How does Sivir - Ambitious work when Elder Dragon is in your base?

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With you controlling Elder Dragon (in your base or anywhere), Elder Dragon’s passive changes what counts as lethal damage for units that have damage marked by you: any non‑zero amount of your damage is lethal. That altered lethal value is used when determining "excess damage" for Sivir - Ambitious's conquer trigger. Concretely, that means it is harder to accumulate 5+ excess damage when you control Elder Dragon, because most units will only require a single point of your damage to be lethal (so less "excess" will be generated per unit). If you nevertheless do assign a total of 5 or more excess damage to enemy units during that attack, Sivir - Ambitious's ability can still deal that much to an enemy unit when you conquer after the attack.

Elder Dragon’s passive redefines lethal for units that have your damage marked to "any non‑zero amount" [FAQ:unleashed#8]. Excess damage for Sivir - Ambitious is calculated using that lethal definition. Therefore, while the text and effect of Sivir - Ambitious do not change, the amount of excess damage you actually generate during an attack will be calculated against Elder Dragon’s lowered lethal threshold, making it harder to reach the 5+ excess threshold. If you do reach it, the Sivir trigger may deal that much to an enemy unit when you conquer after the attack.

Combat is resolved, and the Resolution Step begins; a Combat Cleanup is invoked, including the special inserted steps to heal and recall attackers as appropriate [461.1.a]. Any units that received damage during combat are considered for lethal in Cleanup; lethal is checked according to the current definition in effect (Elder Dragon’s passive changes lethal for units that have your damage marked to any non-zero amount) [FAQ:unleashed#8] [323.5]. After kills/heals/recalls are handled during the Resolution Step, determine the combat result to see who (if anyone) has units remaining at the battlefield [461.3]. If you are the player who Establishes Control and you have not yet scored this battlefield this turn, that Establish Control results in a Conquer [461.5] [464.1]. When the Conquer event occurs, any triggered abilities watching for "When I conquer after an attack" (such as Sivir - Ambitious) will become Pending and be added to the Chain in the normal order for triggered abilities (subject to the normal Chain/priority flow). Because the lethal value used when assessing "excess damage" was modified by Elder Dragon earlier in Cleanup, the calculation of whether you 'assigned 5 or more excess damage to enemy units' will reflect Elder Dragon’s altered lethal definition [FAQ:unleashed#8]. If the condition (5+ excess) is met, Sivir - Ambitious's triggered ability resolves from the Chain and you may deal that much to an enemy unit as written on the card.

If some of the damage that would have been marked as yours was prevented (e.g., Counter Strike), that prevented damage is never dealt and therefore does not mark the unit; prevented marks cannot be counted toward Elder Dragon making lethal = any non-zero for that unit [FAQ:unleashed#19]. If Elder Dragon's play effect dealt 1 damage to units as it entered (it can target up to one enemy unit per location), that damage can make those units have your damage marked and therefore be subject to the altered lethal immediately even as Elder Dragon enters the board, per the Elder Dragon FAQ note that it can check damage marked before it finishes entering [FAQ:unleashed#8]. That can change how much excess damage you generate in the attack. If you control Elder Dragon but never actually marked any damage on a particular enemy unit with your effects this turn, that unit’s lethal remains its normal Might-based value for the purposes of computing excess damage. Because the provided Core Rules excerpt does not include the exact wording of the combat damage assignment step, there is some ambiguity in how total "excess damage" is summed across multiple units in a single attack; this ruling assumes the standard interpretation that excess is computed relative to lethal per unit and then totaled toward Sivir - Ambitious's threshold.

Elder Dragon’s passive fundamentally changes what "lethal" means for enemy units that have damage marked by you: any non‑zero amount of your damage is enough to kill them [FAQ:unleashed#8]. The condition on Sivir - Ambitious—"if you assigned 5 or more excess damage to enemy units"—relies on comparing damage assigned to the lethal threshold to determine how much damage was "excess." Because Elder Dragon reduces that lethal threshold to any non‑zero amount for units that have your damage marked, far less of the raw damage you assign to those units will count as "excess." Practically speaking, when you control Elder Dragon, you will generally need to allocate far larger raw damage numbers in order to produce 5 or more excess damage total during a single attack, making the Sivir - Ambitious condition harder to meet. If you do meet the condition (i.e., after computing excess using the Elder Dragon‑modified lethal definitions you have 5+ excess), Sivir - Ambitious's triggered ability functions normally and may deal that much to an enemy unit when you conquer after the attack. Note that damage that was prevented (e.g., by effects like Counter Strike) does not get dealt and therefore does not mark the unit or cause Elder Dragon's lethal change to apply to that damage instance [FAQ:unleashed#19]. Also note that Elder Dragon's play effect can mark units as having your damage even as it enters, so that play‑in damage can make the lethal rule apply during the same sequence [FAQ:unleashed#8]. Because the Core Rules excerpt provided here does not include the exact combat damage assignment text or an explicit mechanical definition of "excess damage," the above interprets "excess" as the usual computation relative to lethal (and uses the Elder Dragon FAQ as authoritative for how lethal is altered) and assumes Sivir’s Conquer trigger is handled as a triggered ability when Conquer occurs during the Resolution Step [461.1.a] [461.3] [461.5].