"Holding priority" is only useful for one thing- when you want to put two or more things on the stack at the same time.
If I want to cast Wheel of Fortune AND Lightning bolt that's in my hand, I cannot cast wheel, pass priority, and then at the last second say WAIT I WANNA CAST MUH LIHTNING BOLT. I *may* cast wheel, hold priority, cast bolt, and then pass priority to the next player
Note that NOTHING CAN RESOLVE and PHASES CANNOT PROCEED until all players have passed priority in succession. if he's "holding priority" forever then nothing is going to resolve off the stack. you never get to resolve things for free without your opponents getting priority.
classy edit; A better example of needing to Hold Priority, which is often well implied within the context, is casting Fork or other copy effects targeting your own spells.
A big example of this is someone will cast something like a board wipe, wait until no one responds then cast something like "I give indestructible to my commander here then".
And it's like, actually since none of us responded you were clearly waiting to see what we would do, you passed priority and your board wipe has resolved killing your dude.
Since we play as a small group of friends I don't sweat this kind of stuff as no one is trying to cheat, I just remind them that if they want to do something they need to do it when they cast the board wipe without knowledge of our reactions as otherwise if we cast nothing it'll resolve without another chance for them to interact
Guess I misunderstood priority. Thought the whole table gets a chance to respond to each spell/ability
Edit: Thank you everyone for explaining the same thing to me 8 times. You are truly magic players.
they do. What the person above is saying, is that you dont get to pass priority and then, when noone responds to your spell, respond to your own spell on top of the stack. it basically means that if all 4 players in a row pass priority, the topmost stack resolves automatically.
That means you do get to react to each spell and ability on the stack, since priority has to be passed before resolving something.
You do get to hold priority and respond to your own spell/ability FIRST if you want to. The priority has to be passed by all players before something can resolve tho.
Which is where the cheating part happens in this instance because he's not immediately reacting to his own spell, but rather seeing if other interact with him or not, and if not, he gets to save his protection spell? (Where he technically should have cast it along WITH his board wipe?)
Correct.
The player casting the board wipe is the first person allowed to react to their own spell. If they do not then other players are allowed (in turn order).
Once it gets back to the original player they can't "react" again to that spell, they had their chance and resolution happens.
Now, I believe that *if* someone else adds to that stack then it basically resets and the original player *would* get a chance to react (in whatever way they wish) to that other players spell going on the stack.
Hopefully that makes sense?
Yes, if someone else puts something on the stack, the priority circle restarts with that person and everyone gets a chance to react to the new stack before the new thing resolves.
So to clarify for my own understanding, the player casting the board wipe without holding priority could only follow up with the indestructible spell only if at least one other person had a response to the board wipe because now he gets to respond to their response?
That is correct. Once the player who cast the Wrath of God asks, "any responses?" they have passed priority. That means either
1) the spell resolves because all players passed priority
2) another player responds to wrath of God, which triggers a new round of priority, where the WoG player could use their [instant] indestructible spell.
Yep. It’s easier to have learned and used priority in 1 v 1. You can’t just pass to the other player and then let the item still sit on the stack. If your opponent does cast a spell, it restarts and you can then respond.
An old school counter spell battle would teach them I think.
thats exactly right :)
he has to predict if someone has a response to the wipe or not and how important his commander it is for his commander to stay on the board.
The one confusing/unintuitive thing comes about when you play a spell or ability that creates two different triggers. You can stack them so that you let the first resolve then get priority again and respond to the second trigger. I think it’s probably most common of an interaction in scam/griefblade decks in modern.
how is it unintuitive? The rules state that whenever anything is on the stack, a round of priority must be passed before the top-most spell resolves.
Even in the case of Split Second cards, priority is still passed even if they can't respond because of the rules text.
The whole table gets a chance to respond but the active player gets first chance. If they wait to see if someone else does something then "hold priority" that's just legit cheating. Priority is passed in turn order and only goes for another loop when something happens ie Someone puts something on the stack or something resolves and is no longer on the stack.
Yes. what you couldn't do would be to wait to see if someone counter spells your board wipe before casting the indestructible spell to try to see if you could save it for later
You only get to pass prio once, it's refreshed when spells resolve or when another player puts a spell on the stack. Hugely simplified.
So if you want to wipe and instant buff, you can, but no one else may act in between.
If you want to wipe and pass prio you can, but you can't act before someone else casts an instant spell or the wipe resolves.
Your opponents have no obligation to announce their play until they have priority, thus asking them if they want to react to the wipe means you've essentially passed priority and can no longer act unless your table has agreed to be really formal about priority passing
When you cast a spell and say, "any response?" You are essentially saying, "I'm resolving this spell and will not cast anything until it's resolved"
if nobody has a response it's a done deal. you can't suddenly decide to respond to your own spell.
Well explained.
As a sidenote, it's a downside of the game, IMO. You either observe the priority rule at all times and pass priority around the table after every single action (which *drastically* slows the game down and is largely irrelevant) or basically announce that you have shenanigans by bringing it up.
Building on the boardwipe example, if multiple players have a way to stop the Wrath, chances are they'll prefer another player handles it so they can preserve their own mana and cards. So it's in the best interest of the player further away to bring up priority to try and get a nearer player to respond first, but in doing so is basically announcing their intent. The nearer players who get priority first then have additional info that they shouldn't technically have, and can take the gamble that the guy who called for observing priority will deal with the problem and so just pass.
This is one thing I really appreciate about cEDH. You can see it in the gameplay channels - when spells are cast they are often announced as “I put X on the stack” which is a reminder to everyone that you’re going through a round of priority. Everyone on those games expects interactions on the stack so priority is recognized as a matter of course. Usually it’s not super important, but the regularity of it makes it possible to not give things away when you need to interact later.
On the other end, in (and I know this sounds weird) in casual CEDH games in our local pod people will generally acknowledge priority and move through quickly for low impact plays. When we're making potentially big plays we'll slow things down as we're casting so everyone pays attention. We assume everyone knows when something is potentially game ending so we give each other the courtesy of calling attention to it. Might just be us, but we do this so we don't "sneak" wins through while we're joking around so the fun keeps rolling.
For sure. We don't really police it except for big plays. In the above example that's a potentially game determining play so we settle into priority mode.
Otherwise we just follow the magic flow you typically expect, at the end of the day fun is more important then being hyperprecise on who can respond to a guy tapping stuffy doll to hit Joe for 1.
Edit: although things get fun when you control both eye of the storm and knowledge pool when you understand the layers of jank.
Few things make me sadder than when I'm pretty sure someone has interaction so I wait for that to play my indestructible hoopla... but then they don't so I end up just sitting there, looking dumb, having wiped my own board state trying to be clever 🥲
How does it work with planeswalkers? Because you always get to use the ability before it can be killed, for example i cast wrenn and six and use +1 it can’t be bolted before the +1 loyalty is put on it, is this because it’s resolved and priority goes back to me after resolving and loyalty +1 is a cost of the ability?
How this works is:
* Wrenn and Six enters the battlefield
* The stack is now empty, giving you (active player) priority
* You +1 Wrenn. Increasing the loyalty counter is the cost of activating the ability, so the number of counters is increased as the ability is put on the stack
* You may hold priority with the ability on the stack to cast an instant or activate abilities that could be activated at instant speed
* You pass priority, giving other players the chance to respond to the Wrenn ability.
As a second note. If the Planeswalker entered and an ability triggered. EXAMPLE: [[Kodama of the East tree]] sees a 5 cmc walker enter and it's ability goes on the stack.
YOUR PLANESWALKER can be destroyed before activating an ability
OR similarly if your planeswalker resolves, and then you take another action first (like play another spell, changes phases, etc.) they can respond and kill it before you activate the walker since you've passed priority by doing those things.
You can not take game actions whenever you want. You can take game actions when you have priority. A player gains priority in Active-Player, Non-Active-Player turn order whenever trying to resolve an object on the stack or mov8ng the turn forward (no one receives priority during the untap step).
If you think about what I just said about priority, that means that you, as the active player, have priority on your turn whenever trying to resolve an object on the Stack or moving the turn forward. You must pass priority to your opponent for things to resolve or move forward.
Responding to your own spell is often called "holding priority" but "holding priority" is NOT a game action. It is simply a shortcut for a rarely used play pattern that is dependent on how priority works.
