You may have heard that there was a major change recently to the tournament rules for magic, and you have heard right. Missed Triggers have had a major addition, the addition of "Lapsing Abilities". I will try to help explain what is and is not a lapsing ability, and why, that way you can be prepared for the ruling that you are going to get at the PTQ this weekend.  As another judge said "Remember your triggers!"

What is a Lapsing Ability?

Lapsing abilities are triggered that are generally beneficial for you and if you happen to forget them during the course of play, you will probably just won't get a penalty for forgetting nor will you get the trigger. Additionally, your opponent is not under any obligation to point out triggered abilities you have forgotten. Make sure to remember your triggers, because you're opponent almost certainly won't and doesn't have your best interests at heart. 

From the Infraction Procedure Guide we have the following list of what is a lapsing ability

• Causes you to gain life
• Deals damage to an opponent or causes an opponent to lose life
• Causes an opponent to discard cards
• Instructs you to look at and/or rearrange cards in a zone8
• Puts cards into your hand from your graveyard or the exile zone
• Puts a permanent onto the battlefield under your control or gives you control of a permanent
• Puts counters linked to a beneficial effect (such as +1/+1 counters or charge counters) on one or more permanents you control
• Gives one or more permanents you control +X/+Y or a beneficial ability
• Untaps one or more permanents you control
• Gives you additional phases
• Exiles, deals damage to, destroys, taps, gives -X/-Y to, or puts counters associated with a detrimental effect (such as -1/-1 counters) on one or more permanents controlled by an opponent
• Instructs an opponent to exile a permanent he or she controls or put a permanent into his or her library or graveyard

A turn is divided into three parts: Before Combat, During Combat, and After Combat. Pretty simple, no? If a lapsing ability is caught in the same part of the turn when it was missed, it can be put on the stack. You can not intentionally forget a lapsing ability, that would be considered fraud. Not pointing out your opponent's lapsing abilities, on the other hand, is not fraud. Your opponent can though point out your lapsing abilities, and make you resolve them. Hopefully, it's because they are a good sport and not because you have a Transcendence on the field and you have an Ajani's Mantra on the field.

There are two caveats about lapsing abilities, they are evaluated with the board position in mind. From the IPG: "If a lapsing ability could target objects that would make it a lapsing ability, it is a lapsing ability, even if it could potentially target other objects." The example from the IPG is Maniac Vandal.  I will include it below.

Additionally, if a triggered ability has multiple actions, if any part of the action is non-lapsing, then the entire trigger is considered non-lapsing. Living weapon is the poster child for this.

Examples of Lapsing Abilities

Is a Lapsing Ability	Is not a Lapsing Ability
Life gain for you, and puts a permanent into play under your control (wolf token)	Pristine Talisman has an activated ability, and you gain life as a part of that ability.
+ Opponent Controls  Because it destroys a permanent that an opponent controls	+ You Control Because it can only target your own artifact
Puts a card in your hand from the graveyard.	Werewolf Transform triggers are not optional. Your opponent may end up pointing out the trigger in the middle of combat. Be careful.
Lapsing as long as your opponent has a nonland permanent	It targets cards in your graveyard rather than a permanent in play.
The trigger puts a counter linked to a beneficial effect on the card	The draw is attached to a 'may' clause, so no cards for you.
This is almost always lapsing because it can target your opponent unless they have shroud or hexproof.	Card Drawing is not a lapsing ability.
This could be why this rule was first considered. It's a beneficial counter on a permanent you control.	Making a token is lapsing, but attaching it is not lapsing. That makes the entire trigger non-lapsing. (Thanks for that catch Chris!).
Obliterator is only non-lapsing if you manage to do damage to him when you control him.

Lapsing and FNM

Lapsing abilities seem pretty awesome, right and should be used everywhere? Well, no. They are only used at competitive level events and higher. For FNMs and other Regular REL events, the Lapsing Ability rule does not apply. The focus of Regular REL is education. You have to point out the triggers that your opponent has missed. This is a mark of a real difference in philosophy between how events at different Rules Enforcement Level (REL) should operate.

Why do Lapsing Abilities exist?

Lapsing abilities only exist at competitive level events to help provide a better competitive experience and help ease some burden on judges. For the players at a competitive event, there is nothing worse than having to point out a trigger that their opponent forgot and ensured the opponent's victory. Additionally, it helps the judge staff at a tournament not have to issue so many trivial penalties.

I was judging at Grand Prix: Kansas City last year and we were having to pass out Missed Trigger warning so often for Shrine of Burning Rage that eventually the Head Judge, Jason Lems, eventually made the call that Shrine triggers would not be penalized. The player of the Shrine would also not get the counter on their shrine. It made the tournament run much smoother afterwards. It's clear how the upper level of the judge community felt about that experiment. 

That's all for now. I hope that you learned something in this article. Feel free to ask if certain interactions are lapsing in the comments section. 

Remember your triggers!

Jeff Vandenberg

L2 Judge