Howlpack Alpha has an ability that says: "At the beginning of your end step, put a 2/2 green Wolf creature token onto the battlefield." Does this happen at the beginning of every one of my end steps until Howlpack Alpha gets destroyed? Or does it only happen once, the first turn Howlpack Alpha is summoned?
I am confused because the rules text doesn't say "Every time you reach the beginning of your end step" or any similar language that explicitly confirms that the ability would repeatedly trigger.
Howlpack Alpha's second ability triggers each time an end step "of yours" begins, not just the first time such an end step begins while Howlpack Alpha is on the battlefield (just as an ability of the form "At the beginning of your upkeep" generally triggers each time an upkeep "of yours" begins) (C.R. 603.2, especially C.R. 603.2c). Under C.R. 603.2c, an "ability triggers ... each time its trigger event occurs"; here, the trigger event is "the beginning of your end step". See also this thread.
Compare Howlpack Alpha with Hazezon Tamar (C.R. 108.1).
Howlpack Alpha's existence as an object on the battlefield puts into action the rule that makes its ability "apply". That ability says something happens on the trigger of "At the beginning of your end step". You might think of that trigger as missing an "s" on "step", since it refers to all of them, but the reason that's not true is technical.
What I want to impress on you is that putting Howlpack Alpha onto the battlefield, or casting it, is not what "invokes" all its text as if to produce a one-time instruction. Howlpack Alpha is on the battlefield, therefore, its static abilities apply, and its triggered abilities are "waiting" (perhaps, more like watching) to trigger. In Magic, to get a triggered ability to happen 'just once' from a battlefield permanent, you'd have to write a triggered ability, that created a delayed triggered ability. ... or make up something like "This ability triggers only once."
With that out of the way, I can try to alleviate your distress about that technicality. The terminology could be "At the beginning of an End step of your(s/ turn)", and it would look appropriately generic, or there could say "each" instead of "an"; so I suppose the fault is in cutting that corner with the genitive term ("your") replacing the article. Articles are hardly doing the real job more than the pragmatics, though, as I am told some languages don't have them.
So if you're in distress in future, remember uncle Horseshoe's rule: Triggered abilities are just as statically vigilant as static abilities themselves! Until they're embedded in something otherwise identifiable as an instruction, of a spell or perhaps an ability and perhaps a triggered kind of ability to boot, at which time you've got a delayed triggered ability, which may or may not be restricted to trigger just once, for which you must check if certain words are not there.
Easy peasy.
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I am confused because the rules text doesn't say "Every time you reach the beginning of your end step" or any similar language that explicitly confirms that the ability would repeatedly trigger.
Compare Howlpack Alpha with Hazezon Tamar (C.R. 108.1).
What I want to impress on you is that putting Howlpack Alpha onto the battlefield, or casting it, is not what "invokes" all its text as if to produce a one-time instruction. Howlpack Alpha is on the battlefield, therefore, its static abilities apply, and its triggered abilities are "waiting" (perhaps, more like watching) to trigger. In Magic, to get a triggered ability to happen 'just once' from a battlefield permanent, you'd have to write a triggered ability, that created a delayed triggered ability. ... or make up something like "This ability triggers only once."
With that out of the way, I can try to alleviate your distress about that technicality. The terminology could be "At the beginning of an End step of your(s/ turn)", and it would look appropriately generic, or there could say "each" instead of "an"; so I suppose the fault is in cutting that corner with the genitive term ("your") replacing the article. Articles are hardly doing the real job more than the pragmatics, though, as I am told some languages don't have them.
So if you're in distress in future, remember uncle Horseshoe's rule: Triggered abilities are just as statically vigilant as static abilities themselves! Until they're embedded in something otherwise identifiable as an instruction, of a spell or perhaps an ability and perhaps a triggered kind of ability to boot, at which time you've got a delayed triggered ability, which may or may not be restricted to trigger just once, for which you must check if certain words are not there.
Easy peasy.
Awesome avatar provided by Krashbot @ [Epic Graphics].