Painful Quandary and Platinum Emperion interactions
Asked by griffstick 9 years ago
i have Painful Quandary and my opponent has Platinum Emperion, its his turn he has only one card in his hand, he tries to cast that spell, now he has no cards in his hand to use the discard choice for Painful Quandary so his only choice is to pay life does Platinum Emperion stop him from the other cost of Platinum Emperion? or does that player get to cast it and pay 0 life?
Rhadamanthus says... #2
So you know: in the construction "do A unless you do B", A is an effect and B is an optional cost. The reason this example works the way it does is because losing life is an effect of Painful Quandary's ability, and chosing to discard is an optional cost. Platinum Emperion doesn't have anything to do with discarding cards, so it doesn't restrict the choices you're allowed to make for Painful Quandary. I would stop you from saving any creatures from a Killing Wave, since in that case a life payment is the optional cost.
FancyTuesday says... Accepted answer #1
Platinum Emperion prevents you from paying life, it does not prevent you from choosing an effect that would cause you to lose life. They can choose (or be forced to choose, in this case) to not discard and Painful Quandary will attempt to make them lose 5 life, but it will have no effect because their life total cannot change.
Hatred would be an example of a card where you pay life, which is not the same as losing it.
From Gatherer:
October 7, 2015 2:59 a.m.