Souls-Scar Mage vs. The Ozolith feat Hangarback Walker
Platform: Steam
In play:
-Souls-Scar Mage on my side
-The Ozolith + Ozolith, The Shattered Spire + Hangarback Walker with two +1/+1 counter on their side
I cast Lightning Strike on the Hangarback Walker
Expected Results: dead Hangarback Walker, one -1/-1 counter on The Ozolith, no Thopter tokens
Actual Result: two Thopters, no counters on The Ozolith, happened twice that game.
The "The Ozolith + Soul-Scar Mage" interaction works with other creatures as expected.
-
[Deleted User] commented
That is all correctly handled, the result is as it should be. Because:
When Lightning Strike hits the Walker, the Soul-Scar Mage makes the damage into 3 -1/-1 counters. While you are correct in assuming, that the +1/+1 counters and -1/-1 counters annihilate each other, they do so as a state based action. But there is another state based action to perform, namely, the -1/-1 Walker has to die. Those are performed simultaneously. Since Leaves-the-battlefield triggers like the one from The Ozolith look at the game state prior to the event, it sees the Walker die with 2 +1/+1 counters and 3 -1/-1 counters. It would place all of those on itself, but the Shattered Spire adds one +1/+1 counter to that. So the Ozolith gets 3 of both types of counters, which then annihilate each other as a state based action, leaving the artifact with 0 new counters.
The Walker also sees itself die with those 5 counters, and since two of them are +1/+1 counters, the player gets 2 thopter tokens.