Does Defense of the Heart always sacrifice?

Asked by CanEx 4 years ago

I have Defense of the Heart in play. My opponent has three creatures. During my upkeep, my opponent sacrifices them in response to the DotH trigger. DotH doesn't get to tutor, but is it still sacrificed?

Raging_Squiggle says... Accepted answer #1

Defense of the Heart has what’s called an “intervening if clause”, meaning the ability checks that the trigger condition is true when the ability would trigger, AND when it tries to resolve.

If the triggers condition is not met when it would trigger, it doesn’t trigger at all. If the trigger condition isn’t met when the ability tries to resolve, the ability is removed from the stack and has no effect.

February 7, 2020 10:37 p.m.