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A triggered ability generally starts with "At," "When," or "Whenever." Whether you're casting Walking Corpse, activating Captivating Crew, or triggering God-Pharaoh's Gift, they all use the stack.įor reference, an activated ability uses the template COST: Effect. Pretty much any spell you cast, non-mana activated ability you use, or triggered ability you play is going to use the stack in exactly the same way as described above. Here's a pretty common question: Which kinds of cards and abilities use the stack? (But for more on that, go read " The Instances for Instants.") What Uses the Stack?
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Remember, the last player to do something generally has the power.Īlso, let this be a lesson on why it's dangerous to deal damage to attacking creatures when your opponent is representing combat tricks. Sometimes in situations like this, neither player will cast either spell for fear of the unfavorable situation happening. My Bear becomes a 6/6, Lightning Bolt doesn't kill the Bear, and my opponent takes 6 damage. I get priority back-and I cast Titanic Growth! My opponent takes the opportunity to cast Lightning Bolt before damage happens. Except this time, I don't cast Titanic Growth.
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The situation is the same: I'm attacking with the Bear. The card "fizzles"-it's countered by the game rules because it no longer has a valid target. Titanic Growth is still on the stack, but it won't resolve. I have Titanic Growth in my hand, so I cast it! Take 4 more, my enemy! There's a tale as old as time: the Bolt and the Bear. In most games of Magic, this is totally obfuscated and correctly replaced by just saying " Walking Corpse, go." But there are times when the stack becomes important. They do, and so Walking Corpse enters the battlefield.īut note that if they had, say, a Cancel (perhaps one they took off Anticipate!), they could have used it to counter that Corpse. If my opponent passes priority, my Walking Corpse will resolve. Anticipate is in the graveyard, but Walking Corpse is still on the stack. However, in this case, my opponent casts Anticipate in response. If my opponent also elects to do nothing, Walking Corpse will enter the battlefield. I gain priority, and elect to not respond to my own spell. Let's try a real example to help visualize this. Notice something there? The thing that was cast second happened before the first one. Once we both pass priority, it will resolve. Now, my original spell is still on the stack. Well, then we both have an opportunity to do something again.Īs soon as we both elect to do nothing, my opponent's spell resolves. Easy.īut let's say that my opponent responds with a spell. If neither of us do, then the spell just happens. This chance to respond is called "priority." Then my opponent gets a chance to respond. The player whose turn it is (in this case, me) gets a chance to respond. Any spell-creature, instant, artifact, whatever. In this liminal space, you know something is going to happen, it just hasn't happened yet. In short, the stack is the limbo that Magic spells and abilities go to between being activated or cast and actually happening. It's time to take a look! The Stack: An Introduction What is the stack, how does it work, and what are some tricks you can pull off with it? And after combing through various DailyMTG articles and cross-linking them for a while, I noticed there hadn't been a lot said about the topic all in one place recently.
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(I'm thanking the Dino-saurs for this one.) He asked me for some good resources on how the stack works, and for how to best take advantage of it. My friend Dino started playing Magic recently. In a way, sitting down and explaining the stack is kind of like the birds and the bees talk of Magic. To try and keep invisible.Īnd while it's true that we don't try to teach the stack to new players, since it's an extra bit of confusing information to keep track of as you're trying to learn the already intricate and potentially overwhelming game of Magic, it's an important piece of the game. Those are two words that are sometimes whispered in hushed tones across Magic circles.