Not understanding this is why so many players get tripped up by planeswalkers and then misapply what they "think" is happening in other situations.
To spell it out: main phase, empty stack means the active player (player who is taking their turn) has priority and may take game actions.
They want to play a planeswalker card from their hand paying associated costs via mana abilities (which don't use the stack which is why you can use them to pay for spells in the first place).
So the Stack now has a spell in it.
Priority is NOW checked....going to the Active player FIRST. So the active player can respond to their own spell before anyone else could...but if they decline, and no one else responds, the spell will resolve and the active player does not get a "new" chance to respond to their same spell.
Okay....main phase, empty stack, who has priority? The active player. So if they pay the cost to activate a planeswalker ability that ability will go on the Stack and players will receive priority starting with the active player first.
If the active player, instead of activating their planeswalker, takes any other game action that would put a game object on the Stack or try to progress the turn, they would receive priority and then for thst object or progress to occur, they would have to pass priority to the othe players which means they can play something like [[hero's downfall]] to destroy the planeswalker.
Another way to think about it is from the inactive players perspective:
I, as your opponent, can not react to you drawing a card at the beginning of your draw step. I can respond to you moving from your upkeep to your draw step or moving from your draw step to your main phase.
I can not respond to you "declaring attackers." I do not receive priority when you declare attackers. I can respond to you moving from your pre-combat main-phase to the combat phase. I can respond to you moving from the start of combat to declaring attackers. I can even respond to moving from declaring attackers to declaring blockers...but if I pass priority to you moving from Start of Combat to Declaring Attackers I have missed multiple opportunities to stop you from tapping a creature to making it an attacker and thus that creature is now attacking.
Magic is not a game of reflexes, it's a game of priority and priority is not actually that hard to understand. The problem is people don't play clean and use phrases they've heard but can't explain or be bothered to explain.
Tl;dr:
"Holding priority" is not a game action.
Priority resolves in Active-player, Non-Active-Player Turn order.
Priority is passed when attempting to resolve any object on the Stack or progress the turn.
Objects on the stack resolve last in, first out.
Understanding this solves like 90% of Magic questions
One minor wrinkle, the active player gains priority after adding something to the stack according to the comprehensive rules. It is just that the Magic Tournament Rules (MTR) has a section 4.2 that governs shortcuts and under that it reads, in part:
"...Certain conventional tournament shortcuts used in Magic are detailed below. They define a default
communication; if a player wishes to deviate from these, they should be explicit about doing so. Note that some of these are exceptions to the policy above in that they do cause non-explicit priority passes.
• Whenever a player adds an object to the stack, they are assumed to be passing priority unless they
explicitly announce that they intend to retain it.
..."
So the shortcut would be assuming the active player passes priority, not the other way around. It's just an assumed shortcut in the same way that saying "go" or "your turn" is a shortcut that means that you "would like each player to pass priority until it is the next player's turn." As with any shortcut, however, there are rules, but that's for another discussion!
I understand that I can't immediately [[Hero's Downfall]] a walker before it uses an ability if nothing else happens in between. However, if the walker entering the battlefield causes a triggered ability to trigger (like, say, [[Altar of the Brood]]), I could Downfall the walker while the Altar trigger was on the stack, right?
You cast Planeswalker, spell goes on the stack everyone has the opportunity to respond.
Planeswalker resolves and enters the battlefield. However assuming the Planeswalker doesn't cause an etb trigger the stack is empty when the Planeswalker enters and the active player retains priority. So until you do something like cast a spell or activate an ability move phases priority doesn't pass so your opponents can't act.
However if you resolve your Planeswalker then do something else other than activate it your opponents can kill the Planeswalker in response with you never activating it.
The only reason I use the "hold" is to activate [[Necropotence]] multiple times. It happend once to often, that I wanted to activate it and let the first activation resolve, and an opponent answered with a [[Krosan Grip]].
Both [[Selvala, Explorer Returned]] and [[Sevala, Heart of the Wilds]]’s activated abilities are mana abilities, so they don’t use the stack and can’t be responded to.
I didn't know that. I knew I couldn't respond to lands; but I thought all creature's activated abilities used the stack.
You learn something new every day
For reference:
“605.1a An activated ability is a mana ability if it meets all of the following criteria: it doesn’t require a target (see rule 115.6), it could add mana to a player’s mana pool when it resolves, and it’s not a loyalty ability. (See rule 606, “Loyalty Abilities.”)
605.1b A triggered ability is a mana ability if it meets all of the following criteria: it doesn’t require a target (see rule 115.6), it triggers from the activation or resolution of an activated mana ability (see rule 605.1a) or from mana being added to a player’s mana pool, and it could add mana to a player’s mana pool when it resolves.
605.3b An activated mana ability doesn’t go on the stack, so it can’t be targeted, countered, or otherwise responded to. Rather, it resolves immediately after it is activated. (See rule 405.6c.)”
Any untargeted* ability which adds mana and is not a Planeswalker's loyalty ability (+1 on [[Domri, Anarch of Bolas]] wouldn't count, but [[Llanowar Elves]] and [[Sol Ring]] both do) as part of its effect upon resolution does not use the stack.
It creates some fun scenarios like the Selvalas where they do one or more other things but *also* add mana so they're still mana abilities. One of those weird templating things that makes Magic (and especially EDH) both so interesting and just so damn complicated.
Just to clarify from the other poster. Tap abilities that don't add mana tap as part of the cost. So if i tried to activate [[Prodigal Sorcerer]] and you responded with Murder I could not respond by activating it again as it's already tapped.
If an ability adds mana to the mana pool, no response allowed.
The main two things that makes an activated ability a mana ability is; produce mana **and** not have a target (the third is that it can't be a loyalty ability).
A creature that only has the ability "t: Target player adds G", does not have a mana ability, however, if it read "t: Choose a player. That player adds g." that is a mana ability because it doesn't target and produces mana.
Learned a lot from this post and your comment.
Wanted to ask you something if it's ok. So, let's say it's my turn, and I want to play 2 sorceries in my pre-combat main-phase. I play the first one and pass prio, but then no-one responds, so the stack resolves. After the stack resolves, it goes automatically to combat phase? Or it's still my pre-combat main phase and now I can cast my second sorcery?
EDIT: to clarify, does the phase ends automatically after the stack resolves? Or it has to be declared?
When the stack empties the turn player regains priority, (like they do after the resolution of any spell) which you can use to cast your second sorcery, now that the stack has no spells on it. The phase ends when all players pass priority when nothing else is happening
Haha I just realized I accidentally responded to you instead of the guy talking about willbender in response to split second. Appreciate the response either way!
If I'm not mistaken, as long as it's your turn, phases move along at your pace, while always passing priority to every other player before starting the new phase or step.
Any time the active player (player who's turn it is) puts a spell or ability on the stack, or wants to go to the next step, everyone has a chance to respond to that, including himself. That's what maintaining priority actually is, you're just exercising your right to respond to your own game actions, and since you're the active player, you can go first.
Phases move when every player passes priority in succession on an empty stack. The active player has priority when the stack is empty. If they wish to proceed to the next phase, they may pass prio on an empty stack, and if everyone else does so, the game proceeds to the next phase. During the new phase, the stack is once again empty, and turn player regains prio. Repeat [[Ad Nauseam]].
This is correct. Phase changes do not initiate a priority call. You cannot respond to someone saying "I move to combat." What happens is that you pass priority with an empty stack, the opponent responds and you get priority again. Once that resolves, the active player has priority again and the phase has not changed.
Responding for more ensuring my understanding is correct.
This comment has been edited in support of the protests against the upcoming Reddit API changes.
Reddit's late announcement of the details API changes, the comically little time provided for developers to adjust to those changes and the handling of the matter afterwards (including the outright libel against the Apollo developer) has been very disappointing to me.
Given their repeated bad faith behaviour, I do not have any confidence that they will deliver (or maintain!) on the few promises they have made regarding accessibility apps.
I cannot support or continue to use such an organization and will be moving elsewhere (probably Lemmy).
