Does inkshield create the Inkling tokens as one event or many? The wording is “For each 1 damage prevented this way” which makes me think it would be multiple token creation events, each creating 1 inkling, and thus with an effect such as Took out, would also create that number of food. Since each single creation can be replaced with inkling+food.
The alternative wording would be something like “Whenever damage is prevented this way, create that many” which would make it one creation event in my mind, but I want to see if anyone else has input or thoughts.
So checking rulings for Inkshield with other cards like Kambal, Profiteering Mayor, it looks like all the tokens from Inkshield enter at the same time. If they’re created as a group you’d only get one Food token regardless of how many Inklings you created
Yeah, that would make sense. The wording on Inkshield just seems like it would be separate events, since it is “For each 1 damage prevented, create an inkling” and not “Whenever damage is prevented, create that many inkling”
I’m also not a judge, but the way I would expect it to work is that each time a source would deal damage, regardless of the amount of damage, that’s a separate token-generating event.
Say an opponent attacks you with Savai Sabertooth and Fencing Ace. You cast Inkshield before they deal damage. Then you go to the first-strike damage step. Fencing Ace would deal one damage, instead you make one Inkling and one food. Next you go to the normal damage step. Fencing Ace gets another damage prevented; you get one more Inkling and one more food from that. Sabertooth would deal three damage, so you get three Inklings and one food from that. Your final count is five Inklings and three food.
I’m not sure about this ruling because as you note, the wording of Inkshield is unusual. This is the most relevant rule I could find:
615.13. Some triggered abilities trigger when damage that would be dealt is prevented. Such an ability triggers each time a prevention effect is applied to one or more simultaneous damage events and prevents some or all of that damage.
I think that supports my theory that three damage from Savai Sabertooth is one “damage event” and therefore one token-producing trigger. But a judge might say otherwise.
I tried looking for clarity about what a “damage event” is and how it works. Rule 120.4 is the relevant one. But it didn’t elucidate this question for me.
For what it’s worth, testing on MTGA, Brass’s Bounty + Peregrin Took creates only one food token despite the wording:
For each land you control, create a Treasure token.
It’s not exactly the same, but does seem to support the idea that each damage event creates that many tokens simultaneously rather than that many token-creation events.
I’m not suggesting that MTGA should be a rules reference, just that it agrees with the commenter.
I haven’t found anywhere in the CR that really mentions this interaction. The closest I found was 608.2f which doesn’t really apply here since it’s not an action being taken on multiple players/objects, but that rule says to create the tokens simultaneously if possible (and I would think it’s possible to create multiple tokens simultaneously since order here doesn’t matter).
Edit: …per prevention event, if that wasn’t clear. So each time damage is prevented.
This is the text for Inkshield for context:
Prevent all combat damage that would be dealt to you this turn. For each 1 damage prevented this way, create a 2/1 white and black Inkling creature token with flying.
Not a judge, but I’d imagine it works the way you described. The way it’s worded implies that it’s multiple events creating tokens, once per damage prevented. Since you’re creating 1 token multiple times, you apply the replacement to each event.
Would be curious to hear a judge’s take on this though.
