Is taking damage the same as losing life?
Asked by DofusTal 13 years ago
So we were playing Archenemy and we had two decks that caused the enemy to lose life whenever they discarded a card. One said lose 2 life, the other said take 2 damage, and there was a scheme that said if you take 5 damage remove this scheme, would losing life count as the same as taking damage?
Damage is coming from external sources e.g. creatures, spells, triggered abilities while life loss source is from the player itself
June 24, 2011 11:44 p.m.
Non-Infect damage causes loss of life. But loss of life does not mean you've taken damage.
For example, you would not be able to use Safe Passage to protect for the life loss incurred by Sign in Blood .
June 25, 2011 8:59 a.m.
Opps Forgot.
If a card triggers by DAMAGE and not loss of life infect will also trigger it.
June 25, 2011 9:01 a.m.
Jarrod_0067 says... #6
Taking damage is a subset of losing life. It is a form of life loss that is pretty specific. Losing life could be from taking damage, but taking damage does not include losing life.
June 25, 2011 10:13 a.m.
It's a square/rectangle relationship. All damage is life loss but not all life loss is damage.
June 25, 2011 3:45 p.m.
xxxxxxCronoxxxxxx says... #8
not all damage is life loss any more due to infect
June 25, 2011 5:39 p.m.
SwiftDeath says... #9
all damage is life loss but life loss is not damage as such in the mechanic for m12 bloodthirst life lost dosen't cause bloodthirst to activate but damage does and @xxxxxxCronoxxxxxx infect states that "damage is dealt in the form of" so it is life loss as well for more info check out the mechanics of m12 on bloodthirst at:
http://www.wizards.com/magic/tcg/article.aspx?x=mtg/tcg/magic2012/mechanics
June 26, 2011 3:09 a.m.
SwiftDeath says... #10
sorry I misread the article infect is damage but not life loss sorry Crono my bad, but the article still has all the info you need.
June 26, 2011 3:13 a.m.
emblasochist says... #11
Siegfried's got it nearly right. All damage to a player causes life loss, excepting in extenuating circumstances, such as infect, but specifically, life loss and damage in terms of rules speak are not the same. Losing life is is always stated as life loss, typically as "loses x life" where x depends on the spell, ability or effect. Otherwise, damage is exactly that: damage, be it direct damage or combat damage.
It's important to note that if an effect refers to damage, such as bloodthirst, infect damage is capable of triggering such damage due to the fact that infect reads the source "deals damage in the form of poison counters."
I'm almost certain that if a source directly causes life loss, it can't be prevented, unless countered.
Siegfried says... Accepted answer #1
Damage counts as life loss (well, I think technically it CAUSES life loss, but that doesn't make much difference) but straight life loss does not count as damage. To be damage, it has to come from a creature attacking or an effect that specifically states the word "damage".
June 24, 2011 11:39 p.m.