Dragon Throne of Tarkir + Arahbo's Second Ability

Asked by Pedrodamus 4 years ago

If I understand Defender correctly , i could trigger Arahbo, Roar of the World 's Eminence on a cat equipped with Dragon Throne of Tarkir , but I could not activate Arahbo's second ability on the equipped creature, correct? If I have a Leonin Shikari , would i be able to target an attacking cat with Arahbo's second ability, then attach the Dragon Throne to that cat before damage, and activate the Throne on the pumped cat to give my other cats the +/+ and trample buff? Does this take the attacking cat out of combat now that it has Defender?

Caerwyn says... Accepted answer #1

In Magic, there is a distinction between "attacking"--the state of being an attacking creature--and "to attack"--the action of declaring something as an attacker. The similarity of these two words leads to a lot of confusion.

First, you are correct that you could not use Arahbos' second ability to pump a creature that is not being declared as an attacker.

Defender is an ability which means "this creature can't attack." This means it cannot be declared as an attacking creature; but there is no prohibition on a creature with Defender being an attacking creature--you just need to find some way to have it be an attacker without ever having it "attack."

Your hypothetical, where a creature without Defender attacks, and gains Defender after attacking, is one such case. Since it did not have Defender at the time it was declared as an attacker, you have successfully bypassed Defender's prohibition on "can't attack."

However, there is still a flaw in your plan-- Dragon Throne of Tarkir requires the creature to tap in order to make use of its ability. As such, you'll need a creature with vigilance or some way of untapping your creature for this strategy to work. Otherwise, the creature will have been tapped when it is declared as an attacker, and thus cannot be used for Dragon Throne of Tarkir 's ability.

April 22, 2019 2:44 p.m. Edited.