Lifelink on opponent's combat phase. Lich's Mastery/Ajani's Pridemate
Hi,
Thanks for your question. When combat damage is dealt, you take 3 damage from the unblocked Vanguard and the Operative and blocked Vanguard deal damage to each other. Since the Operative has lifelink, that means you also gain 3 life at the same time. The Pridemate's ability will trigger (since you gained life), and both the “Whenever you gain life” and “Whenever you lose life” abilities of the Mastery will trigger. It does not matter that your life total stayed the same (since you gained life and lost life at the same time) - you still gained life, and you still lost life, so those abilities still trigger.
Thanks,
Nathan Long
Magic Rules NetRep