Lethal Damage, Sacrifice Instead
Asked by nochance229 14 years ago
I have Basal Sliver , Heart Sliver , Sliver Queen , and Psionic Sliver on the field.
Can I do an infinite ping combo with this by making a token with Sliver Queen , tapping it to do damage with Psionic Sliver with it having haste from Heart Sliver and then, before it dies from lethal damage, sacrificing it for Basal Sliver to make two mana for a new token from Sliver Queen ?
I don't think so. I believe either your sacrifice occurs before either of the damages from the Psionic Sliver 's ability resolves, or the damage hits your token before the sacrifice (probably the former).
May 19, 2011 5:46 p.m.
lukemwillis says... #3
I take it back. You can activate an ability and then sacrifice a creature (for whatever reason), but in this case you can't because the ability reads "this creature deals... damage." The creature has to be there in order to deal the damage. And you can't sacrifice it in response to lethal damage being dealt (or other state based effects for that matter).
May 19, 2011 5:51 p.m.
Yes, this will work. Abilities on the stack exist independent from their source, and any part of an ability that can't be carried out is simply ignored. So; the new slivers you bring in will put their damage dealing ability on the stack. After that, you can sacrifice them with Basal (which is a mana ability so doesn't go on the stack and resolves immediately). End result, the damage dealing ability will deal 2 damage to your target and try to deal 3 damage to a sliver that doesn't exist, which it can't, so it won't. You will also have BB floating in your mana pool.
May 19, 2011 5:52 p.m.
Yes, the only reason this would not work is if Basaal Sliver's ability was a tap ability. But seeing as it isn't you can easily activate it whenever you like. Another mean sliver to add to this is Essence Sliver . Seeing as it has been ruled as Lifelink any and all damage it does goes to your life total.
lukemwillis says... #1
I believe you could do this.
by tapping your sliver token to deal damage, you are putting the ability on the stack, then you could sacrifice the token to gain 2 mana before the ability resolves. The abilities should exist on the stack separate from their sources, and you could still pay all of the costs, so I would say yes.
May 19, 2011 5:41 p.m.