If I play a sliver with life link and a sliver where I gain life when it deals damage with I get the life from life link plus the life the other sliver or is it life link and the other silver ?
Asked by gotzskillz 11 years ago
I played a silver with life link and the other silver and I was not sure if it added up.
Stygian333 says... #2
Sliver's share their abilities, but lifelink no longer stacks. Lifelink is the new keyword for the longer phrase "whenever this creature deals damage gain that much life." They are, in fact, the same ability. Because lifelink doesn't stack, you gain life equal to the power of your damage dealing slivers.
November 19, 2013 9:22 a.m.
Absinthman says... #3
@Stygian333: That's incorrect. Lifelink doesn't replace the "whenever deals damage, gain that much life". This ability has been retired, yes, and newer cards are printed with lifelink instead. But older cards were kept with their original triggered ability. Exalted Angel 's ability for example, hasn't been changed to lifelink.
November 19, 2013 9:31 a.m.
Stygian333 says... #4
I know. I said they use lifelink as the new keyword to replace that long phrase, and mechanically, they both do the same thing. the details of lifelink is exactly what the old ability says. I thought the reason for confusion in the first place was that they were not seen as equal. When people see two creatures with the same ability, they more easily negotiate these tricky stacks, but I was just clarifying that as far as the rules care, they're almost the same, and they won't stack. You're correct that nothing is retroactively altered, but that doesn't detract at all from me saying they're basically doing the same thing. Lifelink IS the new single word that R&D will always use instead of the old "Whenever deals damage, gain that much life."
November 19, 2013 9:36 a.m.
Absinthman says... #5
The problem is that they do NOT function in the same way.
Lifelink is a static ability that makes you gain life as your creature deals damage. This happens at the same time, meaning that if for example you were at 5 life and were attacked by two 5/5 creatures one of which you would block with a 1/1 lifelink, you would take 5 damage from the unblocked one at the same time when you would gain 1 life from your lifelink, netting only 4 damage and staying alive.
However, the "whenever deals..." ability with the old wording is a triggered ability which uses the stack, meaning that if the same scenario as above happened, but your blocker had that ability instead of lifelink, you would be dealt 5 damage, and before the life gaining ability would be put onto the stack, you would lose the game during the state-based action check for having 0 or less life.
November 19, 2013 9:44 a.m.
Stygian333 is correct. Lifelink is the new keyword for gaining life when you deal damage, but they have not changed the text of older cards to have lifelink. Lifelink doesn't stack, although those older, un-errata-ed versions will. So, yes, both a Syphon Sliver and an Essence Sliver would work at the same time, gaining you double life. Extra Syphon Sliver s wouldn't help, but two or more Essence Sliver s would.
Does that help?
November 19, 2013 9:45 a.m.
Absinthman says... #7
@twospires: Lifelink is not a keyword that represents the old ability. They are two different abilities, because as I have said, one of them is static (lifelink), the other is triggered. The reminder text of lifelink is also worded to reflect that.
November 19, 2013 9:58 a.m.
firerunner36 says... #8
Just gonna point out that both have the errata of lifelink, but for the other ability another thing that makes it different is that if ,for example, you put Armadillo Cloak on an opponents creature you would gain the life instead of them whereas the 'reprinted' version Unflinching Courage ,which has lifelink (which says controller), they would gain the life.
November 19, 2013 10:10 a.m.
gotzskillz says... #9
Okay so let me get this straight. I would get the life from one Syphon Sliver . But I would get life double triple or even quadruple from essence sliver? Now if I do damage from a sliver to a wall but does not destroy the wall will I gain that life ?
November 19, 2013 10:16 a.m.
vampirelazarus says... #10
You will gain life from both abilities. Absinthman is correct throughout this whole thread. Others are slightly right.
For example, say your sliver did four damage. You will gain four life from the lifelink, then four life from the "whenever this creature deals damage, you gain that much life" effect.
November 19, 2013 10:28 a.m.
gotzskillz says... #11
From 1 Syphon Sliver not all of them or how ever many i have in play? Now can someone answer my question from my last comment please ?
November 19, 2013 10:36 a.m.
Absinthman is absolutely right. The best example of this is a Rules Challenge posted by KrazyCaley a while ago titled Rhox Faithmender and Armadillo Cloak.
November 19, 2013 10:42 a.m.
vampirelazarus says... #13
All your slivers have the ability to gain life, and life link. If any of those slivers deal damage, you will gain that life twice.
Two slivers, each dealing four damage will result in 16 life being gained.
Three slivers, each dealing four damage will result in 24 life being gained
Four, 32.
Five, 40
November 19, 2013 10:48 a.m.
Epochalyptik says... #14
Absinthman is correct in this case.
Stygian333,twospires, and firerunner36 are all wrong.
Syphon Sliver grants lifelink. It doesn't matter how many instances of lifelink your Slivers have, they are redundant after the first instance. You will only gain life from one instance of lifelink.
Essence Sliver has a triggered ability that it doesn't grant to other Slivers. Because this ability is a triggered ability, each Essence Sliver will have its own instance of the ability, and each one's ability will trigger for any relevant damage event.
Now, you gain life from both abilities regardless of how much damage is done, and regardless of whether a damaged creature is destroyed.
November 19, 2013 11:01 a.m.
DubstepIsEsperEsperEsper says... #15
Epochalyptik, Essence Sliver reads as follows: "Whenever a Sliver deals damage, its controller gains that much life" That was a c/p right off of Gatherer, so I presume you misread things.
November 19, 2013 11:58 a.m.
Epochalyptik says... #16
@DubstepIsEsperEsperEsper: What did I misread?
Essence Sliver doesn't grant any abilities to other Slivers. The ability remains native to Essence Sliver and triggers whenever Essence Sliver or another Sliver deals damage.
If it granted the ability to other Slivers, it would need to be worded "Whenever this permanent deals damage, its controller gains that much life." Otherwise, it would lead to exponential triggering.
November 19, 2013 noon
DubstepIsEsperEsperEsper says... #17
Epochalyptik OH! I see what you're saying now! Good catch!
November 19, 2013 12:17 p.m.
nobu_the_bard says... #18
Haha, this turned into a pretty interesting discussion. Don't forget to choose the person who gave the best answer!
November 19, 2013 12:32 p.m.
As I was reading I was wondering when people would catch on. took longer than I thought lol.
November 19, 2013 12:34 p.m.
It's not that interesting of a discussion. Most people know the difference between Spirit Link and Lifelink , and there were 2 people who don't.
Absinthman says... Accepted answer #1
I assume you're talking about Syphon Sliver and Essence Sliver .
Yes indeed. According to Gatherer, the text on Essence Sliver hasn't been changed to give it lifelink. Its wording is still the same, so he gives all slvers a triggered ability that's different from lifelink. Both will work separately.
Next time, please link the cards in question. It makes answering a lot easier.
November 19, 2013 9:22 a.m.