Can you avoid sacrificing Helm of Obedience with Brago?
Asked by MrAndersenX 3 years ago
If I dealt combat damage with Brago, King Eternal and in response to the blink triggers activated Helm of Obedience, could I get the creature card out and then blink Helm of Obedience to avoid sacrificing it?
Tylord2894 says... Accepted answer #2
No, you can not use Brago, King Eternal to avoid the sacrifice clause on Helm of Obedience.
There are a couple issues here. First, once you start to resolve the Helm activation, you have to completely resolve it. In other words, there isn't a time where you can respond if you see a creature being milled. However, if you blink Helm, it won't get sacrificed. Once the Helm re-enters the battlefield. It is a new object and isn't tied to its past existence.
This is the other issue. The blink effect needs to resolve before the Helm activation. Since you can't respond between Brago dealing damage and his trigger being put onto the stack, you can't put Brago's trigger on top of the Helm activation.
Hope this helps!!
August 23, 2020 7:02 p.m.
While the above explanation is entirely correct, it is still possible to use Brago, King Eternal to avoid sacrificing Helm of Obedience, because Magic is a complicated game and those two points can be worked around. Your initial setup is correct, deal damage with Brago and respond by activating Helm of Obedience, however, you need to blink the Helm before you see whether you get a creature. This is easy with something like Ghostly Flicker, but using Brago is a bit trickier. We can still do this by copying the trigger by activating a Strionic Resonator and choosing Helm of Obedience as a target for the new copy of Brago's ability. The Helm will return and is no longer considered the same one that had the ability activated, so when your opponent mills, if they hit a creature, you'll get the creature and not have to sacrifice anything.
10/1/2008 You put the creature card onto the battlefield even if you can't sacrifice Helm of Obedience (because it's left the battlefield by the time its ability resolves, for example).
Gidgetimer says... #1
No, Sacrificing the Helm of Obedience is part of its ability resolving and it will be sacrificed before the Brago trigger resolves.
August 23, 2020 6:56 p.m.