If Warwick attacks and his attack trigger is on the stack, can the trigger be stopped by Flight or Fright or Rebuke?

Question

Accepted Answer

If Warwick’s attack trigger is on the chain, you can play Rebuke to return Warwick to its owner’s hand. That will move Warwick to a non-board zone and sever any targeting/relationship between the trigger and the unit, so any parts of the trigger that require Warwick to be on the board or be a legal target will fail or be ignored. Whether Flight or Fright stop the trigger depends on what those cards do: if they only move Warwick between board zones (e.g., to a base or another battlefield) the trigger’s relationship remains; if they move him to a non-board zone (hand/trash), the effect is severed like Rebuke.

Playing Rebuke in reaction to Warwick’s attack trigger will return Warwick to its owner’s hand (a non-board zone). That breaks the spell/ability’s relationship to the unit and makes instructions that require Warwick to be a legal on-board target or to have on-board characteristics unexecutable and thus ignored when the trigger resolves [359.3.e.4] [359.3.e.6] [359.3.e.12]. If Flight or Fright only move Warwick between board zones (battlefields/bases), they do not sever the relationship and the trigger can still affect him if he becomes legal again [FAQ:unleashed#22] [359.3.e.3]. The trigger itself remains on the chain (attack triggers are triggered abilities put on the chain) but its instructions will be followed only to the extent they can be executed given Warwick’s new zone [383.4.e.3] [359.3.e.11].

Warwick attacks and gains the Attacker designation; his attack-trigger ability is put on the chain as a pending item [383.4.e.3]. An opponent plays Rebuke in reaction, choosing Warwick as the "unit at a battlefield" to return to its owner's hand (a non-board zone). When Rebuke resolves, Warwick moves to the hand. Moving to a non-board zone severs any targeting/relationship between the on-chain triggered ability and the unit [359.3.e.4] [FAQ:unleashed#22]. The attack trigger is still on the chain and will resolve when it reaches the top, but checks or instructions that rely on Warwick being on the board (or being a legal target) are treated as having null information or are simply unexecutable and thus ignored [359.3.e.12] [359.3.e.6] [359.3.e.11]. If instead a reaction moved Warwick between board zones (for example to a base), the relationship would generally remain and the trigger could still affect him if he is a legal target when the trigger resolves [FAQ:unleashed#22].

If Warwick’s trigger does not reference the unit as a target (for example, it simply creates tokens or affects other objects), returning Warwick to hand will not prevent those parts of the trigger that don't need him on the board from resolving; only the parts that require him or his on-board characteristics will be affected [359.3.e.11] [359.3.e.12]. If a spell or ability moves Warwick to another board zone (battlefield or base), the unit remains the same game object and the trigger’s relationship to it is preserved; the trigger may still be able to affect him or become legal again as it resolves [FAQ:unleashed#22]. If a replacement effect changed what happens when Warwick would be returned (for example, 'recall' to a different zone), the final zone matters: any non-board final zone severs the relationship per [359.3.e.4]. If the triggered ability explicitly targets the unit as it resolves (its text requires choosing 'this unit' as a target), whether that target remains legal depends on the unit’s zone at resolution; a non-board zone makes it illegal [355.10.c] [359.3.e.4]. If Flight or Fright also remove the trigger from the chain (for example, by countering or otherwise interacting with the ability on the chain rather than moving the unit), that is a different interaction; this ruling assumes they act on the unit rather than on the on-chain trigger.

Attack triggers ("When I attack..." effects) are triggered abilities associated with the attacking unit and are placed on the chain as pending items when the unit gains the Attacker designation [383.4.e.3]. Playing Rebuke in reaction returns a unit at a battlefield to its owner's hand (a non-board zone). When a game object that is the subject of an on-chain effect changes zones to a non-board zone, it is no longer treated as the same object and any targeting/relationship between that on-chain effect and the object is severed [359.3.e.4]. The official clarification reiterates this principle: moving a unit to a non-board zone removes the targeting relationship; moving a unit between board zones does not necessarily do so [FAQ:unleashed#22]. The triggered ability itself stays on the chain, but when it resolves any instructions that require the unit to be a legal on-board target or require information about its on-board characteristics will either be unexecutable or return null for checks and thus be ignored to the extent they cannot be followed [359.3.e.6] [359.3.e.12] [359.3.e.11]. Therefore, if Rebuke returns Warwick to hand while his attack trigger is on the chain, you effectively prevent the trigger from affecting him on resolution. For Flight or Fright, you must check what those cards do: if they only move Warwick between board zones (for example, to his base), the object identity remains and the trigger’s relationship is preserved (so the trigger may still affect him) [FAQ:unleashed#22]; if they send him to a non-board zone (hand/trash), they have the same severing effect as Rebuke [359.3.e.4]. Finally, whether specific parts of the trigger resolve depends on whether those parts reference or target the unit or depend on on-board information—effects that don't depend on the unit's on-board state can still resolve even if the unit was bounced [359.3.e.11].