Imotekh, the Stormlord

[Necron]

On MTGO, if your bring Imotekh to the battlefield from the graveyard, his Necron token creation ability triggers. Why? I looked at rule 603.10, and it makes sense to me. Everywhere I look though says it won’t trigger. A friend and I are having a debate as to if it triggers or not. He says
it doesn’t, I say it does. Can someone please articulate why it triggers (on mtgo)?

 

[Neo001992]

Your friend is correct here, and if Imotekh, the Stormlord is triggering off of himself being reanimated that is a bug. 603.10a is the relevant rule here, and when Imotekh “looks back in time” to determine if he should trigger he will not be in play at the time the event happened.

603.10. Normally, objects that exist immediately after an event are checked to see if the event matched any trigger conditions, and 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 are exceptions to this rule; the game “looks back in time” to determine if those abilities trigger, using the existence of those abilities and the appearance of objects immediately prior to the event. The list of exceptions is as follows:

• 603.10a Some zone-change triggers look back in time. These are leaves-the-battlefield abilities, abilities that trigger when a card leaves a graveyard, and abilities that trigger when an object that all players can see is put into a hand or library.

 

[Necron]

Right on, I was playing it the correct way initially, and then I saw the trigger happen on mtgo. I figured that programming would be precise when it comes to the rules, but that doesn’t seem to be the case. Thanks for your feedback!