"Cleanup" after combat damage?

Asked by WalzY 12 years ago

My friend had some extort creatures on the battlefield, and I attacked with some creatures. He blocked with some of his creatures with extort, combat damage was dealt, and his creatures died. He then asked, "so can I play executioner's swing post-combat damage, and use the extort creatures that died to extort with my executioner's swing? i think there's a cleanup step after and the creatures haven't gone to the graveyard yet?"

I said no, because I believe once all the combat damage is dealt, the creatures go straight to the graveyard, and any triggers activated by creatures death go on the stack/get resolved until the stack is cleared. So I believe unless the creature has undying and comes back as a new entity with a +1/+1 counter, then he won't be able to use the extort ability on the now-dead creature.

Can someone help me here?

Epochalyptik says... Accepted answer #1

You were correct (although you should note that triggered abilities trigger rather than activate; the difference is important).

Creatures with lethal damage marked on them are destroyed as a state-based action. Therefore, combat damage is assigned and dealt, then creatures are destroyed (and other relevant state-based actions occur), then players place onto the stack any triggered abilities that triggered since the last time a player received priority, then the active player receives priority. Your opponent won't be able to cast anything until after all the creatures have died.

April 16, 2013 12:40 a.m.