I saw a couple of Garden of Morr questions that I didn't really understand / don't apply to my specific situation. My question will be quite specific, but I think the conclusion can be generalized as I think it may be the key issue with Garden of Morr.

Garden of Morr reads "Forced: When one or more units are destroyed, put a resource token on this card."

Let me lay out the situation:

Empire player has Garden of Morr and a Hunstman (1 HP) unit in a zone with a dev.

Dark Elf player has Malekith's throne (-1 HP to units in zones without a dev) and a Stunty Smasha (A unit you can sacrifice to remove a dev).

Ok, so the Dark Elf player sacrifices the Stunty Smasha to remove the Empire player's development in the zone with the Huntsman. This kills the Stunty Smasha and destroys the development. Now the Huntsman is in a zone with no developments, so his HP is reduced from 1 to 0, killing him.

My question is this: How many tokens does Garden of Morr get this turn? I can see how it could be both 1 or 2, but it depends on how you look at it. If sacrificing the Stunty Smasha to kill the dev is one action (and it is) that is completely separate from (yet directly causes) the death of the Huntsman then you could argue that there should be 2 tokens on the Garden of Morr: 1 for the sacrifice of the Stunty Smasha, and another for the resulting death of the Huntsman. However, you could also say that, similar to combat, this is a situation where "more than one unit" has been destroyed all as a result of one action, despite the fact they are separate action "chains" if you will, therefore there is only 1 token that should be applied to the Garden of Morr.

My initial response to this situation was that the Garden of Morr should get two tokens. The death of the Huntsman was a result of the passive effect of Malekith's Throne. This means that if the Empire player had, say, 3 zones each with 1 dev and a single 1 HP unit in each zone, and then the Dark Elf player lay down three Long Winters, one on each zone to remove the devs, there should be 3 tokens on Garden of Morr since each instance of playing Long Winter resulted in another death resulting from Malekith's Throne, therefore another separate instance that a unit left play.

My opponent felt it should be one since it all "happened at the same time", which I don't really buy, but I will accept that answer if someone could explain WHY those things happened at the same time. There is nothing that specifically relates Malekith's Throne to dev destruction instances as being "at the same time". I am looking forward to your answers.

As per FAQ, sacrifice =/= destroy and vice versa. If something keys off destroy, then sacrifice doesn't trigger it.

However, if say combat sees 5 units destroyed, then you'd get 5 for GoM, same as how Dwarf Ranger works if 5 D Units all leave play at the same time.

Dam said:

It was my understanding that you would recieve only one resource no matter the number of units destroyed as the card reads, "when ONE OR MORE units is destroyed....". Dwarf Ranger reads, "When ONE of your other Dwarf units leaves play...". There is a difference.

Dam said:

Great catch. So in the above example there would be only 1 token added and that would be for the Huntsman.

Doc9 said:

I think this is correct, if 5 units are destroyed in combat then that would be an instance of more than one being destroyed, that means 1 token. But we are getting around the main question on a bit of a technicality. My main issue: Let's say there was a card that took out developments when it is destroyed, I'm not sure if such a card exists.

I guess my question is "When does one time of a unit being destroyed end, and the next unit being destroyed begins." My guess is that it is card effects, not chains of events. So the destruction of the dev to kill the Huntsman is one instance of a unit being destroyed. If that dev destruction was triggered by the destruction of some other unit, my bold proclamation is that Garden of Morr gets two tokens. Without an example it isn't a very concrete question, I realize, but I hope you guys get what I'm trying to ask.

Yeah, sorry, didn't check the wording carefully enough. GoM gives you one token for each lump of destroyed units, no matter how big.

HappyDD said:

I understand what you are trying to ask, but I'm not sure why you are talking about developments. If there was a card that said "Forced: When this unit leaves play, destroy target unit" and that unit died, then 2 units would leave play, but they would not leave *simultaneously* so Garden of Morr would get 2 tokens.

Edit: Now I get it. The answer is still the same though, but only because sacrificing the Stunty is the cost of playing its effect. If its effect was something like "Action: Destroy this unit and a target development." (when a card says "<do something> to <do something else>" everything before the "to" is a cost) Then GoM would only get 1 token, because the unit and development are destroyed simultaneously, and the Dark Elf -1 HP effect is a constant effect, so it applies simultaneously with the development being destroyed.

Entropy42 said:

I guess that makes sense, it is all one lump of units being destroyed. Thanks for the answers, everyone.