What applies for Rain of Gore?
Asked by BlueScope 10 years ago
My question is about Rain of Gore specifically restricting the effect to spells or abilities. Now, errata already says "This does not apply to life gain caused by combat damage from a creature with lifelink", however am I correct in that it would apply to a card enchanted with Vampiric Link because it's a (triggered) ability?
If that is true, what is the specific reason for lifelink not triggering it, as it's technically a keyword ability.
Thanks in advance!
Rhadamanthus says... Accepted answer #2
The weird exception for lifelink is because of the way the lifelink rule is written:
"Damage dealt by a source with lifelink causes that sources controller, or its owner if it has no controller, to gain that much life (in addition to any other results that damage causes)."
Technically, it's a combination of a game rule and a damage event causing you to gain life, not an ability. I don't agree with the reasoning, personally, but that's the official ruling on the interaction.
You're right about Vampiric Link .
rowcla says... #1
My understanding of it is that, as lifelink is an evergreen mechanic and doesn't use the stack, it's not an ability (or a spell obviously) as such, it doesn't trigger Rain of Gore. Notably, this means that for cards that read something like "If a player would gain life, instead..." lifelink would trigger it, as it doesn't care about spells or abilities in that scenario.
As for Vampiric Link (and everything else with that sort of effect), as you may have guessed by now, it will trigger it, as it's not an evergreen mechanic, and as you mentioned yourself, it's instead a triggered ability.
May 31, 2014 10:10 a.m.