Can I use Exalted with Invocation of Saint Traft?
Asked by vic 7 years ago
I have an Akrasan Squire enchanted with an Invocation of Saint Traft. I attack. Does the angel make me lose exalted? Or do I get to trigger my exalted before the angel comes in?
No.
In magic there is a difference between "attacks" and "attacking."
For a creature to "attack" means that it is declared as an attacker by the attacking player during the turn-based-action portion of the Declare Attackers Step of the Combat Phase.
For a creature to be "attacking" means that it is in combat and is controlled by the attacking player.
From this you get the non-intuitive result that creatures that enter the battlefield "tapped and attacking" never actually attacked. (They really should figure out how to clarify this in the terminology in a way that people can just "get.")
If you declare exactly one attacker during your Declare Attackers Step, Exalted will trigger and give that creature +1/+1 until end of turn, and as long as that ability resolves then changing the number of attacking creatures won't take away the buff. (Multiple instances of Exalted will stack btw.)
The ability also doesn't check how many attacking creatures you have on resolution, so making your angel first won't stop the exalted trigger from resolving.
December 11, 2016 10:41 p.m.
sonnet666 thanks for addressing "attacks" vs "attacking". I had never considered that in the game.
Rhadamanthus says... Accepted answer #1
The Angel token doesn't interfere with the Exalted trigger. You get both in your example.
Exalted, as well as any other ability that cares whether or not a creature "attacks alone", just considers how many attackers you declared at the beginning of the declare attackers step. It doesn't matter if other spells or abilities somehow add more creatures to combat after that point. If you only declare one attacking creature then any Exalted abilities you have on the board will trigger.
December 11, 2016 10:24 p.m.