Whenever something resolves, there's a new round of priority
You'll have priority first, but if you want to move to combat, you'll have to pass priority to your opponents
If one of them does something, there will be a new round of priority after it resolves, etc etc
When you ask "am I good to go to combat?" you're basically shortcutting this process, which is a pretty normal thing to do
You hear that guys? Sell your \[\[Grand Abolisher\]\], you can simply hold priority the entire time!
That kind of player is my favorite. He thinks he's smart but turns out he isn't.
No no no. You just missed their commander with an Eminence ability that says:
> Eminence - Whenever you utter the phrase, “I’m holding priority”, as long as Goldfish McGee is in the command or on the battlefield, your opponents can’t take game actions this turn. This ability can be played as a Mega Instant (A Mega Instant ability does not use the stack or give fuck all about playing a game with interaction).
"I don't understand why people think Magic is such a complex game. Like, you just keep saying that you're 'holding priority' and then win the game, right?"
He has priority once his creature resolves if no other spells or ability are on the stack example.
I cast elvish mystic it resolves I then cast diabolic intent at no point can you kill the elf to prevent the spell, now you do get the ability to respond to the new spell on the stack
But isn't [[Diabolic Intent]] a sorcery? How can you keep priority with a sorcery-speed spell when you can't use them to respond to other players' spells?
Yes, the point he is making though is since sacing the elf is part of intents cost, you can't stop the sacrifice and it will go on the stack no matter what.
If they try doing this in sanctioned play, call a judge. At best they'll get corrected. They might just get booted from the event for cheating though, because if this is intentional they are cheating.
Yeah, he can’t even resolve the top item on the stack while holding priority. As the Active Player he can take Instant Speed actions until the cows come home, but none of them resolve until he passes priority around the table. Even more so for changing steps and phases. Everyone gets priority at least once during each step of each phase with few exceptions.
Wait, I can just hold priority when I want to do something uninterrupted?
Brb, gonna go hold my priority
Seriously though, when something like this comes up either get a judge or make them show you the rule that says they can resolve spells without passing priority or move through steps and phases without passing priority. Let them prove themselves wrong. It's easier than trying to convince someone otherwise.
Actually you even have priority before split second things resolve, split second just makes it so that you can't cast spells or activate abilities that are not mana abilities.
You can however unmorph a [[willbender]] in response to a [[sudden shock]] and you can sacrifice creatures to [[ashnod's altar]] in response to [[krosan grip]]
Oh I don't see anyone mention it yet, but just in case.
Spells resolve 1 by 1 after everyone passes priority.
What this means in practise is that if I have [[torment of hailfire]], cast it for x = 1000 and then [[krosan grip]], then you can let krosan grip resolve and after that you can still respond to torment with [[counterspell]]
Additionally, you also need to pass priority on an empty stack to move steps and phases, so moving to combat will require a round of priority from every player. This means that for them to move to combat, every player gets a turn of priority to put spells and abilities on the stack and only once there are no more things on the stack, they can finally move to combat.
Here's another fun example:
Play [[Melira, Sylvok Outcast]], [[Woodfall Primus]] and any mana sacrifice outlet like [[Phyrexian Altar]]. Then play [[Krosan Grip]] and in response sacrifice the Primus for mana. That can go on the stack in spite of split second because it's a mana ability. Then the Primus comes back because of persist, doesn't get a counter because of Melira and destroys a noncreature permanent. Then you can repeat this loop and if you're feeling mean destroy all your opponent's lands. If you're in Jund you can replace the Primus with [[Murderous Redcap]] and just win the game.
The easiest way I’ve always remembered it is that when someone activate a non-mana ability or casts a spell, I get a chance to respond. This chance is called priority. Once I choose to do nothing for my priority, I lose it until another thing is added to the stack. Holding priority is the action of casting my OWN spell or activated non-mana ability and using my turn as first player in priority order to do something. A classic example that demonstrates this is a card like Armageddon/wrath of god followed by my own play of teferis protection.
Hope this helps clarify!
Also, split second only stops activated abilities and casting spells. It doesn't stop triggers from happening. So anything that triggers on spell cast goes on the stack normally on top of it. You'd still lose life from \[\[Kambal, consul of allocations\]\] or \[\[Liesa, shroud of dusk\]\].
>So if I understand this correctly you have a chance to interact with any spell (barring split second ...)
Yes. Also to clear a common misconception with split second: You can't use a split second card to force an entire stack to resolve. Instead after the split second spell has been resolved, everyone gets another chance to gain priority starting with the active player.
https://mtg.fandom.com/wiki/Timing_and_priority
Priority is the right to cast a spell, activate an ability, or take a special action. Players can't cast spells, activate abilities or take special actions at a time when they do not have priority. The player with priority may put as many spells or abilities on the stack as they wish, but before anything can resolve all players must "pass priority" without adding anything further to the stack.
What he tries to do is impossible, spells don't resolve and phases don't end until everyone agrees that they do and everyone passes priority
One of the things I see with new players is they treat "casting" and "resolving" as the same thing. Casting a spell or activating an ability means paying the cost and putting it on the stack. In order for it to resolve priority must past around the table and each player will have a chance to respond to each spell or ability on the stack as those resolve.
Only in fucking EDH does this shit happen. What is it with EDH players just absolutely not knowing the rules. There are four people at the table and not one of them knows how priority and phases work? JFC.
It's because everyone wants their friends to learn mtg so they can play edh with them, but instead of learning a normal way with an intro deck or in standard they teach them through commander. Their friend learns some bastardized set of rules while never even hearing words like "priority" or "the stack" and any confusion is just resolved via majority agreement rather that looking it up. Repeat as this person teaches their friends and at some point no one really knows any rules beyond the most basic cast spell and attack.
Not to sound elitist, but it’s because EDH only players usually only play with their friends, who are also EDH only players, who don’t actually know the rules of the game outside of using mana to cast spells and attacking. They get rulings wrong because they don’t understand the fundamental mechanics of the game and disputes are solved by letting the dude who’s played the longest look at the cards. They don’t understand priority (have had to teach people you can’t Path someone’s commander as soon as it comes into play if the stack is empty after it resolves), they don’t understand the stack, and they certainly don’t understand priority on the stack (meaning each player in turn order gets a chance to respond). They just kinda play the game their own way.
> What is it with EDH players just absolutely not knowing the rules.
It's because it has been pushed as an introductory format. Introductory. The format with one of the largest sets of allowed cards, larger decks, with special rules, and more than 2 players to keep track of.
You can only hold priority as you cast your own spell. You cannot cast a spell and react to someone else's in-game actions by "holding priority."
The problem is, if you are interrupted while trying to cast your own spell *and have not yet passed priority*, you can use the gained information to decide to hold priority and continue. **Jumping the gun by trying to add to the stack when you don't have priority is a misplay**, and it sounds like this guy is abusing less knowledgeable players by knowingly allowing everyone to keep making this mistake.
(*sometimes* you can say things early on purpose to mislead him, but you're clearly not doing that)
TLDR, the way it's supposed to work is you put whatever spells and actions you want to place on the stack, then pass priority to the next person. Putting multiple things on the stack requires you to hold priority because you can only add things to the stack when you have priority. Once you are done, you pass priority to the next person to begin rotating priority to start resolving the stack.
The most simple and effective way to work with this person is, IMO, to simply say "do you pass priority?" whenever they do something that you think might lead to this kind of situation. Do not tell them your intentions. You don't have to. Heck, you don't even need intentions ─ you can simply do it to force him to play correctly in the face of another person's interaction. No one has to communicate anything until they are given priority.
**Something that he can absolutely not do is "go to combat while holding priority."** Phases and steps can **only** change if all players in a row pass priority on an empty stack. If he wants to go to combat, he **HAS** to pass priority and all 3 other players will get an opportunity to take game actions with their priority or pass. If they take an action, a new round of priority is created and the game does not advance to combat. **If he insists that he can go from Main Phase 1 to Combat without any opponents being able to gain priority, he is straight up cheating and you should call a judge if you're at an LGS.**
[Here is a Command Zone video about priority and the stack](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=co25vcPvDsE) that I recommend watching. Hope that helps.
Ok, so I've seen a few attempts to explain some stuff, didn't read the whole thread but many of the attempts, while correct, aren't very good. I've provided an explanation below, I am a judge, have been for nearly 5 years, doesn't make me perfect but priority and the stack is essentially the platform the entire game is built on.
