Harvester of Souls and multiple creatures, board wipe
Asked by Bobgalarneau 12 years ago
A simple one but i can't find the exact ruling for it. If. Control Harvester of Souls and 3 other non-token creatures, my opponent cast Damnation. My friend has been arguing that he can chose the order in wich my creatures are killed and so, Harvester of Souls is killed first, making me draw no card. I'm sure it's wrong, is it?
Absinthman says... Accepted answer #2
Actually the creatures don't go into the graveyard in any particular order, they all enter it at the same time, triggering Harvester of souls ability as many times as is the number of nontoken creatures that died. Here's an example part of article 603.6d of the Comprehensive Rules that illustrates similar situation:
Example: Two creatures are on the battlefield along with an artifact that has the ability Whenever a creature dies, you gain 1 life. Someone plays a spell that destroys all artifacts, creatures, and enchantments. The artifacts ability triggers twice, even though the artifact goes to its owners graveyard at the same time as the creatures.
March 1, 2013 11:10 a.m.
Rhadamanthus says... #4
As has been said before, the creatures all go to the graveyard at the same time. The only "order" a player can choose is the physical position of those cards in the graveyard when they get there.
A "dies" trigger is a special kind of "leaves the battlefield" trigger, and that type of trigger triggers from the battlefield and uses the last known information about how things existed on the battlefield. For this reason, Harvester of Souls will see all the other creatures that died at the same time he did, and will trigger for each one.
Remula says... #1
If multiple creatures enter or exit the battlefield at the same time, they will all see each other do so, triggering all appropriate affects for one another. The death of your Harvester of Souls will result in you drawing one card for each of your other nontoken creatures.
In addition, based on your wording, I feel the need to point out to you that you'll also trigger Harvester's effect for each creature other players in the game control as well, since its triggered condition is not limited to your own.
March 1, 2013 11:05 a.m.