Escaped Mental Patient and Rotschrek

Escaped Mental Patient
Ally - 1 pool cost
Mortal with 1 life. 1 strength, 0 bleed.
Escaped Mental Patient can enter combat with any minion controlled by another Methuselah as a action. The Patient can strike: hand strike at +1 damage, aggravated. Burn him at the end of combat if he does so.


Rötschreck
Master: out-of-turn. Frenzy.
Put this card on a vampire when an opposing minion attempts to inflict aggravated damage on him or her, whether the damage would be successfully inflicted or not. Combat ends. This vampire is tapped and sent to torpor. This vampire does not untap as normal. During this vampire's next untap phase, burn this card.


Situation:
Acting minion from predator attempts to bleed their prey. Prey blocks with the escaped mental patient. After acting minion chooses his strike, prey declares the mental patients strike for 2 aggravated damage. Since it's not the prey's turn (as he's defending) and his mental patients have attempted aggravated damage, now the prey plays the Rötschreck card. Because the card text of the Master Rötschreck includes the phrase "combat ends" the claim is that the mental patient's strike never gets resolved, meaning the mental patients aren't burned after combat.

So the question is, if a Rötschreck is played after the mental patients declare their 2 aggravated strike, do they stay on the field or not?

I would suggest that the Mental Patient survives.

1. Patient declares an aggravated strike.
2. Rotschreck is played and terminates the combat. Note: The patient didn't actually make the strike, just declared it. Therefore it does not meet the requirement "if he does so."

Yes the mental patient survives, just like a gun isn't burned from using dragon breath rounds if a rotshcrek is played.

Thank you both very much.

[LSJ 20001127]

LSJ wrote:

> I am succesfully blocking an action with my Escaped Mental Patient, vs
> Vampire X. During my strike phase, i decide to go for +1 aggravated
> hand damage, and then i play Rotschreck.
>
> 1) Do i have to burn him (EMP) at the end of combat?
No, since he didn't strike.

> 2) If i was striking instead, with a White Phosphorous Grenade,
> should i burn the grenade?
No; it is only burned after use.

> 3) And if i was using Dragon Breath Rounds, do i have to burn the gun?
Likewise, no.