Indestructible... How does it work?

Asked by TheWeepingWillow 10 years ago

OK so there has been some debate among my friends on how indestructible works.Basically we understand that any cards that say destroy wont affect them. The debate comes with lethal damage. What effect does lethal damage have on indestructible cards?

Also just out of curiosity, so that we can fully understand the cards, what can and can't kill an indestructible?

Thanks!

Rhadamanthus says... Accepted answer #1

Two different types of thing can destroy an object:

  1. An effect that specifically says "destroy"
  2. Lethal damage

Indestructibility stops these things and only these things. Anything else is fair game.

August 5, 2015 11:41 p.m.

nobu_the_bard says... #2

To expand further - a creature with zero or less toughness is put into the graveyard as a state-based action. It's not a destruction effect and doesn't have anything to do with damage (which is marked on the card - it doesn't actually reduce toughness, despite how the videogame versions usually depict it). Tragic Slip can cause an indestructible 1/1 to be put into a graveyard because it will have zero toughness.

I see this confuse a lot of people so I thought I'd mention it.

August 6, 2015 10:37 a.m.

FancyTuesday says... #3

Not really anything that hasn't been said already, but here it is in long form:

Indestructibility is a static ability that allows a card to ignore effects that would destroy it. Those effects are as follows:

  • Any effect that says destroy
  • Having lethal damage marked on it
  • Having any damage marked on it from a source with deathtouch (technically, lethal damage)

Note that the damage still isn't removed from the permanent until the cleanup step and they still take and must be assigned damage as normal, so if it loses indestructibility before then it will be destroyed.

If you're looking for a list of effects that get rid of permanents with indestructibility, here's everything that comes to mind:

  • Having 0 or less toughness (creatures)
  • Having 0 loyalty counters (Planeswalkers)
  • The Legend rule (all permanents)
  • The Planeswalker Uniqueness rule (Planeswalkers)
  • The World rule (world enchantments)
  • Not being attached to a valid target (auras)
  • Effects that instruct a target to change zones that do not say destroy, such as:
    • Exile
    • Sacrifice
    • Returning to hand
    • Being put into/on top/on the bottom of the library
August 6, 2015 1:30 p.m. Edited.

pskinn01 says... #4

The MTG rules states:
702.12. Indestructible

702.12a Indestructible is a static ability.
702.12b A permanent with indestructible cant be destroyed. Such permanents arent destroyed by lethal damage, and they ignore the state-based action that checks for lethal damage (see rule 704.5g).
702.12c Multiple instances of indestructible on the same permanent are redundant.

As Rhadamanthus said, spells or abilities that say destroy are prevented, and lethal damage can't kill them as it is ignored. All other ways to remove permanents are still viable such as reducing toughness to less than though negative counters and/or abilities such as Dismember

August 6, 2015 7:17 p.m.

sonnet666 says... #5

@FancyTuesday: Unrelated, but how did you get that smaller font for the parentheses? I haven't seen that before on here.

August 6, 2015 9:01 p.m.

FancyTuesday says... #6

@sonnet666: By using the font size tag:

<small> </small>If you ever wanna see how something on the site is done just check out the source by right clicking the element in question and inspecting it.

August 7, 2015 2:48 a.m.

This discussion has been closed