Blighted agent and Quietus spike.
Asked by Darkmoses 8 years ago
What would happen if Blighted Agent equiped with Quietus Spike landed a blow on an enemy player?
What would bee the full scope of that interaction?
So 1 poison counter would be added and the my enemy would drop from 20 to 10?
March 31, 2017 4:30 p.m.
Epochalyptik says... #3
Assuming your opponent was at 20 life at the beginning of combat, yes.
March 31, 2017 6:05 p.m.
VraskaTheCursed says... #4
yes, Epochalyptik is correct. sources with infect deal damage in the form of poison counters, so an effect that specifically calls for life loss (not damage) would not cause an opponent to get poison counters, even if the source had infect.
March 31, 2017 8 p.m.
Also hear source is the spike rather than agent, so even if it were damage, it wouldn't add poison counters.
March 31, 2017 8:52 p.m.
Epochalyptik says... #7
Damage and life loss are like squares and rectangles.
Damage typically causes loss of life, but loss of life is not the same as damage. Effects and actions can directly cause loss of life without involving damage.
Damage is dealt by a source, and the source is considered when identifying relevant effects that modify the damage. For example, a source with the infect ability will deal damage to creatures in the form of -1/-1 counters and to players in the form of poison counters. Any non-zero amount of damage from a source with deathtouch is always considered lethal. Etc.
Quietus Spike's ability causes loss of life; it doesn't deal damage. Therefore, it doesn't matter whether there are any effects that modify damage because damage is not being dealt here (besides the 1 infect damage Blighted Agent is dealing that triggers Quietus Spike's ability). Infect is irrelevant.
Colgate's answer is slightly misleading because loss of life doesn't really have a source in the sense that damage does. Spells and abilities can cause loss of life, but we don't think about the "source" of life loss because we don't modify the life loss based on the characteristics of the "source." The fact that Quietus Spike's ability is directly causing loss of life means that none of Blighted Agent's abilities are relevant to that loss of life, but also that, even if it were damage and not loss of life, they still wouldn't be relevant because Quietus Spike, not Blighted Agent, would be the source.
April 1, 2017 10:16 a.m.
VraskaTheCursed says... #8
What he's saying is that on top of infect not working with Quietus Spike's ability, the actual "lose half of life total" part is coming from Quietus Spike, not Blighted Agent (hence the spike is that ability's source). If the spike said, "equipped creature has" and the on-hit ability, then the source would be Blighted Agent. But it wouldn't work the way u we're thinking in either scenario
April 1, 2017 10:26 a.m.
VraskaTheCursed says... #9
Scratch what I said about the source of life loss - Epochalyptik is once again correct
Bottom line is, the scenario unfortunately doesn't work for more than one reason.
Also note that infect + deathtouch is a nonbo
April 1, 2017 10:28 a.m.
So just to be clear...DAMAGE showing up as a Poison counter is enough to set of Quietus Spike causing my opponents health to be cut in half. Independant to that, however, the poison counter would still stand. Both take place but have no further interactions.
April 1, 2017 1:02 p.m.
Damage doesn't even have to "show up" in anyway. Dealing damage is enough, even though it didn't had any visible impact on game. For example, if you attack with Storm Crow equipped with Quietus Spike and defending player is at 1 life and controls Fortune Thief, you still get the Quietus Spike trigger , because Storm Crow dealt that one damage even though it didn't have any visible impact.
Quietus Spike triggers whenever equipped creature deals combat damage to a player. It doesn't matter what that damage does. In your example Blighted Agent's damage causes defending player to get a poison counter and in my example Storm Crow's damage doesn't cause anything, but in both cases they deal combat damage to a player and that's all that Quietus Spike cares about.
Epochalyptik says... Accepted answer #1
Nothing special would happen beyond Blighted Agent's unblockability practically guaranteeing a Quietus Spike trigger. Quietus Spike'a ability doesn't deal damage, so it doesn't matter whether the equipped creature has any damage-related abilities.
March 31, 2017 11:23 a.m.