Dealing Damage to Creature soulbonded to Deadeye Navigator

Question

A scenario played out last night that at the time I felt was correct, but the more I think about it, the more I feel uncomfortable about it. I had on the field:

• Goblin Bombardment

• Furnace of Rath

• Dictate of Twin Gods

• ~10 0/1 creature tokens

My opponent had:

• Deadeye Navigator

• Nevermaker

• 6 blue mana available

Here's what happened:

1. I sacrificed a creature token to Goblin Bombardment to deal 4 damage to the Nevermaker.
2. In response, my opponent paid 1U and exiled the Nevermaker.
3. As the Nevermaker leaves the battlefield it's ability triggers, it targets my goblin bombardment to place on top of my library.
4. Before the Nevermaker resolves, I sacrifice 2 tokens and deal 8 damage to the Deadeye Navigator.
5. My opponent pays 1U to exile the Deadeye Navigator.
6. Deadeye Navigator leaves the battlefield, and then returns, soulbonding to the Nevermaker.
7. I sacrifice two more tokens to deal 8 more damage to the Deadeye Navigator.
8. My opponent pays 1U to exile the Deadeye Navigator.
9. Deadeye Navigator leaves the battlefield, and then returns, soulbonding to the Nevermaker.
10. My third Goblin Bombardment fails to resolve as the Deadeye Navigator is a new instance of the creature and thereby a new object.
11. My second Goblin Bombardment fails to resolve as the Deadeye Navigator is a new instance of the creature and thereby a new object.
12. Nevermaker's use of Deadeye Navigator's ability resolves and it leaves the Battlefield.
13. Nevermaker's ability trigers and my Goblin Bombarment in placed on the top of my library.
14. Nevermaker returns to the battlefield and is re-soulbonded to Deadeye Navigator

I feel like somewhere in the 10-12 range is where it goes awry. None of my abilities resolve because her cards are new instances of themselves, but this does not seem to hamper her at all. Was this all resolved correctly. Is there I way that I could have destroyed either the Deadeye Navigator or the Nevermaker?

Answer 1

Is there I way that I could have destroyed either the Deadeye Navigator or the Nevermaker?

Yes.

Start out the same way, sending 4 damage to the Nevermaker. Your opponent activates its flicker ability. You let the flicker ability resolve, and the Nevermaker leaves and then enters the battlefield again.

This causes 2 triggers to be put on the stack, one is the Nevermaker's "leaves the battlefield" ability, the other is the "soulbond" ability on Deadeye Navigator (since your opponent controls both, he/she can arrange their order on the stack as desired). While both are on the stack, you can respond by activating Goblin Bombardment as you wish. Since neither Navigator or Nevermaker are soulbonded, they do not have the "flicker" ability anymore.

Answer 2

Let's start by going through exactly what happens on the stack at each step.

You start by sacing a token to try and kill Nevermaker:

1. Goblin Bombardment targeting Nevermaker

They respond by trying to 'flicker' Nevermaker

1. Nevermaker's flicker ability
2. Goblin Bombardment targeting Nevermaker

Steps 3 and 4 get a little weird since you say Nevermakers leaves the battlefield ability triggers, but also before its ability resolves you sac more tokens to try and kill Deadeye Navigator. I'm going to assume that you sacrificed the tokens before the flicker trigger resolves.

1. Goblin Bombardment targeting Deadeye Navigator
2. Goblin Bombardment targeting Deadeye Navigator
3. Nevermaker's flicker ability
4. Goblin Bombardment targeting Nevermaker

They then activate Deadeye Navigator's flicker ability

1. Deadeye Navigator's flicker ability
2. Goblin Bombardment targeting Deadeye Navigator
3. Goblin Bombardment targeting Deadeye Navigator
4. Nevermaker's flicker ability
5. Goblin Bombardment targeting Nevermaker

You let the Navigator's ability resolve, and the Soulbond ability goes on the stack. This is when you should respond and kill it before it can bond with the Nevermaker again.

1. Deadeye Navigator's Soulbond trigger
2. Goblin Bombardment targeting Deadeye Navigator
3. Goblin Bombardment targeting Deadeye Navigator
4. Nevermaker's flicker ability
5. Goblin Bombardment targeting Nevermaker

You then let the Soulbond trigger resolve, and for making the stack slightly easier to understand I'll have the 2 Goblin Bombardment triggers that were targeting the Navigator resolve too. Both of those triggers will do nothing since the Navigator is a new object so they no longer have legal targets. That means we are back to the second step with:

1. Nevermaker's flicker ability
2. Goblin Bombardment targeting Nevermaker

Once you get to this point you can pretty much keep repeating sacing tokens and your opponent flickering the Navigator until you run out of tokens or they run out of mana.

The biggest things to remember here are that the ability to flicker the Navigator and Nevermaker go on the stack and you get to respond to them before they happen, so if you really wanted to kill the Nevermaker you could have kept targeting it instead of going after the Navigator and saved a few tokens. The other thing is that Soulbond is a triggered ability when a creature enters the battle field, so you have time to respond to the trigger before they get a chance to bond their creatures together.

If you want to make sure that Nevermaker's trigger never goes off you can respond to the activation of the flicker ability by sacing another token, this way you would only spend 4 tokens to kill it, you would keep your Bombardment, and the Navigator wouldn't be bonded to anything so you can kill it at your leisure.