effects with combat damage to player
Asked by nismosean 9 years ago
This came up the other day and I wasn't sure how it would play out.
Player A attacked with a Giant Adephage. Then player B blocked with Heir of the Wilds.
Both creatures die and 5 of the damage tramples over to the player. The question is does the copy still get made or does the death touch remove the creature from the battle field before the effect hits the stack?
I guess it depends when cleanup happens and creatures with 0 toughness or destroyed creatures are removed from the battlefield.
Gidgetimer says... #2
Once an ability triggers it exists independently of its source. If the ability references a creature that is no longer on the battlefield when it resolves the last known information of that creature is used.
The exact order of things happening is:
Giant Adephage attacks.
Giant Adephage is blocked by Heir of the Wilds
Both creatures deal damage simultaneously.
Giant Adephage's ability triggers because it dealt some damage to the player and waits to be put on the stack.
SBA are checked before any players receive priority and destroy both creatures.
As soon as the active player receives priority all Giant Adephage's ability goes on the stack.
Once the ability resolves it uses the last known information and puts a token copy of Giant Adephage on to the field.
Epochalyptik says... Accepted answer #1
Combat damage is dealt simultaneously. Giant Adephage's ability will trigger, but it won't go onto the stack yet. State-based actions are then performed, and both creatures are destroyed. Then, Giant Adephage's ability is put onto the stack.
At this point, Giant Adephage is no longer on the battlefield, but that doesn't actually matter. The ability will create token copies based on Giant Adephage's last known information, or how it last existed on the battlefield.
Also, note that damage does NOT reduce toughness. Rather, damage is simply marked on creatures until the cleanup step, which is the very last step in the turn.
December 11, 2014 5:09 p.m.