Do the abilities for Essence Sliver and Syphon Sliver stack?
Asked by timschil 8 years ago
I am having a discussion with my friends during an EDH match and I argued that each of my slivers gained life twice due to the stacking ability of Essence Sliver and the static ability of Syphon Sliver
The Second part of my question, if I have Bonescythe Sliver on the board with Syphon Sliver and Essence Sliver would be gaining life 4 times the power of my sliver that attacks? Example i attack with a 2/2 sliver with the three on the board. I would gain 8 life?
First one: Yes, Essence has a triggered ability, while the other is a static one, they operate at different times and are NOT identical. However, essence's ability is the progenitor of the keyword lifelink.
Second one: Yes, same reasons as above.
March 2, 2016 10:40 a.m.
Follow up to this, if my 2/2 sliver with doublestrike and lifelink is blocked by 2/2 creature, the first strike would kill the creature and I would gain the life from dealing the damage to the creature. If the creature dies due to the damage would my regular combat damage then still be dealt to the creature causing me to gain the life again? Shortform, am I still dealing damage to a dead creature?
March 2, 2016 10:51 a.m.
Rhadamanthus says... #4
A creature that isn't in combat can't be dealt combat damage, so a creature that isn't even on the battlefield anymore definitely can't be dealt combat damage. You won't gain more life if the blocker died in the first strike damage step.
March 2, 2016 10:53 a.m.
But my damage won't go through to the player, unless the creature has trample
March 2, 2016 10:57 a.m.
Rhadamanthus says... #6
Right, if the creature has trample then you're allowed to assign damage to the defending player.
Rhadamanthus says... Accepted answer #1
You're right on both counts.
Multiple instances of lifelink won't "stack", but that's not what's going on here. Syphon Sliver gives lifelink but Essence Sliver gives a triggered ability that works independently of lifelink. I just noticed that the Oracle text shown on Essence Sliver's page in TappedOut is incorrect (TappedOut thinks it does give lifelink, which is wrong), so I'll submit a fix for it.
Your math for the situation with Bonescythe Sliver works out. 2x damage and 2x life gives a total of 4x.
March 2, 2016 10:39 a.m.