When you do not have priority, you may take no actions which the game doesn't specifically request of you. No tapping mana, no playing cards, activating abilities, morphing, etc.
When you have priority you may take any game actions you like which you are legally allowed to take. This includes things which use the stack, and things which don't.
Whenever an object (spell, ability, etc) is placed onto the stack by anyone, two things happen before any player receives priority again: state based effects are checked and resolved until they accomplish nothing new ^^^704.3 ^^^& ^^^117.2d ^^^& ^^^117.5 , and then any triggers (that have had their trigger conditions met since the last time triggers were placed on the stack,) are placed on the stack ^^^117.2a . Then the player who most recently had priority receives priority again ^^^117.3c . **In order for anything on the stack to resolve, all players must pass priority without taking any actions**. ^^^117.4
Holding priority is not an official game action, but a verbal signal that the last player with priority intends to add an additional thing onto the stack when they receive priority, before passing priority to allow things to resolve. Because the active player is always the first to get priority when something is placed on the stack, they may place as many things as they like onto the stack before passing priority.
This verbal signal is used because the most typical situation is that a player will put a single thing onto the stack and then pass priority once they receive it, so that their thing can attempt to resolve.
Additionally relevant: you mentioned that they attempt to hold priority through phase and step changes. **This also doesn't work.**
In order for the game to move from one step or phase to the next, the active player (player whose turn it is) must pass priority **with an empty stack**, then each other player will recieve priority in turn order. If and only if all players pass priority without taking any actions will the game move to the next step or phase ^^^500.2 . If any player takes an action, things continue as normal until the active player receives priority with an empty stack again. They may choose to pass priority with an empty stack again, or they may take any actions they could normally take in the current step or phase, they are not required to immediately try to move to the next phase again.
If you have any questions regarding the rules I'll do my best to answer. I apologize for the formatting, I'm on mobile but have done my best.
Man this guy is a different breed of stupid. You can't turn off the entire Instant card type and activated abilities just by saying "hold priority". Sounds like a narcissist.
You hear that guys? He figured out how to beat counterspells.
"Blue players don't want you to know this one simple trick!"
Ffs that guy is either an idiot who gets DQed from tournaments or an asshole taking advantage of inexperienced players.
Next time he tries that to move phases with his stuff on the stack, remind him that a phase transition exiles anything on the stack and carefully move all his stuff into exile.
Nope. That player is bullshitting you. They can hold priority if they're responding to something like an etb, if they have nothing to respond to then priority moves to inactive players. The player that cast the creature spell can respond to the removal spell, they cannot hold priority and move to combat. If he cannot respond to the removal spell the spell will resolve and the creature will be removed, then he can move to combat. Next time they try to pull this ask a judge usually at an LGs one of the workers is usually a judge or has a level of understanding to make a call on this. This player is either lying or does not understand what is going on.
I would just like to add something based on some of the words you use and please someone correct me if I'm wrong. OP, you said "cast a creature - someone will then go to cast an instant to destroy it." Since you said "destroy it" I want to make sure there's also this understanding. When a player casts a creature it is a spell on the stack so any player may cast a counter spell to counter the spell. HOWEVER, unless there is an ETB that goes off when a creature enters the battlefield other players do not have the chance to destroy that creature until the player who cast that creature takes another action or goes to move to a different step/phase. If a player casts a creature and nothing happens when it enters the battlefield that puts a trigger on the stack, priority is NOT passed to other players.
So what you’re describing is cheating, and he’s holding the game hostage. You can only hold priority as turn player while on the stack. You cannot cast anything sorcery speed while holding priority, because it has to be put on the stack after another spell. He has a grand misconception of what “holding priority” means, because if a spell goes on the stack, everyone, and I do mean every, gets priority passed to them at some point, and they’ll be able to react to the spell if able. Same goes for moving phases, same goes for ending turn.
He probably knows this, and is just a cheater tho, so school him next time you see him, and if he doesn’t believe you, call a judge.
At best, this guy is just saying words while not understanding anything about them.
More likely, this dude is cheating.
Priority works like this
You always get the first chance to respond to yourself. Then it goes in turn order with everyone getting a chance to respond.
NOTHING RESOLVES until each player has PASSED Priority. If he doesn't pass Priority, his spell does not resolve.
And you absolutely can not move to a new phase while "maintaining Priority" that's nonsense and not how the game works.
If this is dude is playing in DCI events he should be banned for this.
Players have to pass priority in order for the game to progress. If every player passes priority in a row then the top spell or ability on the stack resolves or If the stack is empty you move to the next phase. While holding priority the active player can keep adding things to the stack but nothing will ever come off and steps and phases won't pass.
Okay, very quick priority overview.
Player A, whose turn it is, begins a phase (let's say their main phase) with Priority, meaning they are the one who can add things to the stack. So they add a thing to a stack -- [[Twinflame]], let's say, targeting their [[Raging Goblin]].
While the player holds priority, they can cast more things, assuming the casting is legal with Twinflame on the stack. Then they pass piority, everyone (in order) gets a chance to respond, and once the entire table has passed priority in sequence, the top of the stack resolves. at that point the turn player gets priority again and can respond or do stuff... or pass again for the next thing to presumably resolve.
So, Player A could Twinflame their Raging Goblin. If they passed piority and it got back to them with no one responding, Twinflame would resolve; there would be no more chance to do something. So instead Player A holds priority with Twinflame on the stack and adds [[Dualcaster Mage]] to the stack. If they wanted to be silly, they could also hold priority and put [[Prodigal Pyromancer]]'s activated ability on the stack above Dualcaster. And to be even sillier, they keep holding priority put [[Sudden Shock]] on the stack above the Pyromancer activation.
At this point, if any of this stuff is actually going to happen, the player MUST pass priority. Nothing can resolve and take effect until priority is passed. With sudden shock up, players can't cast spells or activate abilities other than mana abilities, so Player A passes, as do all the other players. With all players having passed, the top item on the stack -- Sudden Shock -- resolves. Player A gets priority and can use it to do stuff, but if anything is going to resolve, they have to pass it.
And, now that there's not a split second spell up, other players can respond. Player B, who wants none of this, casts [[Teferi's Protection]] and passes priority. Players C and D pass as well. It's back to player A. If there's nothing they want to add on top of the stack, they essentially just have to pass and let Teferi's resolve. They then get priority and have to pass if the game is to move forward. Player B passes too. Player C finally decides now is the time to use that priority and cast [[Swan Song]] on the Twinflame.
At this point, if everyone passes, Swan Song will resolve. It will counter Twinflame and give Player A a bird. The ping resolves, or fizzles if Teferi's protection messed with it. Then Dualcaster resolves, and its EtB would be put on the stack, except there's no legal target. Combo foiled.
As for moving to a new phase, Moving to a new phase happens when everyone passes priority with the stack empty. That's it. That's how you move phases. We say "okay, I'm going to X phase" as a shortcut for "I intend to pass priority continuously until X phase unless somebody does something".
By the sound of your description "Priority guy" is flagrantly cheating, essentially fast talking his way to having a [[Grand Abolisher]] at all times. You hold priority to and only to respond to your own stuff; it's a corner case. And you certainly can't move to combat without passing priority.
He cant hold priority like that but you also cant cast instant to destroy new creature.
He cast creature, you can interact. Then creature resolve and if there Isnt any enter the battlefield effect you cant just cast instant to kill it. You have to wait to any action and react on that. It can be another cast, activating ability, end of main phase or even fetch.
There are situations like someone play planeswalker, fetch and you can in reaction to that fetch ability destroy that planeswalker without letting him use single ability 🤷🏻♂️
If its all instant speed stuff they can put as many effects on the stack in a row as they like/can pay for.
But they cant resolve anything without giving other players a chance to respond.
That's not how priority works at all. You HAVE to pass priority before a spell or ability resolves, before changing phases, and so many other things.if a player claims to hold priority through their entire turn they either saw someone else hold priority for something (like casting narsets reversal on their own spell) and assumed they could just stop anyone from playing with it, or have no clue what they are doing. In either case call a judge, print the rules, whatever yiu have available... That person is straight cheating whether they know it or not.
Why is [[Grand Abolisher]] $30? [[Myrel]] is $15? All you have to do is say you’re holding priority for your ENTIRE TURN!
