If I have Athreos, God of Passage on the battlefield, and I have a manifested card. When the manifested creature dies, does Athreos's ability trigger, and would I be able to get the card back, even if it is not a creature that has been manifested? I have heard so many different things and I can never get a straight answer.
It will trigger, athreos only cares that a creature died not that a creature card died. Since it returns it to your hand it can return any manifested card to your hand (assuming they don't pay life).
Remember, "die" is just shorthand for "enters the graveyard from the battlefield", and all such zone-change triggers look at the game state before the event, instead of after. And on the battlefield the manifested card is a creature.
Note, it's only a few specific triggers (including leaves the battlefield / dies) that look at the event before, all other zome-change triggers look at the situation after the event has occurred to see if anything triggers. As an example, if I have Humility, Emrakul, the Aeons Torn and Alabaster Dragon in play, and you cast Wrath of God, the Alabaster Dragon will NOT trigger but the Emrakul will. Since the Alabaster Dragon trigger is a "dies" trigger, it looks at how the dragon looked on the battlefield, where it had no abilities because of Humility. On the flip side, the Emrakul trigger happens when it is put into the graveyard from "anywhere", so it isn't specifically a dies trigger. That means the game checks how it looks in the Graveyard to see if it triggers, so it does, because Humility is no longer affecting it.
Quote from CR 603.6d »
603.6d Normally, objects that exist immediately after an event are checked to see if the event matched any trigger conditions. Continuous effects that exist at that time are used to determine what the trigger conditions are and what the objects involved in the event look like. However, some triggered abilities must be treated specially. Leaves-the-battlefield abilities, abilities that trigger when a permanent phases out, abilities that trigger when an object that all players can see is put into a hand or library, abilities that trigger specifically when an object becomes unattached, abilities that trigger when a player loses control of an object, and abilities that trigger when a player planeswalks away from a plane will trigger based on their existence, and the appearance of objects, prior to the event rather than afterward. The game has to “look back in time” to determine if these abilities trigger.
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Mono-Black Oona, Queen of the Fae
Athreos, God of Passage
Note, it's only a few specific triggers (including leaves the battlefield / dies) that look at the event before, all other zome-change triggers look at the situation after the event has occurred to see if anything triggers. As an example, if I have Humility, Emrakul, the Aeons Torn and Alabaster Dragon in play, and you cast Wrath of God, the Alabaster Dragon will NOT trigger but the Emrakul will. Since the Alabaster Dragon trigger is a "dies" trigger, it looks at how the dragon looked on the battlefield, where it had no abilities because of Humility. On the flip side, the Emrakul trigger happens when it is put into the graveyard from "anywhere", so it isn't specifically a dies trigger. That means the game checks how it looks in the Graveyard to see if it triggers, so it does, because Humility is no longer affecting it.