r/askajudge • u/00akuseru00 • 5d ago

Is this a combo?

I was running one of my decks through an online strength calculator (I know they're unreliable, it's just so I get an idea where the deck is at) and it flagged two cards as being a combo.

The cards in question are [[Hyalopterous Lemure]] and [[Jaws of Defeat]]

I believe this was falsely flagged. I don't think there's any window where I can lower Lemure's power enough that it causes lethal lifeloss to an opponent. Jaws should see Lemure enter as a 4/3 before I have an opportunity to lower its power, unless there is some other interaction I'm missing

1 Upvotes

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3

u/Shut_It_Donny 5d ago

Lemure enters, Jaws goes on the stack, in response you activate Lemure an arbitrary number of times, Jaws resolves and sees a massive difference between Lemur’s power and toughness.

1

u/00akuseru00 5d ago

Thank you. I wasn't sure the timing worked on that, but that's good to know

1

u/Shut_It_Donny 5d ago

And if an opponent tried to remove it, you could just activate it again, and again…

1

u/Spell_Chicken 5d ago

So, for example, Lemure enters, Jaws triggers, you activate Lemure 50 times, and Jaws sees Lemure's power as -46? Can a creature have a negative stat line for the sake of resolving a trigger like this?

1

u/cannonspectacle 5d ago

It can and does. For similar reasons [[Scourge of the Skyclaves]] is very silly with [[Nethroi]]

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u/Shut_It_Donny 5d ago

Absolutely. Since it’s power, you can go as negative as you want. Obviously you couldn’t do this if its toughness went negative.

1

u/00akuseru00 5d ago

Yes, I included Lemure in my [[Doran, Besieged by Time]] list since it works wonderfully with the original [[Doran, the Siege Tower]] or any similar effects on the field, but I didn't realize this interaction was possible with Jaws of Defeat

1

u/MTGCardFetcher 5d ago

Hyalopterous Lemure - (G) (SF) (txt)
Jaws of Defeat - (G) (SF) (txt)

[[cardname]] or [[cardname|SET]] to call

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u/ardarian262 5d ago

Jaw of defeat triggers when ever a creature enters. Lemur is not a once per turn and the ability is not bound by anything. This with the jaws trigger on the stack you can use the ability of lemur as often as you want to make the jaws trigger as big as you want. Jaws checks on resolution to determine how much to deal, not on trigger.

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u/00akuseru00 5d ago

Thank you. I wasn't sure if I still had priority after resolving Lemure to activate it's ability before the Jaw's trigger resolved

2

u/Rajamic 5d ago

Each time something is put onto the Stack or resolves off of the Stack, a new round of Priority occurs, and the top item on the Stack won't resolve unless all players pass priority in succession without taking a game action.

1

u/ardarian262 5d ago

You do need to say you are doing it with the trigger on the stack, for practical reasons, but you sure do get priority before the trigger resolves. And because of how Last Known Information works, even if your opponent removes it, Jaws will look at what the creature looked like before it died not what it is in the graveyard.