How does Najal interact with an ability that can trigger only at sorcery speed
Asked by builderboy7 1 year ago
It's a funny thought experiment with cards like Najal, the Storm Runner with abilities that can be activated only anytime you could cast a sorcery like on the card Captivating Crew. The thought experiment becomes whether or not you could activate a card like Captivating Crew during an opponent's turn at instant speed?
I ask this because you could technically cast a sorcery during your opponent's turn. would that mean you could also activate the ability anytime since you could cast a sorcery at any time?
I know the likely answer is that you cannot activate Captivating Crew's ability during an opponent's turn but it just seemed like funny wording to me.
In the future, please remember to hit the green “mark as answer” button to indicate your question has been resolved. Since this question has been answered for over a week, I have gone ahead and marked an answer on your behalf. Though not my general preference, I marked my own answer as it was the only one available.
Caerwyn says... Accepted answer #1
You cannot. "Activate this ability any time you can cast for a sorcery" is a specific term of art that means "Activate this ability only during your turn and only if the stack is empty." It does not actually look at the timing of when you can physically cast a sorcery (thus it is not influenced by cards like Najal, the Storm Runner or Archon of Valor's Reach)--it only checks whether the stack is empty and if it is your turn.
This would be one of my personal nominations for the worst-written phrase in all of Magic's rules, since it consistently misunderstood as having interactions it simply does not have.
November 17, 2022 6:29 p.m.