Ulamog, Ceasless Hunger against Kor Haven

Asked by Wbg1415 3 years ago

My friend and I are having a disagreement, I'm a some what of new player and his logic doesn't really make sense to me. I may be wrong but that's why I'm here asking.

I swing at him with Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger and his his ability states "Whenever Ulamog attacks, defending player exiles the top twenty cards of his or her library."

He is then tapping Kor Haven (Legendary Land) along side 2 mana and it states: Prevent all combat damage that would be dealt by target attacking creature this turn."

So how i see this is yes the 10 damage gets from Ulamog gets stopped because it's combat damage, but my opponent still exiles 20 twenty cards since Ulamog says whenever it "attacks" not whenever it does "combat damage". He says that since he stopped combat damage he also doesn't have to exile 20 cards. Who is right??

dragonstryke58 says... Accepted answer #1

You are correct. Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger has a triggered ability that triggers when he attacks not when he deals combat damage. The wording "attacks" refers to being declared as an attacker.

The combat phase is split into a number of steps.

• Beginning of Combat
• Declare Attackers
• Declare Blockers
• Combat Damage
• End of Combat

Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger's triggered ability will be put to the stack during the Declare Attackers Step after he is declared as an attacker. This occurs before combat damage is even taken into account.

Relevant Comprehensive Rules:

• 508.2a Abilities that trigger on a creature attacking trigger only at the point the creature is declared as an attacker. They will not trigger if a creature attacks and then that creature’s characteristics change to match the ability’s trigger condition.
• 506.1. The combat phase has five steps, which proceed in order: beginning of combat, declare attackers, declare blockers, combat damage, and end of combat. The declare blockers and combat damage steps are skipped if no creatures are declared as attackers or put onto the battlefield attacking (see rule 508.8). There are two combat damage steps if any attacking or blocking creature has first strike (see rule 702.7) or double strike (see rule 702.4).

December 2, 2020 12:59 p.m. Edited.

Rhadamanthus says... #2

For future reference, you can use double square brackets around a card's name to create a reference link: Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger, Kor Haven. It's the best way to make sure everyone understands what's going on in your question (and you don't have to spend as much time typing out card text).

December 2, 2020 1:24 p.m.

Rhadamanthus says... #3

Wbg1415: An answer to your question has been up for a while. Since there don't seem to be any follow-ups or corrections to be made, I marked it as the "Accepted answer" so this topic can move out of the list of unanswered questions. In the future you can take care of this yourself using the green "Mark as Answer" button on the response that you feel best answers your question.

December 8, 2020 8:45 a.m.