The following situation happened and I would like to see who's point of view is correct according to the rules (we are playing the Duel Deck: Blessed vs Cursed) :
Player 1 (cursed deck) has Butcher Ghoul and Gravecrawler on the battlefield.
Player 2 (blessed deck) has Elder Cathar on the battlefield.
Player 1 start his turn, upkeep and draws a card. Doesn't do anything and enters combat step. Throws down the Instant Victim of Night to kill Elder of Cathar, Player 2 throws down Eerie Interlude to exile Elder Cathar.
The stack plays out from the top so Elder Cathar is exiled and then Victim of Night fizzles.
Player 1 attacks with Butcher Ghoul and Gravecrawler
Player 2 is dealt damage of 3
Now comes the question.
Eerie Interlude states: Return those cards to the battlefield under the owner's control at the beginning of the next end step.
Player 1 says: Player 1 is still busy with his round so the BEGINNING OF THE NEXT END STEP will be player 2's END STEP and not player's 1's end step.
Player 2 says: No, the card states BEGINNING OF THE NEXT END STEP and since the card was thrown during combat phase that means the NEXT END STEP is actually Player 1's END STEP which is right after the combat step and so the Elder must be returned to battlefield before Player 2 starts his beginning phase.
Who is right and is there somewhere MTG Rules that can clear it up??
It is really hard to describe this without using the word "next" (which is obviously the point of confusion), but here goes:
The "next" of anything is the soonest that step occurs after the current point in time. That would be Player 1's End Step since that is the soonest End Step that occurs after Player 1 casts Eerie Interlude. It is like saying "the next time I go to the movies, I will get some popcorn". If you said that at 5:30 and you are going to the movies at 6:00, you would be getting popcorn that day, not the following time you go to the movies.
Magic is the same way. When something looks for the "next" occurrence of something, it will trigger whenever the soonest that event happens. In this example, it would be at the end of Player 1's turn.
This should also probably be in the Rulings Forum.
The following situation happened and I would like to see who's point of view is correct according to the rules (we are playing the Duel Deck: Blessed vs Cursed) :
Player 1 (cursed deck) has Butcher Ghoul and Gravecrawler on the battlefield.
Player 2 (blessed deck) has Elder Cathar on the battlefield.
Player 1 start his turn, upkeep and draws a card. Doesn't do anything and enters combat step. Throws down the Instant Victim of Night to kill Elder of Cathar, Player 2 throws down Eerie Interlude to exile Elder Cathar.
The stack plays out from the top so Elder Cathar is exiled and then Victim of Night fizzles.
Player 1 attacks with Butcher Ghoul and Gravecrawler
Player 2 is dealt damage of 3
Now comes the question.
Eerie Interlude states: Return those cards to the battlefield under the owner's control at the beginning of the next end step.
Player 1 says: Player 1 is still busy with his round so the BEGINNING OF THE NEXT END STEP will be player 2's END STEP and not player's 1's end step.
Player 2 says: No, the card states BEGINNING OF THE NEXT END STEP and since the card was thrown during combat phase that means the NEXT END STEP is actually Player 1's END STEP which is right after the combat step and so the Elder must be returned to battlefield before Player 2 starts his beginning phase.
Who is right and is there somewhere MTG Rules that can clear it up??
Many thanx to all who can help on this
Cav
The "next" of anything is the soonest that step occurs after the current point in time. That would be Player 1's End Step since that is the soonest End Step that occurs after Player 1 casts Eerie Interlude. It is like saying "the next time I go to the movies, I will get some popcorn". If you said that at 5:30 and you are going to the movies at 6:00, you would be getting popcorn that day, not the following time you go to the movies.
Magic is the same way. When something looks for the "next" occurrence of something, it will trigger whenever the soonest that event happens. In this example, it would be at the end of Player 1's turn.
This should also probably be in the Rulings Forum.