Does Varina, Lich Queen work with Zombie Infestation ?
Asked by fraegi 5 years ago
Does the discard effect of Varina, Lich Queen trigger Zombie Infestation? My guess is not, since I would be "paying" two things simultaneously with the discard, but I could'nt find a definitive answer :-)
Varina's discard will only work for triggered abilities, which always have "when," "whenever," or "at" in them, such as the example cdkime gave.
Zombie Infestation's discard is the cost of an activated ability (always formatted as "cost": "effect") and thus must be specifically paid and won't be covered by other effects doing the same thing. It's the same for activated abilities where the cost is something like "Pay 2 life." You don't get the effect just because you lost two life in a round. You must specifically pay that life.
August 31, 2018 3:53 p.m.
Gidgetimer says... #4
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September 3, 2018 12:34 p.m.
Would it work in the sense of drawing the cards, and discarding them to Zombie Infestation instead of Varina?
February 7, 2019 11:59 a.m.
Meshuvel - you will not be able to do that. You cannot pay costs in the middle of a spell or ability resolving (except if the spell or ability specifically states you may pay a cost, such as Mana Leak 's payment of ). There is no gap between Varina, Lich Queen 's "draw that many cards" and "discard that many cards" during which you would be able to pay the "Discard two cards" of Zombie Infestation 's activated ability's cost.
Caerwyn says... Accepted answer #1
This does not work. Zombie Infestation requires you to discard two cards as a cost--which means you have to specifically discard the cards for the express purpose of paying Zombie Infestation's cost. This cost must be paid for the ability to work--just because an event similar to the occurs does not mean the event occurred for the sake of paying the cost.
For the ability to work as you want, Zombie Infestation would have to read "whenever you discard two or more cards, put a 2/2 black Zombie creature token onto the battlefield.
August 31, 2018 2:30 p.m. Edited.