How do the triggers stack on the Sharuum the Hegemon-clone combo?
Asked by JWiley129 11 years ago
I understand that the combo goes something like this: Have Disciple of the Vault and Sharuum the Hegemon on the battlefield, cast a Clone copying Sharuum, one Sharuum is sent to the graveyard and starts an infinite loop killing all who stand in your way.
My confusion is whether the state-based action of Sharuum going to the graveyard happens before the Clone-Sharuum's trigger resolves or if it happens afterwards. Could someone please clear this up?
Rhadamanthus says... #2
State-based actions are checked and executed right before a player would get priority, and triggered abilities are put onto the stack the next time a player gets priority. In your example, the Legend Rule sends the original Sharuum the Hegemon to the graveyard, then the copy's ETB trigger and the Disciple of the Vault trigger are put onto the stack (you get to choose what order since you control them both). You choose targets for triggered abilities at the time they're put onto the stack, so the dead Sharuum is a legal target to be returned to the battlefield. After it's returned to the battlefield, the process starts all over again. You keep going until the game ends because all your opponents have dropped to 0 life.
November 20, 2013 8:11 p.m.
Thanks Epochalyptik. And I knew that the actual Sharuum the Hegemon would need to be put into the graveyard, unless I used something like Phyrexian Metamorph which is already an artifact.
Epochalyptik says... Accepted answer #1
State-based actions are always performed before triggered abilities are put onto the stack. Therefore, this combo works - Sharuum the Hegemon will be in your graveyard by the time you have to pick targets for its ability.
Note, however, that you must choose for the actual Sharuum the Hegemon to die because the ability only targets artifacts. Clone will not be an artifact while in the graveyard.
November 20, 2013 8:08 p.m.