I need some help with a rules conundrum. Say I have a Dina, Soul Steeper on the battlefield and played the Meathook Massacre with x at three or more. Does Dina's gain life ability still trigger in response to the Meathook Massacres lifegain ability? Thanks in advance!
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-MadMage
No. You gain life from The Meathook Massacre as the respective trigger resolves. But before that even makes it to the stack, Dina is already gone. For Dina to trigger, she has to be around when the lifegain occurs.
I need some help with a rules conundrum. Say I have a Dina, Soul Steeper on the battlefield and played the Meathook Massacre with x at three or more. Does Dina's gain life ability still trigger in response to the Meathook Massacres lifegain ability? Thanks in advance!
No, because Dina is in the graveyard before the ability has a chance to trigger. For the sake of simplicity, the following sequence will assume your Dina and your opponent's Runeclaw Bear are the only creatures.
Your main phase begins.
You get priority and cast The Meathook Massacre. You choose X=3. You pay the cost of 3BB using mana obtained in an unspecified way.
You get priority and pass.
Opponent gets priority and passes.
The top object on the stack (the spell cast in step 2) resolves. You put The Meathook Massacre on the battlefield, triggering its ability.
You would get priority, but there is a triggered ability to put on the stack. You put "When The Meathook Massacre enters the battlefield, each creature gets -X/-X until end of turn." (X=3) on the stack.
You get priority and pass.
Opponent gets priority and passes.
The top object on the stack (the ability put there in step 6) resolves. Each creature gets -3/-3 until end of turn, so Dina is now -2/0 and Runeclaw Bear is now -1/-1.
You would get priority, but there are state-based actions to process. Dina and Runeclaw Bear have toughness 0 or less and are put in the respective graveyards. This triggers the abilities of The Meathook Massacre.
You would get priority, but there are triggered abilities to put on the stack. You control them both, so you choose the order (not that it matters much in this particular case). A) You put "Whenever a creature you control dies, each opponent loses 1 life." on the stack for Dina. B) You put "Whenever a creature an opponent controls dies, you gain 1 life." on the stack for Runeclaw Bear.
You get priority and pass.
Opponent gets priority and passes.
The top object on the stack (the ability put there in step 11B) resolves. You gain 1 life. This would trigger Dina's ability if that were still on the battlefield (see step 10).
You get priority and pass.
Opponent gets priority and passes.
The top object on the stack (the ability put there in step 11A) resolves. Each opponent loses 1 life.
You get priority and ....
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-MadMage
Former Rules Advisor
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[c]The Meathook Massacre[/c] -> The Meathook Massacre
No, because Dina is in the graveyard before the ability has a chance to trigger. For the sake of simplicity, the following sequence will assume your Dina and your opponent's Runeclaw Bear are the only creatures.