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CardName: Hailing Cantor Cost: 1W Type: Creature - Human Cleric Pow/Tgh: 1/3 Rules Text: Whenever a creature you control is martyred, you gain 1 life. (A creature is martyred when it is sacrificed or dies while attacking or blocking.) Flavour Text: Set/Rarity: Enemy Wedge Set None |
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A creature dies when it is sacrificed, so I don't understand why the distinction needs to be made. Flavorfully, it seems like it would have to be attacking or blocking alone in order to be a martyr.
Yes, a creature does 'die' when it is sacrificed, that is always the case; however, a creature isn't necessarily 'sacrificed' when it 'dies'. Sacrifice is an additional condition applied to the destruction of permanents, notably by the fact that it is usually the controller's choice. This ability only triggers in such instances where it is sacrificed as opposed to straight up "destroyed". For example - If Hailing Cantor was dealt damage by an instant like Brimstone Volley, it would be dealt lethal damage and die. It would not, however, be sacrificed. So martyrdom wouldn't trigger. If Hailing Cantor had been attacking or blocking at the time, martyrdom would trigger. Similarly, another example would be if someone put the enough -1/-1 counters to bring it's toughness to 0, then it's controller would have to sacrifice it. It goes without saying of course, that abilities that ask you to sacrifice a creature can also cause martyrdom to trigger. In terms of flavor, I don't think I agree with you. The terms 'martyr' and 'martyrdom' have no constraints of singularity in their definitions; a martyr is anyone "who is put to death or endures great suffering on behalf of any belief, principle, or cause" and martyrdom merely refers to the achievement of the aforementioned definition. Thus, if a person is 'martyred' they are simply dying or suffering for their cause, which any number of people could do at any given time.
-1/-1 counters don't cause sacrifice - a creature with toughness 0 or less is put into its owner's graveyard as a SBA.
If you're going for this mechanic, you'll want to make sure there aren't any Leyline of the Void / Annihilating Fire effects in the set, because a 4/4 dealt damage by Annihilating Fire then trading with a 1/1 won't "die", but it can still be "sacrificed" even though the sacrifice action won't put it in the graveyard.
(I agree it's fine flavour-wise for large groups to count as being "martyred", though it feels a bit odd for a 6/6 to count as "martyred" when it trades with three 2/2s.)