’t happen.
If a triggered ability is triggered with this spell, you ignore its trigger event—typically all the text between “When”, “Whenever”, or “At” until the first comma—and only consider the remaining text in that ability. For example, Complains Clerk has “Whenever you roll a 1, create a 1/1 white Clown Robot artifactcreature token.” If you choose that ability, you ignore everything up to the first comma, ending up with “Create a 1/1 white Clown Robot artifact creature token.”
You can choose triggered abilities which are represented by keywords, such as exalted. Most of those keywords will have “When”, “Whenever”, or “At” in their reminder texts. The visit ability of an Attraction is a triggered ability, so you can choose it. However, the “Prize” section on an Attraction is not a triggered ability, so that can’t be chosen separately. Nevertheless, you’ll get the prize if you choose the visit ability on that Attraction and successfully claim the prize.
Because you control the ability, you choose any targets it requires.