Draw card, discard card rules

Asked by Lowenstein 6 years ago

So if I've got a card like Desolate Lighthouse and I have Seismic Assault in play, if I do the land's ability, can that also deal two damage to a creature or player? Or can they not be related?

Rhadamanthus says... Accepted answer #1

No, it doesn't work that way. An activated ability - written out as "(Cost) : (Effect)" - can only be activated by specifically spending resources to pay its cost. It won't automatically activate if something causes its cost to happen. You might be thinking of triggered abilities (written out to start with "when/whenever/at"), which will trigger whenever the given event happens.

Discarding a land card as part of some other spell or ability won't automatically activate Seismic Assault, just like spending and also tapping Desolate Lighthouse to cast a Fact or Fiction won't automatically activate the Lighthouse's last ability.

August 22, 2017 2:09 p.m.