How does unpreventable damage work?
Asked by xKonrad 12 years ago
With a card such as Leyline of Punishment can creatures still block damage, or does it act as though the creature was unblock able. Also would Avacyn, Angel of Hope and Empyrial Archangel be able to work together to nullify damage if a card like Leyline of Punishment was in play?
Blocked creatures always deal their damage to their blockers, they will only be able to assign damage to a player if they have Trample or Thorn Elemental 's ability. If the blockers are somehow removed from combat before damage is dealt, then no damage will be dealt.
Empyrial Archangel 's ability is simply a replacement effect that redirects the damage to her, so Leyline of Punishment doesn't really affect anything in this scenario. Keep in mind that damage is still marked on the Archangel, so if Avacyn is removed, your archangel could die from lethal damage.
As a rule of thumb, Leyline of Punishment only really works where the cards actually say that damage is prevented, such as Fog Bank and Fog effects. The leyline also stops "Protection from Whatever" preventing damage. That Kor Firewalker will take damage from your Pyroclasm with the leyline in play
March 24, 2013 1:58 p.m.
GreatSword says... #3
Alright, there's a lot we need to clarify here.
"Preventing Damage" comes from something like Safe Passage or Protection from X. Effects and abilities like that actually prevent the damage from ever being marked on the creature.
"Indestructibility" prevents a creature from being destroyed, either from "destroy" effects like Doom Blade or lethal damage. The damage is still marked on the creature, it just isn't destroyed, because it has Indestructibility.
So, with Leyline of Punishment out, creatures can still block, because that's not considered "damage prevention" (which prevents damage from being marked on creatures / affecting players).
Yes, your Angel combo above will still work with the Leyline out, again because no damage is being prevented there.
Absinthman says... Accepted answer #1
First of all, if you block attackers with creatures, it is not considered that the damage to you was prevented. The damage will simply be dealt to creatures that you assigned to block. "Damage can't be prevented" means that effects that say "prevent damage" don't work, and also that the damage preventing aspect of "protection from X" doesn't work. So for the first part of your question: Blocing still works as normal.
"Indestructible" is not damage prevention. It means that lethal damage and "destroy" effects will not cause the permanent to die. Empyrial Archangel 's ability is not a damage prevention ability either. It is a replacement effect that replaced the event of damage being dealt to you with the event of damage being dealt to the Archangel. Taking into account all of the above, the combination of Avacyn, Angel of Hope and Empyrial Archangel will indeed create a situatuion where all damage that would be dealt to you will be dealt to the Archangel instead, and because its indestructible, it will not cause it to die regardless of the amount of damage being dealt to it.
March 24, 2013 1:53 p.m.