Wall of Souls and Wall of Shadows: How does damage work?

Asked by boneknitter 6 years ago

I run both of these walls in my Planeswalker deck and a rules question came up for both cards during a game last night and I would like clarification.

Wall of Shadows

My friend attacked me with a Myr Battlesphere that had a Sword of Kaldra equipped to it and I blocked it with the Wall of Shadows. My friend's argument was that in order for the damage to Wall of Shadows to be reduced to 0, damage has to be dealt to it, therefore, Sword of Kaldra's ability would trigger, exiling my Wall of Shadows. Is my friend correct, or should Wall of Shadows remained on the field? We were all confused on the interaction of the cards involved.

Wall of Souls

In the same game, my friend again attacked me with the same Myr Battlesphere with the Sword of Kaldra attached and I blocked with a Wall of Souls. My friend's argument is that Wall of Souls can only deal back 4 damage because that's the maximum amount of damage it can take before it dies. Is he correct, or would he have taken back the 39 damage his creature dealt to my Wall of Souls?

TheRedMage says... Accepted answer #1

Your friend is wrong on both cases. Damage that is prevented does not count as dealt, so your Wall of Shadows would survive. Also, it doesn't matter what the toughness of Wall of Souls is - it's still taking 39 damage, unless the creature it is blocking has trample. So your friend would take 39.

April 9, 2017 3:44 a.m.

hyperlocke says... #2

Adding to the correct comment above:

It seems the confusion about Wall of Shadows stems from the old rule text on the card. The current Oracle text reads:

Prevent all damage that would be dealt to Wall of Shadows by creatures it's blocking.

The new wording makes it very clear that the damage is prevented, thus never dealt.

The Oracle wording can be found (among others) on the official Gatherer, on TappedOut's card page, or on magiccards.info.

April 9, 2017 4:09 a.m. Edited.

boneknitter says... #3

thank you both for clarifying this for me

April 9, 2017 2:20 p.m.

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