Negative life?

Asked by Loonmoon18 5 years ago

So, with Platinum Angel, does your life go to zero or is truly negative? If someone can provide the ruling that proves it too that would be great. I've seen people say both. Because one way is easier than the other to get your life back just in case it leaves play.

FancyTuesday says... #1

Your life total goes negative. There's no lower bound to life total, and there's no state based action that automatically sets your life to 0 if your life total is less than 0.

May 22, 2018 6:16 p.m. Edited.

Caerwyn says... Accepted answer #2

The correct answers is your life total becomes negative, but my brief search through the comprehensive rules provided no direct statement to this effect.

But let's look at Platinum Angel's rulings, specifically this one:

No game effect can cause you to lose the game or cause any opponent to win the game while you control Platinum Angel. It doesn’t matter whether you have 0 or less life, you’re forced to draw a card while your library is empty, you have ten or more poison counters, you’re dealt combat damage by Phage the Untouchable, your opponent has Mortal Combat with twenty or more creature cards in their graveyard, or so on. You keep playing.

Please note the bold portion--this clearly states you can have 0 or less life.

May 22, 2018 6:22 p.m.

Loonmoon18 says... #3

cdkime and FancyTuesday, I see. It's more of to dig yourself out of the hole later with life gain. Also, if you play Lich how does that work? Lich's Oracle text says you lose life equal to your life total. Say if you're at -6, since it's a double negative would you go to 0?

May 22, 2018 6:38 p.m.

Gidgetimer says... #4

107.1b Most of the time, the Magic game uses only positive numbers and zero. You can’t choose a negative number, deal negative damage, gain negative life, and so on. However, it’s possible for a game value, such as a creature’s power, to be less than zero. If a calculation or comparison needs to use a negative value, it does so. If a calculation that would determine the result of an effect yields a negative number, zero is used instead, unless that effect doubles or sets to a specific value a player’s life total or a creature’s power and/or toughness.

May 22, 2018 6:42 p.m.