Living Death priority problem.
Asked by CoryDean 8 years ago
Bad question, I know. But my Living Death brought back Scourge of Valkas with a pile of other dragons, and my opponent brought back Venser, Shaper Savant, Phantasmal Image, and Duplicant. Can Phantasmal Image enter as a copy of my Dragonlord Silumgar, and steal Scourge of Valkas? This is too big for me to comprehend. I try to deal about 10 damage per dragon from Scourge of Valkas, but can any of my opponent's creatures stop this? Please explain how, in detail. All possibilities would be wonderful.
Epochalyptik says... Accepted answer #1
From the Gatherer rulings:
10/4/2004: Both players exile their creature cards at once. Then both players sacrifice all creatures they control at once. Then both players put all creatures they exiled onto the battlefield. If there are any choices involved for a given step, the current player makes their choices first, then the other player, and finally you do the action all at once.
Because the creatures all enter the battlefield at once, Phantasmal Image can't enter as a copy of anything else being brought back by Living Death. This is because Phantasmal Image's copy ability is a replacement effect that modifies how Phantasmal Image enters the battlefield. The replacement effect has to apply as Phantasmal Image would enter the battlefield, which means that you need to choose what to copy before any of the creatures are on the battlefield. (Replacement effects also don't use the stack.)
Duplicant, on the other hand, uses a triggered ability, as does Venser, Shaper Savant. Therefore, the abilities will be put onto the stack after the creatures are all put onto the battlefield and Living Death is finished resolving.
None of your opponent's creatures can stop Scourge of Valkas's ability from triggering when it and all of the other dragons enter. You'll get one instance of Scourge of Valkas's ability from each of those dragons, counting Scourge of Valkas itself.
Because triggered abilities exist independently of their sources once they're on the stack, removing Scourge of Valkas won't counter its ability. The ability will still resolve and deal the damage (even though Scourge of Valkas isn't on the battlefield anymore if it gets removed). Note, however, that Scourge of Valkas's ability counts the number of dragons you control when the ability resolves. If your opponent removes some of the dragons in response to the abilities, the abilities will deal less damage.
February 14, 2016 12:13 a.m.