Teemo, Strategist

Q: What does this card do, and when can it do it? If I play him from Hidden during combat, does his ability trigger twice?

We’re issuing a rules update that changes how Teemo and other defend and attack triggers work, and we’re issuing a minor errata for Teemo in accordance with it. We’re also clarifying what his ability does and how many targets it has. This contradicts some previous guidance we’ve given on this card, as we’ve examined what it says, what it’s intended to do, and what our rules can support.

Teemo has a “when I defend” trigger. Under previous rules, attack and defend triggers happened only at the beginning of combat. Teemo’s dual trigger condition was meant to cover this—he either triggered at the beginning of combat, or he triggered when you played him into combat.

Teemo, Strategist (revised text)

Hidden (Hide now for to react with later for .)

When I defend, choose an enemy unit here and reveal the top 5 cards of your Main Deck. Deal 1 to that unit for each card with Hidden revealed this way, then recycle the revealed cards.

Under the updated rules, attack and defend triggers trigger any time a unit becomes an attacker or defender—whether that’s because combat began, because the unit was moved into combat using a spell or ability, or because the unit was played into combat somehow. (And yes, this means that a unit that starts in combat, moves out somehow, and then moves back can trigger these abilities twice. We think this is fine—moving a unit at Action speed isn’t easy to do, and doing it twice is even harder, so we don’t mind there being a substantial reward.)

One thing to note about this change that doesn’t apply to Teemo directly: Assault and Shield are not attack or defend triggers, so they’ll work the same way they did before. They apply while a unit is an attacker or defender in combat as appropriate, stop applying once the unit is no longer in combat, and start applying if it joins or rejoins combat partway through. This rules change makes the “played from Hidden” part of Teemo’s text redundant. And since the ability only does anything if enemy units are present, we’re issuing errata to clarify that it only triggers once as intended, whether Teemo is played into combat or was there from the start. We’re also rephrasing the ability to make it clearer that it only has one target.