Hellrider has come back into favor in a lot of aggro decks, and alongside it we’re seeing a few more Planeswalkers being played. So it’s easy to imagine that you might come into a situation where they interact! Hellrider’s ability is pretty simple; whenever you swing with a creature, Hellrider triggers and burns your opponent for 1. But what if you need to aim that guaranteed 3 or 4 from the triggers at your opponent’s Tamiyo, the Moon Sage to keep her down? Well, you can.

Hellrider’s trigger causes noncombat damage. So, it’s noncombat damage from a source you control that would be dealt to an opponent. As such, it meets all the criteria for redirecting the damage to a Planeswalker said opponent controls. You can have any and all of your Hellrider triggers hit your opponent’s Planeswalkers. And since it’s dealt in increments of 1, you can split it among multiple ‘walkers too. Say they have a Tamiyo and a Jace, and you attack with 5 creatures; you can deal all 5 to one of them, or 4 to one and 1 to another, or 2 and 3, etc, etc. Of course it’s all optional; you can have all the triggers burn your opponent as normal if you prefer.

Today’s post written by Trevor Nunez, Level 1 Judge from Roswell, New Mexico