Totem Armor against Infect
General forum
Posted on Oct. 14, 2010, 2:31 p.m. by Tbshaw
How does totem armor work against infect creatures? Say I have a 2/1 creature and it has a Spider Umbra on it. Now its a 3/2 with reach and totem armor. If I block an infect creature that is a 2/2, do i loose my creature and the umbra... or just the umbra and my creature become a 2/1 again?
Well I don't know if all -1 counters would be removed, however, the ones that caused the death certainly should be.
October 14, 2010 3:20 p.m.
pookypuppy6 says... #4
"Totem Armor:If enchanted creature would be destroyed, instead remove all damage from it and destroy this Aura."
I think in the case above the damage is removed by the Aura; damage in the form of -1/-1 counters is still damage. So the damage is removed and you just lose your Aura! :D
However, if a weaker Infect card like Plague Stinger blocked your 2/1 creature with a Spider Aura (therefore 3/2), since the enchanted creature is not destroyed by the -1/-1 counter, the Aura does not remove that damage. Totem Armor would only remove damage that destroys it during the same turn. So you may find a -1/-1 sitting on your creature that won't go away as easily. :(
October 14, 2010 3:49 p.m.
Nope, this is wrong, -1/-1 counters that cause a creature to have a toughness equal to or less than 0 does NOT destroy it. It is sent to the graveyard as a state-based effect. As far as infect is concerned, all Spider Umbra does is give the creature a +1/+1 boost. If it's toughness is zero, it will be sent to the graveyard, along with the umbra.
This is also why you can kill an indestructible creature with a Grasp of Darkness -type effect.
October 14, 2010 5:05 p.m.
I see...I was having some speculations about this and wasn't sure exactly how the damage and the counters would actually play out if you had totem armor an a creature. I imagined that you would just lose the umbra since the creature was being destroyed at that time of combat. So in all actuality "totem armor" is somewhat useless against "infect", except for the +x/+x that the umbra give your creature.
October 15, 2010 8:56 a.m.
This is true Jessetaverne. I didn't say that the umbra itself was useless, just the "totem armor" part of the umbra was useless against "infect" creatures. The umbras are still nice and the totem armor still helps against "Destroy creature spell" like Day of Judgment, Doom Blade, etc.
October 15, 2010 2:19 p.m.
SensibleGnome says... #9
When a creature with an aura attached to it would be destroyed you remove the totem armor and remove all damage from the creature. So infect would not be able to hit the creature because the damage would all be prevented.
June 21, 2011 5:08 p.m.
Savage1988 says... #10
@ sensiblegnome:
nope, kabrazell is right. the creature doesn't get destroyed by -x/-x effects, which the counters cause.
razer357 says... #2
Good question I hadn't thought about that and would really like to know for my Umbras deck.
October 14, 2010 2:47 p.m.