Eternal servant & rise again

[Sailor Vulcan]

Just double checking this, because it doesn't seem entirely clear. If a non-epic, non-legendary living creature gets reanimated from the effect of rise again, can that creature also become an eternal servant? Rise again says that the creature becomes a zombie when it "comes into play", and the eternal servant effect also says "comes into play". So are these simultaneous, like a nullify and reverse magic on the same target at the same time (you can only choose one and afterwards the other can't take effect), or simultaneous like burn damage and regeneration (both take effect, but their controller chooses the order).

Thematically, it feels like the eternal servant ability should work on any non-epic, non-legendary undead creature, regardless of whether they used to be alive or not, because presumably all undead creatures used to be alive.

It wouldn't make sense to me thematically if I could not make a creature my eternal servant if it becomes a zombie when it comes into play, but I would still like to be more clear on this from a rules perspective.

[Zuberi]

The trigger condition for both occurs "when it comes into play." This happens at the same time for both, and at that time the creature is not undead. Therefore, Eternal Servant is not legal but the Zombie Marker for Rise Again does get applied. If there was another effect that occurred at the same time, such as the promo card Altar of the Iron Guard which puts a guard token on it, you could indeed choose the order that you want to put the tokens on (not that it matters).

In short, it only comes into play once. It doesn't come into play, become a zombie, and then come into play again.

[exid]

I found this one!
timing problem... 

It reminds me of the teleport trap and calltrops situation: two effects trigger at the same time (entering the zone/coming in play) and one make the other impossible/possible.
why wouldn't they resolve in the same way? (both simultaneously or both in a time sequence)

[ringkichard]

Nothing ever happens simultaneously. Sometimes things happen so close together that you can't do anything between them, but that's different.

This isn't really a timing problem. The creature's controler is the only player affected, so they're the only one making decisions. But more importantly, there isn't really a decision to make.

Eternal Servant lets you act when you summon an undead creature. You never summon an undead creature, you summon a living creature through reanimation and then put a Zombie marker on it. Since you don't summon an Undead creature, it's not elegible for eternal servant.

--

Now, this is actually kind of weird. Perhaps a better wording for Rise Again would have said to "Reanimate it with a zombie marker and damage equal to its level." That way you'd actually be summoning an Undead creature, and you wouldn't have a strange window of time between when the creature came into play and when when it became a zombie. As it is, you could theoretically squeeze other triggered events in between when the living creature was reanimated and when it gained the zombie marker.

As it is a creature brought back with Rise Again triggers "when a living creature comes into play" abilities.  : |

[exid]

ok... no simultaneousity: first the creature comes into play, and "when it has come into play" it gets the Zombie condition.
(and no link with trap and calltrops)

[ringkichard]

Yeah, the whole trap/caltrops issue is *because* things are never simultaneous.

[exid]

Yeah, the whole trap/caltrops issue is *because* things are never simultaneous.

and because the trigger of both IS simultaneous (entering the zone and entering the zone happen simultaneously!)