Master of Cruelties vs Zetalpa, Primal Dawn
Asked by Ecmdrw5 5 years ago
Master of Cruelties vs Zetalpa, Primal Dawn. Help a noob out with how this plays out.
Zetalpa, Primal Dawn has indestructible so destroy effects (like from deathtouch won't kill it). She also has double strike with does both first strike and normal damage, so even without the indestructible Master of Cruelties wouldn't have survived the encounter.
Indestrictible - 702.12b A permanent with indestructible can’t be destroyed. Such permanents aren’t destroyed by lethal damage, and they ignore the state-based action that checks for lethal damage (see rule 704.5g).
Deathtouch - 702.2c Any nonzero amount of combat damage assigned to a creature by a source with deathtouch is considered to be lethal damage for the purposes of determining if a proposed combat damage assignment is valid, regardless of that creature’s toughness. See rules 510.1c–d.
June 5, 2018 12:50 p.m.
How the entire combat phase will work:
Start of combat step:
This step is mostly for abilities to trigger, so it goes straight into a round of priority. We'll assume nobody wants to cast spells or activate abilities and move on.
Declare attackers step:
Master of Cruelties attacks.
Players have a chance to respond, but we'll assume nobody does.
Declare blockers step:
Zetalpa, Primal Dawn blocks Master of Cruelties.
Master of Cruelties would trigger here if it were unblocked, but as it was blocked it does not trigger. Again we'll assume no responses.
First strike combat damage step:
Master of Cruelties deals 1 damage to Zetalpa, Primal Dawn and Zetalpa, Primal Dawn deals 4 damage to Master of Cruelties.
State based actions are checked. Master of Cruelties is destroyed due to lethal damage and Zetalpa, Primal Dawn attempts to be destroyed due to deathtouch damage, but as it is indestructible it will not be destroyed.
Once again players get an opportunity to respond, but only after Master of Cruelties is already in the graveyard.
Regular combat damage step:
Zetalpa, Primal Dawn would deal combat damage again here, however as the creature it was blocking is no longer on the battlefield (as it died during the first strike combat damage step), it has nothing to deal damage to.
Again players have a chance to respond, but things look a lot like they did during the previous step, so it's unlikely they will.
End of combat step:
Like the start of combat step this step doesn't actually have a turn based action associated with it, so we go right to priority. Again things look a lot like they did a second ago, so responses are unlikely.
Ecmdrw5 says... #1
I forgot to add that Master of Cruelties is attaching and Zetalpa, Primal Dawn blocks.
June 5, 2018 12:07 p.m.