-1/-1 counter "debt" on creatures with Nest of Scarabs
Asked by ursamaul 7 years ago
Here's the situation:
-I have a Nest of Scarabs on the battlefield
-I have a Soulstinger on the battlefield with four -1/-1 counters already on it.
-I cast Plague Belcher and put the two -1/-1 counters on Soulstinger
Here are the two questions:
Does the initial placing of the two counters trigger my Nest of Scarabs TWICE even though the second counter surpasses its toughness level, bringing it below 0?
Does the Soulstinger pop all six -1/-1 counters to other creatures or just the first five that brought it to 0?
@ Epochalyptik: Nest of Scarabs does only trigger once, but when it does it creates "that many" tokens, so in the described situation two tokens will be created. Just to clarify.
(this is different from Hapatra, Vizier of Poisons, whose similar ability only creates one token).
May 24, 2017 midnight
I knew that Nest of Scarabs triggered only once but spawned an insect for each counter placed (so Drilnoth you are correct in that regard (and in the same regard when refering to Hapatra, Vizier of Poisons only triggering once and creating only one snake) but thank you for your rules clarification for "overkill", Epochalyptik!
May 24, 2017 3:37 p.m.
PhthisisClock says... #4
Nest could actually trigger twice in this instance. It may or may not matter, but could if something like Blowfly Infestation was in play. First, Nest triggers when the 2 counters are placed on Soulstinger... then it may trigger again (Soulstinger's second ability is optional) when those counters are moved to opponent's creature. In this case, if you chose to move counters upon Soulstinger's death, Nest of Scarabs would produce 8 insect tokens in total (2+6).
Epochalyptik says... Accepted answer #1
Yes, sort of, to both. You're still placing both counters.
Similarly to how players may be "overkilled" with extra combat damage or a creature can be dealt more than lethal damage, a creature can have any number of -1/-1 counters on it.
In this case, it's important to note that Nest of Scarabs's ability only triggers once, regardless of how many counters are placed. Note the wording "one or more."
You will, however, put six -1/-1 counters on a target creature for Soulstinger's ability.
May 23, 2017 7:36 p.m.