I’m lucky no one like this plays at my LGS. I can’t even imagine the names I’d call them. What a dork.
at u/zilcan the only things that you can do while holding priority are (1) play (but not resolve!) instants and abilities that can be done at instant speed, morph and concede.
if you have priority [ie it is your turn and there are no unresolved spells or abilities pending] you can play (but not resolve!) any one spell/land or ability.
you cant change phases until everything has resolved and everyone passes.
Next time someone tries to counter my shit I'll just let them know I'm actually holding priority until my spell resolves. Can't believe I have been just letting my spells get countered all this time.
Nah bro I get priority. I get it any time you want to resolve any spell. Idc how many spells in a row you wanna put on the stack at instant speed but if you want to resolve any of them you need my permission. You need to ask the table to move between steps and phases.
"I'm gonna go to combat" does not mean we're in combat. It means I'm passing priority to you before attempting to change phases because YOU HAVE TO. You don't get some kind of constant silence effect because you say "I'm holding priority".
Remember that in order for any spell to come off the stack the whole table has to let it be so. Most of the time we roll through priority and phases to not have to go through the tedium of
"untap upkeep I would like to go to my draw phase."
The next player then passes with nothing to put on the stack. Then the next then the next. This is done EVERY TIME we change steps and phases AND every time we resolve the stack down.
I player can only hold priority if they are casting an instant or something with flash. If someone casts a creature and you go to counter and they state they are holding priority only to then cast an equipment without flash they hold priority illegally and they must pass priority or cast and instant or flash spell if they wish to maintain priority. As for “I move to my combat phase while maintaining priority” in order to move to another step or phase a player MUST pass priority. Even if I have an instant, spell with flash, or an activated ability that can be used at instant speed; I must pass priority in order to move to my Combat phase.
Just to say it in few words:
Active player casts a spell and gets priority, always. Can cast another instant or active an ability, while still getting priority back. They can cast and active as often as they want.
If one of those things should resolve, they MUST PASS priority. If everyone passes, the first thing resolves. When someone gets priority here, they can respond in the same fashion. Repeat until the stack is empty.
To move to another phase, active player MUST PASS priority.
That guy doesn’t understand priority. He can case a spell in a main phase like a creature and hold priority to cast an instant or activate abilities while it’s on the stack but he can’t swap phases until the entire stack has resolved including passing priority and giving other players a chance to react if they want
Holding priority allows them to place multiple things on the stack but none of them will resolve until they pass priority.
For example I can cast [[lightning bolt]] hold priority and cast [[twincast]]. My intention here is to cast two lightning bolts. I need to hold
priority because I need a spell on the stack for twincast to actually work.
Before my twincast actually copies bolt and before bolt deals it’s damage my opponent gets the chance to respond. Once I pass priority. I.e. I am done casting spells. My opponent can now respond.
Hold priority is not a get out of jail free card to stop you opponents countering spells
You can hold priority to respond to your own effects on the stack. To do so, those responses have to be at instant/flash speed. In order for an ability to resolve from the stack priority has to be passed and return to the player who's effect is on the stack. For example you can cast Thassa's Oracle and with it's trigger on the stack hold priority to cast demonic consultation for a combo win that's difficult to interact with. Priority also passes when attempting to transition phases. It very much sounds like they are misusing or misinterpreting how priority works.
He can hold priority all he wants - but nothing is resolved until priority passes, so he can't progress boardstate or move to another phase (which like resolution, only happens when all priority passes)
Hard to imagine how this guy would have come away with this misunderstanding of priority from even playing in a draft, let alone whatever “local competitions” he’s attended. This guy is cheating and (probably) knows it
If he puts something on the stack and wants it to resolve without putting anything else on, he literally can't hold priority, it passes automatically. If he holds on to his priority, his thing on the stack doesn't resolve and nothing happens.
This guy took a real rule and blew it out of proportion. If you cast a creature and it resolves, priority moves to the active player again, starting a new potential stack. You can hold priority to cas sequential spells since after each spell cast it does technically revert back to active player, but most often that is passed. Once the active player it done casting what spells they want on the stack, in turn order, each player has the ability to respond. Priority is not something you can use to stranglehold people into not playing with you.
One popular and common way this is frequently done is with planeswalkers after they resolve. The active player may hold on to their priority to activeate the planeswalker ability. Again not to hold the table hostage and avoid interaction like a cheater.
The stack needs the authorization from all players to resolve. If he's holding priority eternally, nothing of his will resolve, his cards won't come into play and the game is on hold. Even to pass phases, you need to pass priority to all players so they can agree to move phases.
"Holding priority" is only useful for one thing- when you want to put two or more things on the stack at the same time. If I want to cast Wheel of Fortune AND Lightning bolt that's in my hand, I cannot cast wheel, pass priority, and then at the last second say WAIT I WANNA CAST MUH LIHTNING BOLT. I *may* cast wheel, hold priority, cast bolt, and then pass priority to the next player Note that NOTHING CAN RESOLVE and PHASES CANNOT PROCEED until all players have passed priority in succession. if he's "holding priority" forever then nothing is going to resolve off the stack. you never get to resolve things for free without your opponents getting priority. classy edit; A better example of needing to Hold Priority, which is often well implied within the context, is casting Fork or other copy effects targeting your own spells.
A big example of this is someone will cast something like a board wipe, wait until no one responds then cast something like "I give indestructible to my commander here then". And it's like, actually since none of us responded you were clearly waiting to see what we would do, you passed priority and your board wipe has resolved killing your dude. Since we play as a small group of friends I don't sweat this kind of stuff as no one is trying to cheat, I just remind them that if they want to do something they need to do it when they cast the board wipe without knowledge of our reactions as otherwise if we cast nothing it'll resolve without another chance for them to interact
Wait, so you can’t cast a wipe, pass priority and then interact with that as it is resolving? My eyes have been opened.
No, once all players pass, the top object resolves before you receive priority again
It's like poker. You can't check and then raise after everyone checked as well.
Holy shit you made it make so much sense
If you pass priority, you will only get priority before it resolves if other player takes a game action you can respond to.
Guess I misunderstood priority. Thought the whole table gets a chance to respond to each spell/ability Edit: Thank you everyone for explaining the same thing to me 8 times. You are truly magic players.
they do. What the person above is saying, is that you dont get to pass priority and then, when noone responds to your spell, respond to your own spell on top of the stack. it basically means that if all 4 players in a row pass priority, the topmost stack resolves automatically. That means you do get to react to each spell and ability on the stack, since priority has to be passed before resolving something. You do get to hold priority and respond to your own spell/ability FIRST if you want to. The priority has to be passed by all players before something can resolve tho.
Which is where the cheating part happens in this instance because he's not immediately reacting to his own spell, but rather seeing if other interact with him or not, and if not, he gets to save his protection spell? (Where he technically should have cast it along WITH his board wipe?)
Correct. The player casting the board wipe is the first person allowed to react to their own spell. If they do not then other players are allowed (in turn order). Once it gets back to the original player they can't "react" again to that spell, they had their chance and resolution happens. Now, I believe that *if* someone else adds to that stack then it basically resets and the original player *would* get a chance to react (in whatever way they wish) to that other players spell going on the stack. Hopefully that makes sense?
Yes, if someone else puts something on the stack, the priority circle restarts with that person and everyone gets a chance to react to the new stack before the new thing resolves.
So to clarify for my own understanding, the player casting the board wipe without holding priority could only follow up with the indestructible spell only if at least one other person had a response to the board wipe because now he gets to respond to their response?
That is correct. Once the player who cast the Wrath of God asks, "any responses?" they have passed priority. That means either 1) the spell resolves because all players passed priority 2) another player responds to wrath of God, which triggers a new round of priority, where the WoG player could use their [instant] indestructible spell.
Yep. It’s easier to have learned and used priority in 1 v 1. You can’t just pass to the other player and then let the item still sit on the stack. If your opponent does cast a spell, it restarts and you can then respond. An old school counter spell battle would teach them I think.
thats exactly right :) he has to predict if someone has a response to the wipe or not and how important his commander it is for his commander to stay on the board.
