What happens if I Silence my opponent after he taps mana, but hasn't played the card yet?
Asked by BGLENN68 9 years ago
My friend tapped two swamps, and immediately after (before he could play the card he was going to) I cast Silence . Does his mana stay tapped or may he untap it since he did not use his card?
You can't do that.
For one, When they have priority, the process for casting a spell is
1/ Announce the spell
2/ Choose targets
3/ Pay costs
4/ Put the spell on the stack
5/ Pass priority to you
Before 5/ you can't cast silence.
For two, tapping land for mana is a mana ability which does not use the stack and cannot be responded to.
There is no way, at all, to use Silence as a counterspell.
August 31, 2014 10:57 p.m.
I think what he is thinking of is:His friend taps two swamps to put mana in his mana pool. He uses silence so his friend cannot cast any spellsThe spell he was paying for cannot be cast, so he takes two points of mana burn at end of phase.
November 8, 2016 12:14 p.m.
That doesn't work for exactly the reason I spelled out before. You don't have priority to cast a spell during that point in the process.
Also, mana burn has not existed for YEARS and years and years.
GreatSword says... #1
You probably didn't play the game correctly. To properly answer this, you need to understand 2 things: priority and the stack.
A player can only perform actions (cast spells, activate abilties, play lands, etc) when he has priority. The active player (the one whose turn it is) receives priority first every step and phase. If that player decides to not perform any actions, the inactive player then recieves priority. If the inactive player also does not perform any actions, the game moves on to the next step or phase of the turn.
If a player does cast a spell or activate an ability, that spell/ability goes on the stack to resolve. Only when both players pass priority consecutively does any object on the stack resolve. This means both players get a chance to respond before anything resolves, starting with the active player.
Back to your question: You probably didn't have priority to cast your Silence . Only when he passes priority back can you cast it, and by then he may have already cast the spell, making your Silence worthless. As it says in the reminder text, Silence doesn't affect anything your opponent has already cast. Only when Silence resolves does it prevent him from casting anything.
August 31, 2014 10:56 p.m.