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Magic (The Gathering) => Rules => Topic started by: Raven316 on January 24, 2012, 09:23:47 AM

Title: Activated Abilities
Post by: Raven316 on January 24, 2012, 09:23:47 AM
If I play {Balthor the defiled} and then activate his ability and in response somebody targets my creature does his ability still trigger or is it lost in space?
Title: Re: Activated Abilities
Post by: BlackJester on January 24, 2012, 10:11:25 AM
Quote from: Raven316 on January 24, 2012, 09:23:47 AM
If I play {Balthor the defiled} and then activate his ability and in response somebody targets my creature does his ability still trigger or is it lost in space?
Since exiling {Balthor the Defiled} is part of the cost, as soon as you activate his ability he's not there anymore. No one can mess with him and nothing gets lost in 🚀🌃.
Title: Re: Activated Abilities
Post by: Raven316 on January 24, 2012, 11:56:18 AM
Good that's the answer I wanted to hear ... What if the opposite occurs aka they {Lighting bolt} it it response I can use its ability?
Title: Re: Activated Abilities
Post by: BlackJester on January 24, 2012, 12:12:40 PM
Quote from: Raven316 on January 24, 2012, 11:56:18 AM
Good that's the answer I wanted to hear ... What if the opposite occurs aka they {Lighting bolt} it it response I can use its ability?
As long as you have the mana, yep.  You can do it any time you have priority.
Title: Re: Activated Abilities
Post by: Raven316 on January 24, 2012, 02:02:17 PM
Ok one last scenario if someone plays a {Wrath of god} and I have {Balthor the defiled} in play and use his ability do I bring back : 1) no creatures 2) creatures already in my graveyard 3) all creatures in my graveyard and creatures I just lost from the battlefield. ?

Thanks again for the help
Title: Re: Activated Abilities
Post by: BlackJester on January 24, 2012, 02:15:01 PM
Quote from: Raven316 on January 24, 2012, 02:02:17 PM
Ok one last scenario if someone plays a {Wrath of god} and I have {Balthor the defiled} in play and use his ability do I bring back : 1) no creatures 2) creatures already in my graveyard 3) all creatures in my graveyard and creatures I just lost from the battlefield. ?

Thanks again for the help

If someone sweeps the table (plays a {Wrath of God} type spell) and you respond by using the Legendary Dwarf's ability here's how it'd go down:

-All B &/or R creatures would come back from the grave.
-WoG would resolve and destroy them all.

;_:
Unless they have Undying etc, probably not a good idea.
Title: Re: Activated Abilities
Post by: Raven316 on January 24, 2012, 04:00:22 PM
Ok thanks
Title: Re: Activated Abilities
Post by: Cllzzrd on January 24, 2012, 06:46:36 PM
I have a related question about activated abilities of cards. I have an {iron myr} and decide to tap him for mana. In response, my opponent decides to pay and tap his {Gideon's law keeper} to tap my myr before I tap it to prevent me from getting the mana. Do I still get the mana?

Can he use the same card to tap one of the five  Myrs that I am tapping for the second ability of a {myr turbine} so that I end up tapping 4 Myrs and wasting my turn?
Title: Re: Activated Abilities
Post by: 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.
Title: Re: Activated Abilities
Post by: Cllzzrd on January 24, 2012, 07:15:58 PM
Ok, that makes sense. Thank you for clarifying!
Title: Re: Activated Abilities
Post by: Alaskanice on January 24, 2012, 07:33:08 PM
So, once a person declares an attack phase, can the Gideon no longer tap the attacking creature?
Title: Re: Activated Abilities
Post by: BlackJester on January 24, 2012, 07:38:57 PM
Quote from: Alaskanice on January 24, 2012, 07:33:08 PM
So, once a person declares an attack phase, can the Gideon no longer tap the attacking creature?
The time to do it would be during the Beginning of Combat step. After that is the Declare Attackers step, and it would be too late.
Title: Re: Activated Abilities
Post by: Spikepit on January 24, 2012, 09:09:16 PM
Wow, good job Jester! You fended off those questions with ease! Reading it was like watching Jason Statham in Transporter when he gets surrounded and he fights each guy off one after the other! Lol
Title: Re: Activated Abilities
Post by: BlackJester on January 24, 2012, 09:30:21 PM
Quote from: Spikepit on January 24, 2012, 09:09:16 PM
Wow, good job Jester! You fended off those questions with ease! Reading it was like watching Jason Statham in Transporter when he gets surrounded and he fights each guy off one after the other! Lol
HAHAHAHA ðŸ˜,ðŸ˜,  I think I just peed a little.
Like Chuck Norris and a swarm of ninjas. ðŸ'¨ðŸ'ªðŸ'ŠðŸ'‹ðŸ'£â™¿
Anywho, just doing' ma job. ðŸ'®
Title: Re: Activated Abilities
Post by: Pakamper on January 24, 2012, 11:00:50 PM
ðŸ"¨ðŸ"¨ðŸ"¨ðŸ"¨ðŸ"¨
Title: Re: Activated Abilities
Post by: Rass on January 24, 2012, 11:41:05 PM
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
Title: Re: Activated Abilities
Post by: BlackJester on January 25, 2012, 12:09:20 AM
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.
Title: Re: Activated Abilities
Post by: Mentonin on January 25, 2012, 12:44:22 AM
Quote from: Rass on January 24, 2012, 11:41:05 PM
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?
Title: Re: Activated Abilities
Post by: BlackJester on January 25, 2012, 12:58:50 AM
@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.
Title: Re: Activated Abilities
Post by: Alaskanice on January 25, 2012, 01:18:48 AM
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.
Title: Re: Activated Abilities
Post by: BlackJester on January 25, 2012, 01:20:18 AM
Quote from: Alaskanice on January 25, 2012, 01:18:48 AM
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.
ðŸ'
Title: Re: Activated Abilities
Post by: Mentonin on January 25, 2012, 10:40:13 AM
Will I be able to tap the myr for mana in response to the sudden shock, as it's a mana ability?
Title: Re: Activated Abilities
Post by: BlackJester on January 25, 2012, 11:31:19 AM
Quote from: Mentonin on January 25, 2012, 10:40:13 AM
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}.