This question came up in a game the other day and a quick search on the web left us still unable to solve it (and too impatient to continue the game, so we didn't want to sift through Google results for twenty minutes).
Person A has a Myr Battlesphere and four Myr tokens.
Person B has a planeswalker at 4 loyalty and some rando creature to block with.
Person A declared Battlesphere attacking the planeswalker and taps his four tokens for its ability.
Does the ability deal four damage to the planeswalker, since he is attacking it, or none, since it's not a player?
The controller of the planeswalker is the defending player, so the Battlesphere's trigger will deal damage to the opponent (although since it's noncombat damage, you can choose to deal it to the planeswalker instead of the opponent).
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Scientists have calculated that the chance of anything so patently absurd actually existing are millions to one. But magicians have calculated that million-to-one chances crop up nine times out of ten.
So, is that how all non-combat damage is dealt to planeswalkers, then? We target the player then redirect the damage? And if this is the case, would that mean it gets around hexproof, or is it more "redirect to target planeswalker they control"? (We always just say "bolt your planeswalker" or "four to Sorin" when we plan on hitting them, so I never really thought about how the damage gets there)
So, is that how all non-combat damage is dealt to planeswalkers, then? We target the player then redirect the damage?
Any time a source would deal noncombat damage to a player, and that player is an opponent of the player who controls the source of damage, the source's controller can choose to have that damage get dealt to a planeswalker that player controls instead. This is a replacement effect and so it's subject to any other replacement effects that may interfere with it (there's a recent thread here that deals with how Delaying Shield plays with this). Since it's a replacement effect, it doesn't target and you don't make the choice until the moment damage would be dealt. So you could cast Lightning Bolt targeting a player who controls potentially multiple planeswalkers, and you don't have to say whether you're redirecting the damage until Bolt resolves.
There are also a few cards that explicitly damage planeswalkers directly (e.g. Chandra's Defeat from the new set) so strictly speaking, this isn't how all noncombat damage gets dealt to planeswalkers, but the redirection mechanic is the most common method.
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Person A has a Myr Battlesphere and four Myr tokens.
Person B has a planeswalker at 4 loyalty and some rando creature to block with.
Person A declared Battlesphere attacking the planeswalker and taps his four tokens for its ability.
Does the ability deal four damage to the planeswalker, since he is attacking it, or none, since it's not a player?
Scientists have calculated that the chance of anything so patently absurd actually existing are millions to one. But magicians have calculated that million-to-one chances crop up nine times out of ten.
So, is that how all non-combat damage is dealt to planeswalkers, then? We target the player then redirect the damage? And if this is the case, would that mean it gets around hexproof, or is it more "redirect to target planeswalker they control"? (We always just say "bolt your planeswalker" or "four to Sorin" when we plan on hitting them, so I never really thought about how the damage gets there)
There are also a few cards that explicitly damage planeswalkers directly (e.g. Chandra's Defeat from the new set) so strictly speaking, this isn't how all noncombat damage gets dealt to planeswalkers, but the redirection mechanic is the most common method.