Hello all. First time post here. I’ve just recently got back into MTG after a long lay off and had a question about running Justice Strike with Firesong and Sunspeaker. Since JS deals damage to target creature equal to target creature’s power, does that mean that FS&SS would gain life equal to target creatures power and then trigger FS&SS for an additional 3 points of damage?
Assuming you control Firesong and Sunspeaker and Justice Strike:
Justice Strike is a red instant spell, so it has lifelink thanks to Firesong and Sunspeaker's first ability.
Justice Strike is also a white instant spell, so if that spell, due to the damage Firesong and Sunspeaker deals this way, causes you to gain life (because it happens while Justice Strike is resolving), Firesong and Sunspeaker's second ability will trigger (C.R. 603.2, 119.3f; see also this thread).
EDIT (correction after comment 5 was posted): Note, however, that it's not Justice Strike that is dealing damage when it resolves.
Assuming you control Firesong and Sunspeaker and Justice Strike:
Justice Strike is a red instant spell, so it has lifelink thanks to Firesong and Sunspeaker's first ability.
Justice Strike is also a white instant spell, so if that spell, due to the damage Firesong and Sunspeaker deals this way, causes you to gain life (because it happens while Justice Strike is resolving), Firesong and Sunspeaker's second ability will trigger (C.R. 603.2, 119.3f; see also this thread).
The problem is Justice Strike doesn't actually deal any damage to the creature. The creature itself is dealing the damage to itself. So even though Justice Strike has lifelink, you won't gain life from it since the source dealing the damage is the creature. The same is true for Sunspeaker's second ability, even if the creature has lifelink, again it's not the spell causing life gain.
Correction - If the creature has lifelink it will indeed trigger Sunspeaker's ability.
To clarify the creature needs to have lifelink in order for Sunspeaker to trigger. The Justice Strike itself never deals damage.
Edit: The ruling about a creature with lifelink is under the gatherer page for firesong.
A spell causes you to gain life if its cost or effect instructs you to gain life or if an instruction in its cost or effect is modified by a replacement effect and the modified event includes you gaining life. If a spell’s cost or effect instructs a source with lifelink you control to deal damage, that spell causes that life gain as well.
Justice Strike is a red instant spell, so it has lifelink thanks to Firesong and Sunspeaker's first ability.
Justice Strike is also a white instant spell
, so if that spell, due to the damage Firesong and Sunspeaker deals this way, causes you to gain life (because it happens while Justice Strike is resolving), Firesong and Sunspeaker's second ability will trigger (C.R. 603.2, 119.3f; see also this thread).EDIT (correction after comment 5 was posted): Note, however, that it's not Justice Strike that is dealing damage when it resolves.
The problem is Justice Strike doesn't actually deal any damage to the creature. The creature itself is dealing the damage to itself. So even though Justice Strike has lifelink, you won't gain life from it since the source dealing the damage is the creature.
The same is true for Sunspeaker's second ability, even if the creature has lifelink, again it's not the spell causing life gain.Correction - If the creature has lifelink it will indeed trigger Sunspeaker's ability.
To clarify the creature needs to have lifelink in order for Sunspeaker to trigger. The Justice Strike itself never deals damage.
Edit: The ruling about a creature with lifelink is under the gatherer page for firesong.
A spell causes you to gain life if its cost or effect instructs you to gain life or if an instruction in its cost or effect is modified by a replacement effect and the modified event includes you gaining life. If a spell’s cost or effect instructs a source with lifelink you control to deal damage, that spell causes that life gain as well.