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If i have two cards that force opponents to sacrifice every upkeep like for example Mogis God of Slaughter "At the beginning of each opponent’s upkeep, Mogis deals 2 damage to that player unless he or she sacrifices a creature."

And Indulgent tormentor "At the beginning of your upkeep, draw a card unless target opponent sacrifices a creature or pays 3 life."

Does the oppenent have to sacrifice twice? Or if they sacrifice Mogis's ability have they not allowed me to draw from indulgent tormentor?

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    Note that Mogis only triggers on your opponents' upkeeps and Indulgent Tormentor only triggers on your upkeep. If you control both of them, they never happen on the same upkeep.
    – murgatroid99
    Jul 24, 2014 at 1:26

3 Answers 3

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Your opponent has to sacrifice a different creature to each effect to stop that effect from happening. Note, however, that in your particular example, Mogis triggers only on your opponents' upkeeps and Indulgent Tormentor triggers only on your upkeep. However, if we consider the case where you control two Indulgent Tormentors, it's still basically the same question. And in that case, your opponent will have to sacrifice two creatures to stop you from drawing any cards.

More specifically, here's the order of actions:

  1. As your upkeep begins, you choose who to target with each Tormentor trigger. In the interesting case, they both target the same player.
  2. Assuming nobody does anything else in between, the first triggered ability resolves. Your opponent chooses whether or not to sacrifice a creature. If they don't, you draw a card.
  3. The second triggered ability resolves. Your opponent again chooses whether or not to sacrifice a creature. If they don't, you draw a card, independent of what happened in step 2.
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  • there is also a step of picking which one comes first, which the owner of the ability decides (they are added to the stack in APNAP order, where multiples from the same player are ordered by that player, correct me if that is wrong). This can be super relevant. If both of these triggers happened at the same time, you would stack whichever effect you wanted more (Drawing a card or dealing damage) first, so that it would resolve second. Most obvious example of using this is Awakening Zone and Eldrazi Monument. You would always want to put the monument trigger first, and the zone trigger second.
    – Patters
    Jul 24, 2014 at 10:34
  • Right, of course, in other cases it can be very relevant which trigger resolves first. This question, though, is about abilities where the opponent makes a choice on resolution, so because they know about all of the choices when the abilities go on the stack, it doesn't matter what order they resolve. I'll add a mention in my answer, though.
    – murgatroid99
    Jul 24, 2014 at 15:14
  • re-reading the cards in this question you are right, I had assumed that the effects were both required sacrifices, and in the case the opponent couldn't, the downside happens.
    – Patters
    Jul 25, 2014 at 9:08
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They will have to sacrifice 1 creature for each ability that triggers. So in this case, he would need to sacrifice 2 creatures to not lose life or let you draw a card.

When an event (such as the beginning of upkeep) causes multiple triggered abilities to trigger; those abilities are dealt with completely independently of each other.

As was pointed out in a comment; this is not relevant for your specific example, because in your example, each creature triggers at a different time; during different upkeeps. But if you had 2 Mogis, God of Slaughters on the battlefield, your opponent would have to sacrifice 2 creatures at the beginning of his upkeep to not take damage.

Notice that similarly, if you have a Mogg Fanatic, you cannot sacrifice it both to pay for its ability and at the same time count that as sacrificing a creature to prevent the damage or card draw.

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Alice the Bully comes to you and says "I'll clobber you unless you give your lunch money." You give her your money to avoid the beating.

A few minutes later, Bob the Bully comes to you and says "I'll clobber you unless you give your lunch money." Do you think telling him that you already gave it to Alice will help at all?

No.

Let's say you have two Indulgent Tormentor on the battlefield, and it's the beginning of your upkeep. Each Tormentor's ability goes on the stack. One of them resolves.

draw a card unless target opponent sacrifices a creature or pays 3 life.

The opponent you targeted now chooses to sacrifice a creature, to pay 3 life, or to do neither. Then he either sacrifices a creature, loses 3 life or you draw a card. It doesn't matter what other creatures he might have sacrificed or what other life he payed earlier in the game.

Then the other ability resolves.

draw a card unless target opponent sacrifices a creature or pays 3 life.

The opponent you targeted now chooses to sacrifice a creature, to pay 3 life, or to do neither. Then he either sacrifices a creature, loses 3 life or you draw a card. It doesn't matter what other creatures he might have sacrificed or what other life he payed earlier in the game.

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