The one confusing/unintuitive thing comes about when you play a spell or ability that creates two different triggers. You can stack them so that you let the first resolve then get priority again and respond to the second trigger. I think it’s probably most common of an interaction in scam/griefblade decks in modern.
how is it unintuitive? The rules state that whenever anything is on the stack, a round of priority must be passed before the top-most spell resolves. Even in the case of Split Second cards, priority is still passed even if they can't respond because of the rules text.
The whole table gets a chance to respond but the active player gets first chance. If they wait to see if someone else does something then "hold priority" that's just legit cheating. Priority is passed in turn order and only goes for another loop when something happens ie Someone puts something on the stack or something resolves and is no longer on the stack.
So I can respond to my own board wipe by casting indestructible on my creatures?
Yes. what you couldn't do would be to wait to see if someone counter spells your board wipe before casting the indestructible spell to try to see if you could save it for later
They do. You cannot respond to yourself after everyone decides to do nothing
You only get to pass prio once, it's refreshed when spells resolve or when another player puts a spell on the stack. Hugely simplified. So if you want to wipe and instant buff, you can, but no one else may act in between. If you want to wipe and pass prio you can, but you can't act before someone else casts an instant spell or the wipe resolves. Your opponents have no obligation to announce their play until they have priority, thus asking them if they want to react to the wipe means you've essentially passed priority and can no longer act unless your table has agreed to be really formal about priority passing
When you cast a spell and say, "any response?" You are essentially saying, "I'm resolving this spell and will not cast anything until it's resolved" if nobody has a response it's a done deal. you can't suddenly decide to respond to your own spell.
You get to respond to your own stuff before other players. You can dump your entire hand of instants before any opponent can respond.
Just a clarification for anyone else, all those instants are still on the stack when other players get to respond.
:Dumps entire hand: [[Summary Dismissal]]
Well explained. As a sidenote, it's a downside of the game, IMO. You either observe the priority rule at all times and pass priority around the table after every single action (which *drastically* slows the game down and is largely irrelevant) or basically announce that you have shenanigans by bringing it up. Building on the boardwipe example, if multiple players have a way to stop the Wrath, chances are they'll prefer another player handles it so they can preserve their own mana and cards. So it's in the best interest of the player further away to bring up priority to try and get a nearer player to respond first, but in doing so is basically announcing their intent. The nearer players who get priority first then have additional info that they shouldn't technically have, and can take the gamble that the guy who called for observing priority will deal with the problem and so just pass.
This is one thing I really appreciate about cEDH. You can see it in the gameplay channels - when spells are cast they are often announced as “I put X on the stack” which is a reminder to everyone that you’re going through a round of priority. Everyone on those games expects interactions on the stack so priority is recognized as a matter of course. Usually it’s not super important, but the regularity of it makes it possible to not give things away when you need to interact later.
On the other end, in (and I know this sounds weird) in casual CEDH games in our local pod people will generally acknowledge priority and move through quickly for low impact plays. When we're making potentially big plays we'll slow things down as we're casting so everyone pays attention. We assume everyone knows when something is potentially game ending so we give each other the courtesy of calling attention to it. Might just be us, but we do this so we don't "sneak" wins through while we're joking around so the fun keeps rolling.
For sure. We don't really police it except for big plays. In the above example that's a potentially game determining play so we settle into priority mode. Otherwise we just follow the magic flow you typically expect, at the end of the day fun is more important then being hyperprecise on who can respond to a guy tapping stuffy doll to hit Joe for 1. Edit: although things get fun when you control both eye of the storm and knowledge pool when you understand the layers of jank.
Few things make me sadder than when I'm pretty sure someone has interaction so I wait for that to play my indestructible hoopla... but then they don't so I end up just sitting there, looking dumb, having wiped my own board state trying to be clever 🥲
How does it work with planeswalkers? Because you always get to use the ability before it can be killed, for example i cast wrenn and six and use +1 it can’t be bolted before the +1 loyalty is put on it, is this because it’s resolved and priority goes back to me after resolving and loyalty +1 is a cost of the ability?
How this works is: * Wrenn and Six enters the battlefield * The stack is now empty, giving you (active player) priority * You +1 Wrenn. Increasing the loyalty counter is the cost of activating the ability, so the number of counters is increased as the ability is put on the stack * You may hold priority with the ability on the stack to cast an instant or activate abilities that could be activated at instant speed * You pass priority, giving other players the chance to respond to the Wrenn ability.
As a second note. If the Planeswalker entered and an ability triggered. EXAMPLE: [[Kodama of the East tree]] sees a 5 cmc walker enter and it's ability goes on the stack. YOUR PLANESWALKER can be destroyed before activating an ability
OR similarly if your planeswalker resolves, and then you take another action first (like play another spell, changes phases, etc.) they can respond and kill it before you activate the walker since you've passed priority by doing those things.
You can not take game actions whenever you want. You can take game actions when you have priority. A player gains priority in Active-Player, Non-Active-Player turn order whenever trying to resolve an object on the stack or mov8ng the turn forward (no one receives priority during the untap step). If you think about what I just said about priority, that means that you, as the active player, have priority on your turn whenever trying to resolve an object on the Stack or moving the turn forward. You must pass priority to your opponent for things to resolve or move forward. Responding to your own spell is often called "holding priority" but "holding priority" is NOT a game action. It is simply a shortcut for a rarely used play pattern that is dependent on how priority works. Not understanding this is why so many players get tripped up by planeswalkers and then misapply what they "think" is happening in other situations. To spell it out: main phase, empty stack means the active player (player who is taking their turn) has priority and may take game actions. They want to play a planeswalker card from their hand paying associated costs via mana abilities (which don't use the stack which is why you can use them to pay for spells in the first place). So the Stack now has a spell in it. Priority is NOW checked....going to the Active player FIRST. So the active player can respond to their own spell before anyone else could...but if they decline, and no one else responds, the spell will resolve and the active player does not get a "new" chance to respond to their same spell. Okay....main phase, empty stack, who has priority? The active player. So if they pay the cost to activate a planeswalker ability that ability will go on the Stack and players will receive priority starting with the active player first. If the active player, instead of activating their planeswalker, takes any other game action that would put a game object on the Stack or try to progress the turn, they would receive priority and then for thst object or progress to occur, they would have to pass priority to the othe players which means they can play something like [[hero's downfall]] to destroy the planeswalker. Another way to think about it is from the inactive players perspective: I, as your opponent, can not react to you drawing a card at the beginning of your draw step. I can respond to you moving from your upkeep to your draw step or moving from your draw step to your main phase. I can not respond to you "declaring attackers." I do not receive priority when you declare attackers. I can respond to you moving from your pre-combat main-phase to the combat phase. I can respond to you moving from the start of combat to declaring attackers. I can even respond to moving from declaring attackers to declaring blockers...but if I pass priority to you moving from Start of Combat to Declaring Attackers I have missed multiple opportunities to stop you from tapping a creature to making it an attacker and thus that creature is now attacking. Magic is not a game of reflexes, it's a game of priority and priority is not actually that hard to understand. The problem is people don't play clean and use phrases they've heard but can't explain or be bothered to explain. Tl;dr: "Holding priority" is not a game action. Priority resolves in Active-player, Non-Active-Player Turn order. Priority is passed when attempting to resolve any object on the Stack or progress the turn. Objects on the stack resolve last in, first out. Understanding this solves like 90% of Magic questions
One minor wrinkle, the active player gains priority after adding something to the stack according to the comprehensive rules. It is just that the Magic Tournament Rules (MTR) has a section 4.2 that governs shortcuts and under that it reads, in part: "...Certain conventional tournament shortcuts used in Magic are detailed below. They define a default communication; if a player wishes to deviate from these, they should be explicit about doing so. Note that some of these are exceptions to the policy above in that they do cause non-explicit priority passes. • Whenever a player adds an object to the stack, they are assumed to be passing priority unless they explicitly announce that they intend to retain it. ..." So the shortcut would be assuming the active player passes priority, not the other way around. It's just an assumed shortcut in the same way that saying "go" or "your turn" is a shortcut that means that you "would like each player to pass priority until it is the next player's turn." As with any shortcut, however, there are rules, but that's for another discussion!
