Lathiel, the Bounteous Dawn and Alert Heedbonder
Asked by Swebb87 1 year ago
I know I can stack trigger at each step, so I can have Alert Heedbonder trigger first but can I then put the counters on creatures using Lathiel's ability or not because for heedbonder's ability to resolved, I will have moved passed the beginning of my end step
Possibly worth noting that, among cards with intervening if clauses that have variable effects based on the state of that trigger, Lathiel is a little bit of an outlier with regards to not gaining more benefit from responding to its trigger.
That is, when Damia, Sage of Stone triggers at the beginning of your upkeep because you have fewer than seven cards in hand, you can dump your hand and then draw more cards from its ability. And at the beginning of your upkeep when your Ana Sanctuary triggers because you control only a blue permanent, you can respond by making another permanent you control black, in order to get a bigger pump.
Lathiel doesn't do this, not because it doesn't check its condition again as the ability goes to resolve, but because you need to declare the targets and distribution of counters for its ability as that ability is put on the stack, and you don't get a chance to change that when the ability checks again if you've gained life.
Delphen7 says... #1
Lathiel will not trigger if you have not previously gained life this turn.
Ruling on Lathiel: "As each end step begins, if you haven’t gained life that turn, Lathiel’s triggered ability won’t trigger at all. If it does trigger, you choose the targets and how the +1/+1 counters will be distributed as you put the ability on the stack. Each target must receive at least one +1/+1 counter. (2020-11-10)"
It is also worth noting that even if you do gain life off Heedbonder, it won't change how many counters Lathiel will place.
Again from Lathiel: "Gaining more life in response to the triggered ability won’t change how many counters will be distributed, nor will it change the distribution. (2020-11-10)"
October 19, 2022 5:43 p.m.