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Say I have a Keldon Marauders on the battlefield. The card reads:

When Keldon Marauders enters the battlefield or leaves the battlefield, it deals 1 damage to target player.

I then cast Worldfire.

Exile all permanents. Exile all cards from all hands and graveyards. Each player's life total becomes 1

I assume Worldfire would resolve first and the players' life would be set to 1, then Keldon Marauders would leave the battlefield and deal 1 damage to a player?

2 Answers 2

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Not quite.

You're wrong about Keldon Marauders leaving the battlefield after each players' life is set to 1. Worldfire's instructions are done in order [CR 608.2c], and "exile all permanents" comes before "each player's life total becomes 1".

You're right that you will win the game, but it's because the triggered ability is only placed on the stack after each players' life is set to 1. Specifically, triggered abilities are only placed on the stack the next time a player would get priority [CR 603.3], not when they are triggered [CR 603.2]. Noone gets priority until after Worldfire has finished resolving.

The following is a breakdown of what happens:

  1. You cast Worldfire.
  2. Worldfire resolves:
    1. Exile all permanents. Keldon Marauders's ability triggers. [CR 603.2]
    2. Exile all cards from all hands and graveyards.
    3. Each player's life total becomes 1.
  3. Keldon Marauders's ability is placed on the stack targeting your opponent. [CR 603.3]
  4. Keldon Marauders's ability resolves: Keldon Marauders deals one damage to your opponent.
  5. SBAs are performed: Your opponent loses the game for having non-positive life.

The relevant rules are:

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. [...]

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  • @user1873, Even though he can target any player, he has to pick one, and the one he picked was his opponent. Otherwise, his opponent won't die. Your edit made no sense since step 5 become incorrect, and it stopped demonstrating how the OP could win. Reverted.
    – ikegami
    Nov 3, 2012 at 6:38
  • The OP never uses the word opponent. Your answer might give the impression that an opponent must be chosen. You can choose to correct your answer, or leave it as is (if my correction contained an error, you could have fixed it as well), it's your choice.
    – user1873
    Nov 3, 2012 at 6:47
  • @user1873, By your logic, I should change it to "a player casts Worldwake". No, I'm describing a scenario, I'm not describing a card. It's an example, an in examples, specifics must be picked. And the player in my example thought it was a stupid idea to kill himself, especially when he was trying to demonstrate how to win.
    – ikegami
    Nov 3, 2012 at 7:23
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Yes.

According to Worldfire's Gatherer rulings:

These actions are performed in order, but no triggered abilities resolve in between them and no player may cast spells or activate abilities in between them. This means that if a permanent's ability triggers on a player losing life, that permanent will be exiled first and won't be on the battlefield when your life total becomes 1. Leaves-the-battlefield triggers won't resolve until you're done resolving Worldfire entirely.

So Worldfire resolves completely, leaving everyone's life total at one, then the leaves-the-battlefield trigger of the Keldon Mauraders resolves and deals one damage to the targeted player.

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