Sagas are a relatively new concept in Magic, but they have become increasingly important over the years. With multi-format staples like Fable of the Mirror-Breaker making names for themselves, it’s essential for players to understand exactly how Sagas function in a tournament setting.
While Sagas aren’t overly complicated, they can create some weird rulings-related scenarios when players forget to put lore counters on them. In most cases, it’s beneficial for the player with the Saga to remember to put a counter on it when they’re supposed to and gain the effect. But accidents happen, and judges are there to help you move forward in the event of a mistake.
Interestingly, though, in Competitive REL (Rules Enforcement Level), a major change was just recently made regarding how Sagas function in the event of missing an added lore counter. With Regional Championships on the horizon, this is a big shift to be aware of, so let’s examine what exactly changed in the rules.
Old Versus New
Previously, Sagas worked in such a way that adding a lore counter was viewed as a game action, not a trigger. This distinction may not seem like much, but in the rules, it creates a very different resolution if adding a lore counter is missed for a small period of time.
Let’s say player A forgets to add the second lore counter to Fable after they draw. On player B’s upkeep, player A realizes this. They then point out that Fable should be on chapter II and call a judge. Beforehand, because the act of putting a lore counter on a Saga was a game action, it was considered “unmissable” and was viewed as a Game Rule Violation (GRV).
This meant that in the example described above, it was required for the lore counter to be added when appropriate. Then, the effects of Fable’s Chapter II would transpire like normal. Now moving forward, missing the addition of a lore counter will be treated the same way as missing a trigger.
So, in the same situation we described, player B will actually have the choice of whether to put the counter on Fable and let you get the effect or force you to treat the error as a missed trigger. Assuming the trigger is missed, Fable will stay at one lore counter until after player A’s next draw step, where chapter II will resume like normal.
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Reasoning for Change
It may seem like this change came a little out of left field. However, from the sound of things, this alteration was a long time coming. Supposedly, part of the reason this change took so long to make was that judges wanted to confirm that they weren’t missing anything from a design perspective.
Recently, the design team made it clear that there wasn’t a good reason why adding lore counters weren’t treated as triggers in the first place. So, judges and the design team collectively agreed to treat this circumstance like they would all other triggers.
This makes a lot of sense. Once a lore counter is added to a Saga, like Fable, there’s a trigger that goes on the stack immediately after. Treating the addition of a lore counter in the same way should help make things run smoother during events.
From a competitive player perspective, this does mean you’ll want to pay close attention to your Sagas. Being cognizant of when to add lore counters is increasingly important. After all, if you miss the trigger now, chances are your opponent won’t let you have the benefit of the doubt. This means you’ll have to wait until after your next draw step to add the lore counter you should’ve added already, which is far from ideal. Keep note of this big shift in policy moving forward, especially if you have any Regional Championships coming up.
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