I am at 15. I control Opal Avenger and Transcendence. A source I control with lifelink deals 6 damage to me.

There is a general (but not complete) consensus on #mtgrules about the results. The majority position is:

Neither Opal Avenger's ability nor Transcendence's second ability trigger; Transcendence's third ability triggers once (and will try to cause me to gain 12 life when it resolves).

Is this correct?

Assuming it is, consider the same scenario, except I also control Platinum Emperion. Is the outcome the same?

My understanding is that the outcome is the same, because while the damage event will cause both life loss and life gain, my life total will not actually change as a result, so Emperion doesn't care at all. If it were to care, that would seem to imply that some event was going to cause my life total to be either 9 or 21 at some point, in which case either Avenger or Transcendence's second ability should have triggered in the earlier scenario.

However, others are of the opinion that the reminder text on Emperion should be taken more literally, and that the result is instead that nothing triggers.

Hi,

Thanks for your questions.

> I am at 15. I control Opal Avenger and Transcendence. A source I control with lifelink deals 6 damage to me.

> Neither Opal Avenger's ability nor Transcendence's second ability trigger; Transcendence's third ability triggers once (and will try to cause me to gain 12 life when it resolves).

> Is this correct?

This is correct. You're gaining 6 life and losing 6 life at the exact same time: there's not a point where your life total is either 21 or 9, so the first trigger of Transcendence nor the ability of the Avenge will trigger. However, you did lose life, so the third ability of Transcendence will trigger.

> Assuming it is, consider the same scenario, except I also control Platinum Emperion. Is the outcome the same?

No, it is not. Platinum Emperion says your life total can't change, which effectively means “You can't gain life.” “You can't lose life”. It doesn't care if, after all of the life gain and damage has been processed, your life total would end up at the same number: the Emperion stops you from gaining or losing life. Since you did not lose life, the final ability of Transcendence will not trigger.

Nathan Long
Magic Rules NetRep

Edited Nathan Long (Nov. 15, 2017 12:01:43 PM)