If I control Nearheath Pilgrim and play Volcano Hellion I can choose any number and set my life total to that number. But when do you have to choose the number: when the etb ability goes on the stack or when it resolves? In other words, If i play this and choose to deal 1 million damage, can my opponents kill me by killing the Pilgrim in response?
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You choose how much damage Volcano Hellion deals when it's ETB ability resolves.
2/1/2007 As Volcano Hellion's enters-the-battlefield ability resolves, you choose a number. Volcano Hellion deals that amount of damage to you and to the targeted creature. You may choose 0.
So your opponent won't know how much damage you are planning on dealing with the Hellion.
You choose the amount of damage that the Volcano hellion will do when the ability comes to resolve not when it goes on the stack. By the time your opponent knows how much damage you are going to do to the target and yourself it will already have been dealt and you will already have gained the life.
If your opponent wants to stop you from gaining the life he will have to disrupt the soulbound before the ability resolves but at that point you can always choose to deal 0 damage.
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You choose the amount of damage to be dealt by the Hellion when its trigger resolves. The only choices that have to be made when a trigger goes on the stack are: modes, targets, and distribution of something.
If you have placed the soulbond trigger on top of the Hellion's trigger, then the Hellon will have lifelink in time and you can have it deal an arbitrary large amount of damage to the target while keeping your life total. If the opponent gets rid of the Pilgrim before this trigger resolves, you can choose an amount of damage that will be nonlethal to you.
Nearheath Pilgrim
If I control Nearheath Pilgrim and play Volcano Hellion I can choose any number and set my life total to that number. But when do you have to choose the number: when the etb ability goes on the stack or when it resolves? In other words, If i play this and choose to deal 1 million damage, can my opponents kill me by killing the Pilgrim in response?
If my post has no tags, then i posted from my phone.
So your opponent won't know how much damage you are planning on dealing with the Hellion.
Hope that helps.
If your opponent wants to stop you from gaining the life he will have to disrupt the soulbound before the ability resolves but at that point you can always choose to deal 0 damage.
- H.L Mencken
I Became insane with long Intervals of horrible Sanity
All Religion, my friend is simply evolved out of fraud, fear, greed, imagination and poetry.
- Edgar Allan Poe
The Crafters' Rules Guru
If you have placed the soulbond trigger on top of the Hellion's trigger, then the Hellon will have lifelink in time and you can have it deal an arbitrary large amount of damage to the target while keeping your life total. If the opponent gets rid of the Pilgrim before this trigger resolves, you can choose an amount of damage that will be nonlethal to you.
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