Responding to a sacrifice with a sacrifice?
Asked by MetaSavant 9 years ago
I wasn't sure how to word my question, so here is my example: I have a Death Cultist and a Viscera Seer on the field. I activate Viscera Seer's ability and choose Death Cultist to be the Sacrificed creature. If I activate Death Cultist's self-sacrifice ability, steal the 1 life, and Death Cultist dies in response to Viscera Seer's ability, does V Seer's ability still activate and I get to Scry 1? Or does the ability fizzle because the sacrificed creature is already dead?
MetaSavant says... #2
That's what I figured, but I thought it would be worth asking. Thank you!
June 19, 2015 2:31 p.m.
Another way to think about this is that anything you do as a cost happens immediately as part of the payment. In this case sacrificing the Cultist is a cost for both abilities, so you can't pay it twice.
However, there are other cases where you can "double-dip" on sacrifices. For instance, if you were to evoke a Shriekmaw with Viscera Seer in play, you'd be able to sac it to scry 1 while its self-sacrifice trigger is on the stack, thus netting some extra value out of your removal spell.
Just thought I'd add that.
JWiley129 says... Accepted answer #1
Please link all cards in your question: Viscera Seer, Death Cultist.
The answer is no, you can't double-dip on sacrifice. And in the scenario you describe, if you activate Viscera Seer's ability and sacrifice Death Cultist the cultist will be in the graveyard when the ability to "Scry 1" is on the stack. So the Death Cultist isn't even there to be sacrificed.
June 19, 2015 2:22 p.m.