can you activate an artifact ability as the stack resolves?
Asked by Mr_crazydude 1 year ago
Hello everyone,
We encountered the following heavy discussing in our play group on whether or not someone could respond to the stack with an ability as the stack started to resolve.
On the field:
Player A has Shadowspear
Player B has a 'troublesome' creature out
Player A casts Infernal Grasp on player B's creature
Player B responds and casts: Blacksmith's Skill
Player A wanted to let the stack resolve so that he could activate the Shadowspear ability after Blacksmith's Skill would resolve, stripping the hexproof and indestructible off it and killing it. Player B discussed that he should have maintained priority after casting Infernal Grasp and activated the spear on top of it on the stack.
So who was right? Can you activate an ability and interact with the stack after a resolve of 1 card?
Mr_crazydude says... #2
Ok, thank you for the answer. I'll tell player B and blow his mind ;)
Rhadamanthus says... Accepted answer #1
What player A wants to do will work. After an object on the stack resolves, players are given another round of priority to take actions, even if there is something else still on the stack. It can only start resolving if all players pass priority in succession (and if there's nothing else on the stack, the game moves to the next step/phase after everyone passes). In your example that means Player A can activate Shadowspear after Blacksmith's Skill resolves but before Infernal Grasp starts resolving.
If Player A had done what Player B described, then Player B would have been able to respond with Blacksmith's Skill after the Shadowspear activation resolved, meaning the creature would have had hexproof and indestructible unless Shadowspear was activated again. However, if Player B was under the impression that players can't add new responses after objects on the stack start to resolve then I understand why they made this suggestion.
August 22, 2022 8:31 a.m.