How does Portal Rescue and Reflection tokens with When I am played triggers work?

Question

Accepted Answer

To understand how **Portal Rescue** interacts with **Reflection tokens** and "When you play me" triggers, we must examine the rules governing tokens, the "play" action, and the specific behavior of Portal Rescue.

### 1. Can Portal Rescue target a token?
According to **RiftJudge FAQ #2895**, you can target a token with **Portal Rescue**. However, the sequence results in the token ceasing to exist:
*   Portal Rescue banishes the token.
*   The token enters the banished zone (a non-board zone).
*   Tokens cannot exist outside the board or chain, causing the token to cease to exist immediately upon reaching the banished zone.
*   The "play it to your base" portion of Portal Rescue then has no valid target, and the effect concludes.

Because the token ceases to exist before it can be "played" to your base, it **does not trigger** any "When you play me" effects.

### 2. Playing Tokens and "When you play me" triggers
If a token is generated by an effect that uses the word "play" (e.g., "play a Reflection token"), it is considered "played" (Rule 182.1.a/Rule 350.2).
*   **Triggering:** When a token is "played," its "When you play me" triggered abilities will trigger if it has any, just like a card. 
*   **Chain Timing:** These abilities are placed on the chain as pending items, just as they would be for a standard unit card (Rule 383.3).

### 3. Summary of Interaction
| Scenario | Outcome |
| :--- | :--- |
| **Using Portal Rescue on a Token** | The token is banished, ceases to exist, and **does not trigger** any "When you play me" effects because the "play" portion of the spell fails. |
| **Playing a Token via another effect** | If an effect explicitly uses "play" to put the token into play, it is considered "played." Any "When you play me" triggered abilities will go on the chain and can be resolved. |

### Reasoning and Rule References
*   **Tokens as "Played":** Tokens are considered "played" when an effect uses that specific terminology to put them into play (Rule 182.1.a and Rule 350.2).
*   **Portal Rescue interaction:** Per FAQ #2895, Portal Rescue's effect fails to "play" the unit if the target is a token because the token ceases to exist before it can be re-played.

Note: I could not fully verify the rule regarding tokens ceasing to exist in non-board zones against the retrieved rules.

Scenario	Outcome
Using Portal Rescue on a Token	The token is banished, ceases to exist, and does not trigger any "When you play me" effects because the "play" portion of the spell fails.
Playing a Token via another effect	If an effect explicitly uses "play" to put the token into play, it is considered "played." Any "When you play me" triggered abilities will go on the chain and can be resolved.