Leonin relic-warder + engineered plague

[perm]

Let's say two engineered plagues are down naming cat. I play Relic-warder, exiling a plague. If my cat dies as a stack based effect not on the stack, will the plague return if the ETB resolves after the cat dies?

Will one plague be on board?

[cdr]

http://gatherer.wizards.com/Handlers/Image.ashx?multiverseid=222860&type=card

When the cat enters the battlefield, its ETB ability will trigger. State-based actions will then be checked and the 0 toughness cat will die, triggering its LTB ability.

Now since there aren't any more SBAs, triggered abilities will go on the stack. Since you have two triggered abilities waiting, you decide how to stack them. Once they've been put on the stack (which is the point at which you target something), the active player gets priority.

Much like the Nightmares of old, if you stack the cat's LTB ability so it resolves first, the LTB ability will do nothing. Then the ETB ability will resolve, exiling the card you targeted when the ability was put on the stack.

[Koby]

Why would the the controller get to chose the order of stacking? Wouldn't the events trigger go onto the stack as "ETB, LTB"?

[cdr]

Why would the the controller get to chose the order of stacking? Wouldn't the events trigger go onto the stack as "ETB, LTB"?

Because both abilities triggered before we got to the point at which triggered abilities go on the stack.

603.2. Whenever a game event or game state matches a triggered ability's trigger event, that ability automatically triggers. The ability doesn't do anything at this point.

603.3. Once an ability has triggered, its controller puts it on the stack as an object that's not a card the next time a player would receive priority. See rule 116, "Timing and Priority." The ability becomes the topmost object on the stack. It has the text of the ability that created it, and no other characteristics. It remains on the stack until it's countered, it resolves, a rule causes it to be removed from the stack, or an effect moves it elsewhere.

603.3b. If multiple abilities have triggered since the last time a player received priority, each player, in APNAP order, puts triggered abilities he or she controls on the stack in any order he or she chooses. (See rule 101.4.) Then the game once again checks for and resolves state-based actions until none are performed, then abilities that triggered during this process go on the stack. This process repeats until no new state-based actions are performed and no abilities trigger. Then the appropriate player gets priority.



116.5. Each time a player would get priority, the game first performs all applicable state-based actions as a single event (see rule 704, "State-Based Actions"), then repeats this process until no state-based actions are performed. Then triggered abilities are put on the stack (see rule 603, "Handling Triggered Abilities"). These steps repeat in order until no further state-based actions are performed and no abilities trigger. Then the player who would have received priority does so.