We already did a general overview of the legendary angel Gisela, Blade of Goldnight a while back when she was first released. But that general overview didn’t cover probably the most common question about her, especially in my Commander group: Whether or not she prevents 1 damage.  Good old Gisela has two abilities (both are replacement effects) that make her very scary; the first one doubles the damage that would be dealt to any opponent or a permanent they control, while the second prevents half the damage [rounded up] that would be dealt to you or anything you control. Pretty simple; if you swing at your opponent with a 4/4 and he blocks with a 4/4, your creature deals 8 damage to his, and his creature only deals 2 damage to yours. Like I said, scary enough as-is, especially in a multi-player EDH game where it’s stupid to try and attack Gisela’s player, but profitable to attack anyone else. But what you’ll see commonly played alongside Gisela are cards like Manabarbs, because Gisela will make them doubly painful for you… and painLESS to her.

See, unlike some cards that prevent half of some amount of damage [like Ghosts of the Innocent or Dark Sphere], Gisela specifically rounds the prevention (not the damage) up. And half of 1 damage, rounded up, is 1 damage that will be prevented. So, any time something tries to deal exactly 1 damage to you or your dudes, Gisela turns 1 damage into 0 damage. Fun, huh?

Today’s Rules Tip written by Trevor Nunez