Drogskol reaver's ability
Asked by Syinide 13 years ago
So I was at FNM today and ran into this situation.
My friend attacked with Drogskol Reaver and 2x sorin vampire lifelink tokens.
Drogskol Reavers ability states that whenever you gain life you draw a card.
He said that his ability triggers everytime you gain life.
So here's the situation, he attacks with the reaver and 2 sorin lifelink tokens. They go unblocked. Therefore he gains life from combat damage being dealt twice. First strike combat damage hits, he gains 3 and draws a card. Regular combat damage is then dealt, sorin tokens and reaver second hit.
He would then draw 1 card or 3? He says he gets to draw 3 because of 3 seperate lifelink triggers going off for his ability even though combat damage all goes through at once, not seperately.
I personally disagree with that. I believe he would get to draw once from first strike damage and once more from main combat damage.
So who is right?
Ohthenoises says... #2
Actually Kor you are wrong. From the oracle text on gatherer.wizards.com
1/22/2011 If multiple creatures with lifelink you control deal combat damage at the same time, the damage dealt by each of those creatures is a separate life-gaining event and Drogskol Reaver's ability will trigger that many times.
March 31, 2012 7:50 a.m.
hunter9000 says... #3
He gets 4 cards total, 2 from the Reaver, and one each from the tokens. Like Ohthenoises said, each life-gain event is separate, and each will trigger the Reaver's ability.
March 31, 2012 9:16 a.m.
rckclimber777 says... Accepted answer #4
Yes he gains the life all in one shot (except in the case of drogskol reaver), but its gaining life from a source that happens in each case. So each one causes a gaining of life. While they all occur simultaneously, they are still individual events as noted by Ohthenoises oracle quote.
So your opponent obviously draws a card after the first strike step since drogskol causes you to gain life.
Then the second damage step rolls on and he draws 3 more cards. For a total of 4 cards. Not a bad combat step for him.
March 31, 2012 10:03 a.m.
Ohthenoises says... #5
I only remember this because of Cradle of Vitality . In the above example you wouldn't be able to pay only 2 mana and drop +5/+5 on a creature (using the above example as a basis) you would have to pay for each source (6 in this case).
March 31, 2012 11:36 a.m.
KorApprentice says... #6
Apologies, it was 3 am here when I posted that. I told myself to check the Gatherer on Drogskol Reaver, but I was just trying to give a quick answer and crawl into bed.
KorApprentice says... #1
You are correct in this situation. Lifelink is a static ability, not a triggered ability. Damage in the regular combat damage phase (and in the first strike combat phase as well) is dealt simultaneously, meaning he would gain a total of 5 life at once, netting him one card. From the MTG Comprehensive Rulebook on Lifelink:
702.14a Lifelink is a static ability.
702.14b Damage dealt by a source with lifelink causes that sources controller, or its owner if it has no controller, to gain that much life (in addition to any other results that damage causes). See rule 119.3.
Because it is not triggered, he is not gaining life 3 times. If they said "Whenever [this creature] deals damage, you gain that much life" without having the lifelink ability, like Mourning Thrull
, then it would trigger and use the stack and he would gain life three times. But that is not the case here, in this scenario he would draw a total of 2 cards between first strike and regular combat damage.
March 31, 2012 5:34 a.m.