Vigilance vs Deathtouch?

Asylamb
Asylamb Posts: 188 Tile Toppler
edited 11 February 2025, 13:43 in MtGPQ Bugs & Technical Issues

I'm currently playing the event "You've Found an Entrance", and I came upon an unexpected combat situation in Node 1.
I'm using a variation of OmniHulk deck. The loop wasn't looping, so I passed the turn to Greg, and that's what the pre-combat situation looked like (only relevant Evergreens listed):

My side:
Atraxa, Grand Unifier (Flying, Vigilance);
Underrealm Lich (Prevent Damage);
Combustible Gearhulk.
Greg's side:
Lightfoot Rogue (Deathtouch).

When Lightfoot Rogue attacked, he also got Berserker from the D20 roll.

What I expected to happen:
Atraxa's toughness was higher than Lightfoot Rogue's power, so I expected her to take the attack from the Lightfoot Rogue due to Vigilance (that never took Deathtouch into account) and die.
What actually happened:
Atraxa's Vigilance didn't trigger, and Lightfoot Rogue couldn't attack her directly (because of her Flying), so he attacked Underrealm Lich, who survived the Deathtouch attack due to his Prevent Damage.

My question is why?
Hypotheses:
1. Vigilance only triggers against attacks targeting PW and doesn't protect other creatures. Meaning that should Atraxa be the only creature in that combat situation, she'd intercept the attack (Berserker or not), but she wasn't. I never noticed such behavior before, but I also never paid much attention to it;
2. Vigilance does protect other creatures as well, but Underrealm Lich, attacked by Lightfoot Rogue, had Prevent Damage and was in no danger, so Vigilance was not triggered;
3. Vigilance was upgraded to read "Deathtouch" and prevent sudden death (which is in line with the idea of protecting while staying alive) the same way Vigilance would always trigger if it's paired with Prevent Damage, no matter the toughness and power difference. Probably, I just missed the notice about that change?

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Comments

  • TheHunter
    TheHunter Posts: 349 Mover and Shaker
    edited 11 February 2025, 23:06

    Berserker reads “attacks the first creature it can” so I wonder if it caused the Lightfoot Rogue to ignore the flying Atraxa and have a go at your Lich?
    Also, that’s a heavy duty deck for node 1 🤣

  • Asylamb
    Asylamb Posts: 188 Tile Toppler

    I just use the fastest "ready to go" deck if I don't need to care about objectives :) And I can use that deck for every node of that event. Except I swap one creature for the God Slayer objective, to have my own God creature to kill.
    I understand why Lightfoot Rogue didn't attack Atraxa - because she has Flying, and Rogue doesn't.
    I don't understand why Atraxa didn't intercept Rogue's attack, while having Vigilance.

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