Ballista, counters, and CoCo interaction

Asked by KaiserMTG 5 years ago

So let's say I had a Llanowar Reborn in play with a counter on it and then cast Collected Company and hit a Walking Ballista. Would the Ballista survive?

In another scenario, if I hit a Rishkar, Peema Renegade and Walking Ballista off a Collected Company, would the Ballista survive that?

ClockworkSwordfish says... Accepted answer #1

The Ballista would unfortunately perish in both scenarios. Both Graft and Rishkar's ability trigger off of permanents coming into play, meaning they go on the stack waiting to happen (just like any other spell or non-mana ability.) The thing is, if a creature is ever in play with zero toughness, it will die the next time state-based actions are checked, which is any time you would receive priority.

Consider the wording of Graft on something like Simic Initiate - it says he enters the battlefield with a +1/+1 counter already on him. There's never a period where he's in play without one. But if another 0/0 creature shows up, it has to already come into play (and thus die) before you can move a counter over. But Master Biomancer makes your creatures likewise enter with the counters already on them, meaning he could save a 0/0 Ballista.

May 19, 2018 11:26 p.m.

KaiserMTG says... #2

May 19, 2018 11:29 p.m.

Please login to comment