Poison Counters and Damage Redirection

Question

Last week we had a bit of a situation in our commander game and we would like to clarify this for future reference.

Our Situation

One of the players attacked with Bruna, Light of Alabaster who gained infect thanks to Corrupted Conscience and had a power over 20. The attacked player responded with Shining Shoal with the X being 10.

Now for the Question

These two players are the last remaining players on the game, as player 1 and 2 have already lost. Does the game end in a draw? Did the Bruna, Light of Alabaster's player win the game? Or does he lose because he obtained 10 poison counters due to Shining Shoal?

Answer 1

Assuming nobody has any poison counters before Bruna attacks, Bruna's controller will lose the game assuming that her power is at least 10, but less than 20 when she deals damage, and it will be a draw if her power is 20 or greater, if her power is less than 10 her controller will have poison counters equal to her power.

This occurs because Shining Shoal replaces the first X damage dealt by the chosen sources (in this case 10) and redirects it to the chosen target (presumably Bruna's controller). The redirection doesn't change the source of the damage so it will still have infect, thus it will still deal damage in the form of poison counters.

So if Bruna's power is less than 10 all of the damage will be redirected to Bruna's controller; nobody will win or lose. If her power is at least 10, but less than 20, ten damage will be redirected to her controller and you would take the remainder; her controller would lose. If her power is 20 or greater 10 of the damage would be redirected to her controller and the remainder of the damage would be dealt to you, since you both have 10 or more poison counters you would both lose the game a the same time which ends up being a draw.

702.89b Damage dealt to a player by a source with infect doesn’t cause that player to lose life. Rather, it causes the player to get that many poison counters. See rule 119.3.

Answer 2

In this case, assuming that Bruna has 10 power, and that the damage is redirected to its controller, the player controlling Bruna loses due to having 10 poison counters. Infect damage is still damage, and can be prevented or redirected like any other damage. The only difference is how it affects the thing it deals damage to. The rules for infect say

702.89b Damage dealt to a player by a source with infect doesn’t cause that player to lose life. Rather, it causes the player to get that many poison counters. See rule 119.3.

702.89c Damage dealt to a creature by a source with infect isn’t marked on that creature. Rather, it causes that many -1/-1 counters to be put on that creature. See rule 119.3.

Answer 3

Shining Shoal will redirect up to 10 damage.

If Bruna deals 5, then 5 will be redirected. If 10 is dealt then 10 is redirected. If 15 is dealt then 10 is redirected and 5 is not, etc...

All damage dealt by Bruna will be done to players as poison counters.

So if this is enough to kill the attacking player then they will lose. If not then the game continues.

Answer 4

Shining Shoal will redirect up to 10 damage from Bruna this turn (we'll assume the redirect target is the attacking player). The damage isn't prevented, but is redirected.

Because of Shining Shoal, the 5 damage from Bruna is not dealt to the defending player, so the defending player does not receive poison counters from infect. However, even if Shining Shoal is able to redirect the next 10 damage, Bruna is only dealing 5 damage this combat, so only 5 damage will be redirected.

With Shining Shoal's effect, Bruna deals 5 damage to the attacking player. Since Bruna has infect, the attacking player receives 5 poison counters instead of losing 5 life. If, through some other means, Bruna continues to deal damage to the defending player (or creatures they control), Shining Shoal will continue to redirect the remaining 5 damage until the end of the turn.