activated, triggered, and static abilities speed
Asked by ladygaura 1 year ago
At what speed do a) static b) triggered and c) activated abilities or creatures or lands play?
For instance, if I play the activated ability of Blighted Gorge, at what speed does that resolve?
I should have clarified... instant vs. sorcery speed.
September 26, 2022 1:28 p.m.
Rhadamanthus says... Accepted answer #3
To be clear:
- "Sorcery speed" means you can only do it when you have priority during a main phase on your turn while the stack is empty
- "Instant speed" means you can do it any time you have priority to take an action, including as a response to something else currently on the stack
Activated abilities use "instant speed" unless they specifically say otherwise in their rules text (for example: Bonecaller Cleric). They can be responded to with instants and other activated abilities, and they can be used to respond to spells, activated abilities, and triggered abilities.
When an event happens, triggered abilities that trigger from that event are put onto the stack the next time a player gets priority. If multiple triggers are trying to go onto the stack at the same time, the active player puts the ones they control on top of the stack in the order of their choice, then then the next player in turn order puts theirs on top, then so on around the table. There's no space to make a response in-between a triggering event happening and the trigger being put onto the stack.
Static abilities are just always on. There's no space to make a response in-between something entering the battlefield and its static abilities taking effect.
September 26, 2022 2:06 p.m. Edited.
okay, I realize I knew some of this and just wasn't thinking it out very well. Thanks for all of the clarifications.
September 26, 2022 3:18 p.m.
Rhadamanthus says... #5
ladygaura: Answers to your question have been up for a while. Since there don't seem to be any more follow-ups or corrections to be made, I marked one of them as the "Accepted answer" so this topic can move out of the list of unanswered questions. In the future you can take care of this yourself using the "Mark as Answer" button on the response that you feel best answers your question.
I try to avoid selecting my own responses when I do this, but in this case it seems to be the one that cleared things up the most.
Delphen7 says... #1
Static abilities are always active, and usually just modify how a card interacts with the game (ie Flying on Storm Crow)
Triggered and activated abilities go on the stack where they can be responded to by each player in turn order.
As a note: If you are referring to the original rules when you say speed, that has been removed. All spells have the same speed.
September 25, 2022 10:35 p.m.