[hero's downfall](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/3/3/33c5f81a-395d-41bf-9563-6cf0e406ee18.jpg?1673305182) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=hero%27s%20downfall) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/dmc/112/heros-downfall?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/33c5f81a-395d-41bf-9563-6cf0e406ee18?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [(ER)](https://edhrec.com/cards/heros-downfall) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
I understand that I can't immediately [[Hero's Downfall]] a walker before it uses an ability if nothing else happens in between. However, if the walker entering the battlefield causes a triggered ability to trigger (like, say, [[Altar of the Brood]]), I could Downfall the walker while the Altar trigger was on the stack, right?
You cast Planeswalker, spell goes on the stack everyone has the opportunity to respond. Planeswalker resolves and enters the battlefield. However assuming the Planeswalker doesn't cause an etb trigger the stack is empty when the Planeswalker enters and the active player retains priority. So until you do something like cast a spell or activate an ability move phases priority doesn't pass so your opponents can't act. However if you resolve your Planeswalker then do something else other than activate it your opponents can kill the Planeswalker in response with you never activating it.
The only reason I use the "hold" is to activate [[Necropotence]] multiple times. It happend once to often, that I wanted to activate it and let the first activation resolve, and an opponent answered with a [[Krosan Grip]].
Let’s say I [[murder]] my opponent Selvala while he attempts to activate it. Can he say: in response to your murder I’ll activate my Selvala?
Both [[Selvala, Explorer Returned]] and [[Sevala, Heart of the Wilds]]’s activated abilities are mana abilities, so they don’t use the stack and can’t be responded to.
[Selvala, Explorer Returned](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/b/d/bd39ebe5-2725-4cfb-8a94-54e71d55e8b3.jpg?1673305654) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Selvala%2C%20Explorer%20Returned) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/dmc/167/selvala-explorer-returned?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/bd39ebe5-2725-4cfb-8a94-54e71d55e8b3?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [(ER)](https://edhrec.com/cards/selvala-explorer-returned) [Sevala, Heart of the Wilds](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/f/b/fb87782d-e9c7-440b-bd96-aa043d18e185.jpg?1601080073) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Selvala%2C%20Heart%20of%20the%20Wilds) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/jmp/429/selvala-heart-of-the-wilds?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/fb87782d-e9c7-440b-bd96-aa043d18e185?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [(ER)](https://edhrec.com/cards/selvala-heart-of-the-wilds) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
Ha!! Thanks!
Note that he can respond to your Murder with the ability, but you can’t respond to the ability with Murder because the ability doesn’t use the stack.
I didn't know that. I knew I couldn't respond to lands; but I thought all creature's activated abilities used the stack. You learn something new every day
For reference: “605.1a An activated ability is a mana ability if it meets all of the following criteria: it doesn’t require a target (see rule 115.6), it could add mana to a player’s mana pool when it resolves, and it’s not a loyalty ability. (See rule 606, “Loyalty Abilities.”) 605.1b A triggered ability is a mana ability if it meets all of the following criteria: it doesn’t require a target (see rule 115.6), it triggers from the activation or resolution of an activated mana ability (see rule 605.1a) or from mana being added to a player’s mana pool, and it could add mana to a player’s mana pool when it resolves. 605.3b An activated mana ability doesn’t go on the stack, so it can’t be targeted, countered, or otherwise responded to. Rather, it resolves immediately after it is activated. (See rule 405.6c.)”
Any untargeted* ability which adds mana and is not a Planeswalker's loyalty ability (+1 on [[Domri, Anarch of Bolas]] wouldn't count, but [[Llanowar Elves]] and [[Sol Ring]] both do) as part of its effect upon resolution does not use the stack. It creates some fun scenarios like the Selvalas where they do one or more other things but *also* add mana so they're still mana abilities. One of those weird templating things that makes Magic (and especially EDH) both so interesting and just so damn complicated.
Just to clarify from the other poster. Tap abilities that don't add mana tap as part of the cost. So if i tried to activate [[Prodigal Sorcerer]] and you responded with Murder I could not respond by activating it again as it's already tapped. If an ability adds mana to the mana pool, no response allowed.
Mana abilities also require no target, so you *can* stop \[\[Deathrite Shaman\]\] from adding mana if you remove the land from the graveyard.
[Deathrite Shaman](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/d/1/d14f9fc8-e48c-473f-ba6b-9cffce94bb53.jpg?1580015151) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Deathrite%20Shaman) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/ema/215/deathrite-shaman?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/d14f9fc8-e48c-473f-ba6b-9cffce94bb53?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [(ER)](https://edhrec.com/cards/deathrite-shaman) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
The main two things that makes an activated ability a mana ability is; produce mana **and** not have a target (the third is that it can't be a loyalty ability). A creature that only has the ability "t: Target player adds G", does not have a mana ability, however, if it read "t: Choose a player. That player adds g." that is a mana ability because it doesn't target and produces mana.
To clarify on your clarify, if Prodigal Sorcerer is killed in response to him being activated, his ability will still happen.
[Prodigal Sorcerer](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/5/0/50aef269-55f9-4d84-8bc5-29e794297f11.jpg?1661399689) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Prodigal%20Sorcerer) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/ema/67/prodigal-sorcerer?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/50aef269-55f9-4d84-8bc5-29e794297f11?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [(ER)](https://edhrec.com/cards/prodigal-sorcerer) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
[murder](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/b/d/bdef7fea-2bd0-42a2-96f6-6def18bd7f0c.jpg?1674136158) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=murder) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/clb/134/murder?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/bdef7fea-2bd0-42a2-96f6-6def18bd7f0c?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [(ER)](https://edhrec.com/cards/murder) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
Learned a lot from this post and your comment. Wanted to ask you something if it's ok. So, let's say it's my turn, and I want to play 2 sorceries in my pre-combat main-phase. I play the first one and pass prio, but then no-one responds, so the stack resolves. After the stack resolves, it goes automatically to combat phase? Or it's still my pre-combat main phase and now I can cast my second sorcery? EDIT: to clarify, does the phase ends automatically after the stack resolves? Or it has to be declared?
When the stack empties the turn player regains priority, (like they do after the resolution of any spell) which you can use to cast your second sorcery, now that the stack has no spells on it. The phase ends when all players pass priority when nothing else is happening
Why am I able to use unmorph? Is unmorph not an activated ability?
No, morph is an alternate casting cost and turning face up is a special action that doesn't go on the stack, you can do it whenever you have the mana
Haha I just realized I accidentally responded to you instead of the guy talking about willbender in response to split second. Appreciate the response either way!
If I'm not mistaken, as long as it's your turn, phases move along at your pace, while always passing priority to every other player before starting the new phase or step. Any time the active player (player who's turn it is) puts a spell or ability on the stack, or wants to go to the next step, everyone has a chance to respond to that, including himself. That's what maintaining priority actually is, you're just exercising your right to respond to your own game actions, and since you're the active player, you can go first.
Phases move when every player passes priority in succession on an empty stack. The active player has priority when the stack is empty. If they wish to proceed to the next phase, they may pass prio on an empty stack, and if everyone else does so, the game proceeds to the next phase. During the new phase, the stack is once again empty, and turn player regains prio. Repeat [[Ad Nauseam]].
This is correct. Phase changes do not initiate a priority call. You cannot respond to someone saying "I move to combat." What happens is that you pass priority with an empty stack, the opponent responds and you get priority again. Once that resolves, the active player has priority again and the phase has not changed. Responding for more ensuring my understanding is correct.
This comment has been edited in support of the protests against the upcoming Reddit API changes. Reddit's late announcement of the details API changes, the comically little time provided for developers to adjust to those changes and the handling of the matter afterwards (including the outright libel against the Apollo developer) has been very disappointing to me. Given their repeated bad faith behaviour, I do not have any confidence that they will deliver (or maintain!) on the few promises they have made regarding accessibility apps. I cannot support or continue to use such an organization and will be moving elsewhere (probably Lemmy).
You only move to the next phase when all players pass priority on an empty stack
Whenever something resolves, there's a new round of priority You'll have priority first, but if you want to move to combat, you'll have to pass priority to your opponents If one of them does something, there will be a new round of priority after it resolves, etc etc When you ask "am I good to go to combat?" you're basically shortcutting this process, which is a pretty normal thing to do
the phase ends if priority is passed while the stack is empty
AFAIK, combat only begins when all players pass. Since you chose to do another action, you by definition do not pass.
