Activated Abilities

The Lawkeeper can't stop any of that.

The thing about activated abilities is that as soon as you say "I'm going to do this", you pay all costs ( including tapping), and put it on the stack. Only after that can people do anything, so unless they can counter an ability, it's too late for them to stop it.

Also, if they use an ability to try and tap one of your guys, their ability goes on the stack. You get a chance to use your ability before their ability taps your Myr.

Mana abilities are even hard to stop, but I wont go there.

See this doesn't sound right to me because your basically saying the myr's ability always trumphs the other tap abilities.
I thought people can start an action I.e. I'm going to to tap my myr for mana. Then you can respond and say no I'm going to interrupt that action and use my gideon guy to tap him and since it's first in last out. But that was along time ago

That's right. It's very difficult to prevent an activated ability.  The only hope you really have is to force the issue. To tap the Myr at a time when they probably can't use the mana, upkeep, declare attackers step etc.

Quote from: BlackJester on January 24, 2012, 07:03:29 PM

The Lawkeeper can't stop any of that.

The thing about activated abilities is that as soon as you say "I'm going to do this", you pay all costs ( including tapping), and put it on the stack. Only after that can people do anything, so unless they can counter an ability, it's too late for them to stop it.

Also, if they use an ability to try and tap one of your guys, their ability goes on the stack. You get a chance to use your ability before their ability taps your Myr.

Mana abilities are even hard to stop, but I wont go there.

See this doesn't sound right to me because your basically saying the myr's ability always trumphs the other tap abilities.
I thought people can start an action I.e. I'm going to to tap my myr for mana. Then you can respond and say no I'm going to interrupt that action and use my gideon guy to tap him and since it's first in last out. But that was along time ago

actually, when he says he taps his myr for mana, you can interrupt the ability, but not the cost. so, u would do like: "i tap it for mana" - taps myr - "oh, i tap it as an interrupt" - then if nothing is done, first the myr is tapped again(no useful effect) then it gets you the mana. am i right jester?

@Mentonin, more or less. Gideon's Lawkeeper's ability will still get put on the stack and will try to tap an already tapped creature. For cards that care (Gideon's other buddy Gideon's Avenger) this won't count as the creature being tapped again (or double-tapped 😁), it just does nothing.

Mana abilities are "faster" than activated abilities. I mean, they can be activated and used during the casting of a spell, something no other ability can do. So really, as soon as they tap the Myr for mana, it's in their mana pool before anything else happens.  Tricky.
Split Second spells Sudden Shock etc will do the trick, but they have to have priority.

Can you still tap your guy in response to being destroyed? Ex. I doom blade an avacyn's pilgrim in response, it taps for the mana, and then dies.

Can you still tap your guy in response to being destroyed? Ex. I doom blade an avacyn's pilgrim in response, it taps for the mana, and then dies.

👍

Will I be able to tap the myr for mana in response to the sudden shock, as it's a mana ability?

Will I be able to tap the myr for mana in response to the sudden shock, as it's a mana ability?

Yup!

Split Second (As long as this spell is on the stack, players can't cast spells or activate abilities that aren't mana abilities.)

Activated abilities of permanents are hard to stop.  Mana abilities even more so.  There are examples, Grand Abolisher stops them on your turn, Arrest and Stony Silence can shut them off.  But these are more like exceptions than the rule.

Look at the wording of cards like Stifle and Brown Ouphe.