Rulings:Beast - Selfless Protector

Beast - Selfless Protector

Beast - Selfless Protector Rulings

Beast - Selfless Protector will receive the full amount of damage counters for the damage received, regardless of the Willpower of the Character that was damaged.^[1]

If Lilo - Making a Wish which only has 1 Willpower was dealt 3 damage by Smash while Beast is not in play, Lilo would take 3 damage, 3 damage counters would be placed on her, then she would be damaged.
In the same situation as above but with Beast - Selfless Protector in play, Lilo would still take 3 damage, and 3 damage counters would then be placed on Beast instead.

Placing damage counters on a character will not cause that character to be damaged. Therefore, Beast - Selfless Protector's SHIELD ANOTHER ability to put damage counters on himself would not trigger Beast - Relentless and allow it to ready.^[2]

If my opponent has Beast - Selfless Protector and Simba - Protective Cub in play, if you use Beast - Relentless to challenge Simba, Beast - Relentless would not be able to ready himself as damage was never placed on Simba. Furthermore Beast - Selfless Protector's SHIELD ANOTHER ability does not count as damaging himself, Beast - Relentless is unable to trigger his SECOND WIND ability.^[3]

Regarding damaging multiple characters at the same time:

If you have 5 characters in play, including 1 copy of Beast - Selfless Protector and your opponent plays Grab Your Sword to deal 2 damage to each of the 5 characters you have in play, the resulting total of 10 damage counters would all be placed on Beast, then Beast is banished.^[4]

If you have 4 characters in play, including 2 copies of Beast - Selfless Protector and your opponent plays Grab Your Sword to deal 2 damage to each of the 4 characters in play, both copies of Beast must have at least 2 damage counters, as they would take the damage in place of the other copy, then the remaining 4 damage counters from the other 2 characters can be placed in multiples of 2 on either copy of Beast (Since Grab Your Sword deals 2 damage per character).^[5]

The end result would be either of the following:

- One Beast has 6 damage counters and the other Beast only has 2 damage counters.
- Both copies of Beast each have 4 damage counters.

If you have 8 characters in play, including 2 copies of Beast - Selfless Protector and your opponent plays Grab Your Sword to deal 2 damage to each of the 8 characters in play, the first copy of Beast must have 2 damage counters, as he would take the damage in place of the second copy of Beast, then the remaining 14 damage would be placed on the second copy of Beast, which is the damage that would have been placed on all the other characters besides himself. After Grab Your Sword has finished resolving, the copy of Beast with 14 damage will be banished.^[3] (Steve Warner has clarified that it is still possible to choose which Beast will end up taking damage counters, similar to the previous example for 4 characters.^[6]

Regarding Resist:

If you control a Beast - Selfless Protector and a The Prince - Never Gives Up which has Resist +1 in play and your opponent challenges The Prince with Madam Mim - Fox which has 4 strength, The Prince's Resist would reduce the amount of damage taken to 3, then 3 damage counters would be placed on Beast - Selfless Protector by his SHIELD ANOTHER ability.^[3]

If you control a Beast - Selfless Protector and a The Prince - Never Gives Up which has Resist +1 in play and you play Teeth and Ambitions, choosing your own The Prince and an opponent's character, only 1 damage will be placed on The Beast, while 2 damage will be placed on the opponent's character.^[3]

If you control a Beast - Selfless Protector which has Resist +1 from Mouse Armor and a Simba - Protective Cub, then use Simba to challenge Madam Mim - Fox which has 4 strength, 4 damage counters would be placed on Beast - Selfless Protector as his SHIELD ANOTHER ability does not count as damaging Beast. Regardless of the amount of Resist Beast has, it will not affect the amount of damage that would be placed on Beast through his SHIELD ANOTHER ability.^[3]

If you control 2 copies of Beast - Selfless Protector and a Simba - Protective Cub, then use Simba to challenge Madam Mim - Fox which has 4 strength, you would have to pick 1 copy of Beast - Selfless Protector to place 4 damage counters on. Then as 1 of your Beast - Selfless Protector has received the damage that Simba was supposed to have taken, there is no longer any damage for the other copy of Beast to take, and therefore the other Beast would not have any damage counters placed on it.^[3]

Moving damage counters does not count as being dealt damage. Therefore Mama Odie - Voice of Wisdom's LISTEN TO YOUR MAMA NOW ability would not trigger Beast - Selfless Protector.^[7]