Does exchanging life totals count as "gaining" life?

Asked by mathemagic314 5 years ago

I'm specifically curious about the interaction with Tainted Remedy and Axis of Mortality. Say I'm at 20 life and my opponent is at 10. When we exchange totals, mine will become 10, does my opponent drop to 0 or switch to 20?

Rhadamanthus says... Accepted answer #1

Yes. When exchanging life totals, each player gains or loses the appropriate amount of life to set to the new total. This is covered in one of the rulings notes on Axis of Mortality's Gatherer page:

9/29/2017
When the life totals are exchanged, each player gains or loses the amount of life necessary to equal the other player’s previous life total. For example, if player A has 5 life and player B has 3 life before the exchange, player A will lose 2 life and player B will gain 2 life. Replacement effects may modify these gains and losses, and triggered abilities may trigger on them.

Your example plays out the way you describe it.

June 5, 2018 1:10 a.m.

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