How many instances of life gain?

Asked by wereotter 5 years ago

Specifically I'm looking at the interaction between Firesong and Sunspeaker and Brightflame.

Let's pose a scenario where I target a creature with Brightflame for X=3, and there are 4 other creatures in play that share a color with the creature I targeted. So I will be dealing 3 life linking damage to 5 creatures for a total of 15 damage, and the spell also instructs me to gain life equal to the damage, so gain 15 life.

However, my question is when the spell resolves have I gained 3 life 5 times and 15 life once for a total of 6 3-damage triggers from Firesong and Sunspeaker or did I gain 15 life twice for two 3-damage triggers?

Neotrup says... Accepted answer #1

You dealt 5 damage to 3 creautures, which caused you to gain 15 life. Then you gained 15 life. That's two instances of life gain. This is because the damage is all one instruction ("deals X damage" only appears once). That's two triggers for Firesong and Sunspeaker.

May 19, 2018 noon

wereotter says... #2

But I'm dealing x damage to multiple creatures and all those separate damage triggers each have lifelink, which is why I question if I actually gained like 6 times as opposed to 2. I'm not saying your answer is wrong, but do you have any rulings backing that up? I wasn't able to find any.

May 19, 2018 4:22 p.m.

Neotrup says... #3

Where did you look? Gatherer should always be the first place you check.

4/27/2018: If a red and white spell you control deals damage to multiple things using the word "deals" only once, Firesong and Sunspeaker's last ability triggers only once. Similarly, if a red and white spell’s effect causes it to deal damage to one thing and then deal more damage with a second instance of the word "deals," Firesong and Sunspeaker’s last ability triggers twice, and so on.

May 19, 2018 5:34 p.m.

DankStompy says... #4

dealing damage to multiple targets =/= dealing damage multiple times if all the damage is from the same source.

May 19, 2018 5:38 p.m.

wereotter says... #5

Oh thanks! They must have updated Gatherer since I first started brewing cards for their deck as that wasn't there before, so I didn't think to check again now. I had a similar issue trying to find an answer to how Riot Control and Paraselene triggered off them, and eventually someone at Wizards stated there wasn't an official ruling yet but they only gained you life once.

May 19, 2018 6:13 p.m.

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