When is the life lost by Fraying Omnipotence determined?
Asked by RaccoonGremlin 5 years ago
So, I cast Fraying Omnipotence and something copies it. I have 20 life. Do I lose 10 life when the first instance resolves and 5 when the second resolves or 10 both times? What if I try to gain life with an instant effect like Vampire Neonate in between the copies?
Fraying Omnipotence checks each player's life total upon resolution of the spell.
For your first example, you are correct. The copy was put on the stack second, so it will resolve first--your life total, at this time, is 20, so you will lose 10 life. When the original resolves second, you will be at 10 life, so will lose 5 life.
After a spell resolves, the active player receives priority. So, after the copy resolves, there will be an opportunity to cast spells and activate instant-speed abilities. So, let's say you activate the ability of Vampire Neonate in between.
After resolution of the copy, you and your opponent are each at 10 life. You will gain 1 life (11 total), they will lose 1 (9 total). Since Fraying Omnipotence rounds up, the end result will be you losing 6 life, leaving you at 5, and your opponent losing 5 life, leaving them at 4.
However, you don't generally want to do this--you want to activate life gain effects after all the copies of Fraying Omnipotence have resolved. To illustrate:
You cast a spell that heals for 4. If you do it before either Fraying Omnipotence resolves, that 4 health will be halved by the first; then halved by the second, meaning your spell only resulted in 1 point of life gain. If you cast it after the copy resolved, that 4 will be halved, resulting in only 2 life gained. If you cast it at the end, you'll gain the full 4 life.
Or, in another word, use the 4 life spell at the beginning: you end with 6 health; in the middle, 7 health; at the end, 9 health.
Same goes for damage/life loss spells--you will want to use them at the end to maximize their effect. If you cause a player to lose 4 life at the beginning, they will end with 4 health (16 to 8 to 4); in the middle 3 health (20 to 10 - 4 to 6 to 3), and at the end 1 health (20 to 10 to 5 - 4).
December 5, 2018 10:46 a.m.
RaccoonGremlin - in the future, please be sure to hit the "Mark as Answer" button appearing next to each responsive post when your question is resolved. This helps keep the Rules Q&A section clutter-free and helps future users quickly identify the correct answer.
As this has been answered for a couple days, I have gone ahead and marked an answer as accepted. If you could try to remember to do this in the future, that would be appreciated.
Kogarashi says... Accepted answer #1
The life loss due to Fraying Omnipotence occurs during the spell's resolution. When each copy of the spell resolves, you will do the steps in order, meaning you will lose half your life (rounded up), then discard half the cards in your hand (rounded up), then sacrifice half your creatures (rounded up).
Each copy of the spell is a separate item on the stack. When you cast Fraying Omnipotence and then, say, Reverberate it, the copy will go on the top of the stack and resolve first. You will lose 10 life, due to having 20. Once the copy is completely resolved, you can activate Vampire Neonate in response if you like, before the original Fraying Omnipotence resolves. You'll go to 11 life. When the second Fraying Omnipotence resolves, you'll lose 6 life (half of 11 is 5.5, rounded up to 6). If you don't activate Vampire Neonate, then you'll still be at 10, and will lose half of that (5).
December 5, 2018 10:43 a.m.