Is it and endless killing loop? Coalhauler Swine + Pariah
Asked by Barryn 9 years ago
We ran into this situation: I have a coalhauler swine with a pariah on it, and a shock(or whatever else) deals damage to it. Does it create and endless loop of damage, or when damage circle reaches 4 (the toughness of my creature), the pig goes to graveyard?
hyperlocke says... Accepted answer #2
- You deal 2 damage to the enchanted Swine (2 damage marked on it).
- The Swine triggers. Thanks to Pariah, the ability "Coalhauler Swine deals 2 damage to your opponents and to itself" goes on the stack.
- It resolves. Your opponents are dealt 2 damage. The Swine has now 4 damage marked on it. The Swine's trigger condition is met.
- Before anyone gets priority (and before anything goes onto the stack), the game checks state-based abilities and sees the Swine with lethal damage marked on it. The Swine is put into your graveyard.
- The ability "Coalhauler Swine deals 2 damage to your opponents and to itself" goes onto the stack.
- It resolves. Your opponents are dealt 2 damage. The Swine isn't there anymore, so it can't deal damage to itself.
All in all, your opponents get 4 damage each. If you make the Swine indestructible (or just use Stuffy Doll), the process will alternate betwenn points 2 and 3 until your opponent is dead.
February 1, 2016 4:55 p.m.
The total damage to each player (other than yourself) is going to be capped at whatever the amount of health on Coalhauler Swine is, so make sure to buff it or make it indestructible. Might be kind of hard to set up before an opponent realizes what you're trying to do. If you have invincibility yourself (i.e. from Platinum Angel) or more health than you will lose (since you have to specify an amount of damage), you could dispense with Pariah for the cheaper Guilty Conscience.
February 1, 2016 9:58 p.m.
@wmarti185: You don't get to specify an amount of damage anywhere, as there are no may-abilities involved that allow anyone to end the cycle at will. As I mentioned above, the cycle will repeat until the controller of the Swine, all other players, or the Swine itself dies.
@hyperlocke: Where do you get the alteration between 2 and 3 damage from? If you didn't type that unintentionally, I must've missed something.
February 2, 2016 7:40 a.m.
hyperlocke says... #5
@BlueScope: I didn't mean points of damage, but the points 2 and 3 of the list above.
If you Shock an indestructible Coalhauler Swine with Pariah, the following will happen:
1) The Swine is dealt 2 damage. Its trigger condition is met.
2) State-based abilities are checked. The Swine might have lethal damage marked on it, but it's indestructible, so nothing happens. If your opponent has 0 life or less, he loses the game.
3) The ability "Coalhauler Swine deals 2 damage to your opponents and to itself" goes on the stack.
4) SBA check, (other spells/abilites resolve) then the ability resolves, goto 1.
February 2, 2016 12:14 p.m.
Ah, that makes a lot of sense of course... didn't read it that way :)
February 2, 2016 2:10 p.m.
of course you could somehow make it indestructible for a really cool combo... :)
BlueScope says... #1
Please link all cards relevant to your question:
Coalhauler Swine
Pariah
Shock
This indeed looks like an infinite loop - infinite until your Swine dies or your opponent(s) die.
In a multiplayer game, keep in mind that as soon as you die, all objects on the stack you control will be removed from the stack, meaning as soon as you die, no other player will get damage after that.
February 1, 2016 4:33 p.m.