Tokens entering the battlefield with pump effects active and warstorm surge?
Asked by runelord 5 years ago
If I have Warstorm Surge, Cathars' Crusade, and Intangible Virtue out and I create 3 1/1 tokens how much damage does the surge do?
would it matter if the tokens are created simultaneously by something like Spectral Procession? would that cause surge to trigger three times with each token at 5?
June 23, 2018 8:02 p.m.
FancyTuesday says... Accepted answer #3
I'm sorry, I handled Cathars' Crusade wrong. Was thinking of an easier to work with ability, this one's gonna need a bit more explaining.
So Cathars' Crusade triggers for every creature entering the battlefield (under your control). Each trigger resolves individually, and all creatures you control get a +1/+1 counter for every Crusade trigger that resolves. That includes the creature that triggered the ability to go off. So if 3 tokens enter the battlefield simultaneously they all benefit from every trigger. If they enter one after the other they only benefit from their own and future triggers.
3 1/1s simultaneously: 3 5/5s, 5 damage each
3 1/1s sequentially: 3/3, 4/4, 5/5, 3 damage each because that's their power when Warstorm Surge's ability resolves
June 23, 2018 8:12 p.m. Edited.
FancyTuesday says... #4
I should say that when I say "sequentially" above I mean allowing everything to resolve, then doing something that adds another token to the battlefield. It is possible, though perhaps a little silly, to respond to triggers in such a way that mixes that up.
For example, if you have Sprout Swarm and keep casting it in response to Cathars' Crusade resolving before the Warstorm Surge trigger does you can get a situation where you do 5, 4, then 3 damage. The important principle here is that Warstorm Surge calculates damage when the ability resolves, not when it goes on the stack, so anything you do to affect a creature's power before it resolves will affect how much damage it does.
Also of note is the fact that the creature does the damage, not Warstorm Surge, which is a minor detail correction of the original question. This allows things like deathtouch and lifelink to interact with Warstorm Surge, and also factors in a number of other complicating factors like protections as regards the creature dealing damage.
June 23, 2018 8:25 p.m. Edited.
gotta love those questions that unpack a new layer with each answer lol.
FancyTuesday says... #1
When the 1/1 tokens enter the battlefield they're 2/2s because of Intangible Virtue's static ability. They trigger Warstorm Surge and Cathars' Crusade when they enter the battlefield, and you order the triggers. If you put Crusade on top of the stack it resolves first, the tokens are 3/3s and when Warstorm resolves the creatures will deal 3 damage each.
June 23, 2018 7:37 p.m.