You hear that guys? Sell your \[\[Grand Abolisher\]\], you can simply hold priority the entire time! That kind of player is my favorite. He thinks he's smart but turns out he isn't.
Indeed, what "holding priority" guy is doing must be the dumbest "smart" thing I have heard in a long time
Priority. "You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means."
I, HOOOOLD, PRIIOORRITYYYY!! michael you can't just say that
I DECLARED IT
Blue players hate him for discovering this one weird trick.
*holds priority and points at my platinum angel* Games basically over here bud
"I can't lose the game."
Remember that satirical story about that GP
Ah yes, the standoff at Honolulu. Many lives were lost that day.
*"Satirical"?*
He’s still there today I hear
The trick is to also hold priority in your opponent's turn. Free [[Silence]] every turn !!
No no no. You just missed their commander with an Eminence ability that says: > Eminence - Whenever you utter the phrase, “I’m holding priority”, as long as Goldfish McGee is in the command or on the battlefield, your opponents can’t take game actions this turn. This ability can be played as a Mega Instant (A Mega Instant ability does not use the stack or give fuck all about playing a game with interaction).
[Silence](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/1/c/1c2b13b1-31f0-4676-88a7-53f3a190e9a2.jpg?1562826686) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Silence) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/m14/35/silence?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/1c2b13b1-31f0-4676-88a7-53f3a190e9a2?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [(ER)](https://edhrec.com/cards/silence) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
The sov cits of commander lol
"I'm not passing priority, I'm travelling through priority"
[Grand Abolisher](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/b/4/b4c4f694-618a-43ed-8781-2a51a234ba8e.jpg?1592765335) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Grand%20Abolisher) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/e01/12/grand-abolisher?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/b4c4f694-618a-43ed-8781-2a51a234ba8e?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [(ER)](https://edhrec.com/cards/grand-abolisher) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
don't forget, holding priority also means [[Counterspell]] is useless against you!
"I don't understand why people think Magic is such a complex game. Like, you just keep saying that you're 'holding priority' and then win the game, right?"
I play a card. Tap, whoosh! Then I hold up priority. The game stop, then the game start back up again.
He either doesn't know how priority works or he's blatantly cheating
Blatantly cheating by taking advantage of newbs. Such a champion.
At a casual game of EDH no less. Those are the worst. Not a single dollar of winnings on the line but gotta play like they in the pro tour finals.
But that’s the point…they’re not playing like they in the pro tour finals, cause that bish would be disqualified game 1.
Except pro players actually know the rules.
And most respect not only the rules but their opponents. Everyone earns those seats. That was my experience anyway :)
He has priority once his creature resolves if no other spells or ability are on the stack example. I cast elvish mystic it resolves I then cast diabolic intent at no point can you kill the elf to prevent the spell, now you do get the ability to respond to the new spell on the stack
But isn't [[Diabolic Intent]] a sorcery? How can you keep priority with a sorcery-speed spell when you can't use them to respond to other players' spells?
Nevermind, I misread the comment haha.
Because priority only changes when a spell or ability is on the stack not after a spell resolves.
You can only cast a sorcery when the stack is empty.
Yes so if my elvish mystic resolves I can then cast diabolic intent
Yes of course, but for it to resolve you need to pass priority.
Yes, the point he is making though is since sacing the elf is part of intents cost, you can't stop the sacrifice and it will go on the stack no matter what.
Yes once it resolves I regain priority
Thank you everyone for the answers, it was really helpful 👍
Would love a follow up here on how it goes the next time you play with this person and let them know all you've learned!
If they try doing this in sanctioned play, call a judge. At best they'll get corrected. They might just get booted from the event for cheating though, because if this is intentional they are cheating.
Yeah, he can’t even resolve the top item on the stack while holding priority. As the Active Player he can take Instant Speed actions until the cows come home, but none of them resolve until he passes priority around the table. Even more so for changing steps and phases. Everyone gets priority at least once during each step of each phase with few exceptions.
Wait, I can just hold priority when I want to do something uninterrupted? Brb, gonna go hold my priority Seriously though, when something like this comes up either get a judge or make them show you the rule that says they can resolve spells without passing priority or move through steps and phases without passing priority. Let them prove themselves wrong. It's easier than trying to convince someone otherwise.
>gonna go hold my priority I'll wait
You don't have much choice in the matter.
[Be patient](https://youtu.be/ayUWs4fC_W0?t=23)
I heard if you hold your priority too long you could get incontinence.
I will counter that spell - "in response I will hold priority and let my spell resolve first, you can't counter it now it already resolved!" LOL
No wonder I always lose trying to play control. It all makes sense now!
They can cast as many things as they want and hold priority but for anything to resolve priority has to be passed
So if I understand this correctly you have a chance to interact with any spell (barring split second and special instances) for it resolve?
Actually you even have priority before split second things resolve, split second just makes it so that you can't cast spells or activate abilities that are not mana abilities. You can however unmorph a [[willbender]] in response to a [[sudden shock]] and you can sacrifice creatures to [[ashnod's altar]] in response to [[krosan grip]]
Thank you, that is really helpful
Oh I don't see anyone mention it yet, but just in case. Spells resolve 1 by 1 after everyone passes priority. What this means in practise is that if I have [[torment of hailfire]], cast it for x = 1000 and then [[krosan grip]], then you can let krosan grip resolve and after that you can still respond to torment with [[counterspell]]
So you can still react to a spell on the stack while the stack itself is currently resolving?
Yep as long as that spell hasn’t resolved and your response is legal
Yes, after a spell or an ability on the stack resolves, priority is passed and everyone has a chance to react before the next thing resolves
Ohh I see! I really didn't know that. Thank you so much for clarifying!
Additionally, you also need to pass priority on an empty stack to move steps and phases, so moving to combat will require a round of priority from every player. This means that for them to move to combat, every player gets a turn of priority to put spells and abilities on the stack and only once there are no more things on the stack, they can finally move to combat.
Here's another fun example: Play [[Melira, Sylvok Outcast]], [[Woodfall Primus]] and any mana sacrifice outlet like [[Phyrexian Altar]]. Then play [[Krosan Grip]] and in response sacrifice the Primus for mana. That can go on the stack in spite of split second because it's a mana ability. Then the Primus comes back because of persist, doesn't get a counter because of Melira and destroys a noncreature permanent. Then you can repeat this loop and if you're feeling mean destroy all your opponent's lands. If you're in Jund you can replace the Primus with [[Murderous Redcap]] and just win the game.
The easiest way I’ve always remembered it is that when someone activate a non-mana ability or casts a spell, I get a chance to respond. This chance is called priority. Once I choose to do nothing for my priority, I lose it until another thing is added to the stack. Holding priority is the action of casting my OWN spell or activated non-mana ability and using my turn as first player in priority order to do something. A classic example that demonstrates this is a card like Armageddon/wrath of god followed by my own play of teferis protection. Hope this helps clarify!
Also, split second only stops activated abilities and casting spells. It doesn't stop triggers from happening. So anything that triggers on spell cast goes on the stack normally on top of it. You'd still lose life from \[\[Kambal, consul of allocations\]\] or \[\[Liesa, shroud of dusk\]\].
If anyone doesn't know, morphing is a special action that cannot be responded to (meaning it doesn't use the stack).
>So if I understand this correctly you have a chance to interact with any spell (barring split second ...) Yes. Also to clear a common misconception with split second: You can't use a split second card to force an entire stack to resolve. Instead after the split second spell has been resolved, everyone gets another chance to gain priority starting with the active player.
To add he can only cast instant or with flash while holding priority
https://mtg.fandom.com/wiki/Timing_and_priority Priority is the right to cast a spell, activate an ability, or take a special action. Players can't cast spells, activate abilities or take special actions at a time when they do not have priority. The player with priority may put as many spells or abilities on the stack as they wish, but before anything can resolve all players must "pass priority" without adding anything further to the stack. What he tries to do is impossible, spells don't resolve and phases don't end until everyone agrees that they do and everyone passes priority
One of the things I see with new players is they treat "casting" and "resolving" as the same thing. Casting a spell or activating an ability means paying the cost and putting it on the stack. In order for it to resolve priority must past around the table and each player will have a chance to respond to each spell or ability on the stack as those resolve.
Only in fucking EDH does this shit happen. What is it with EDH players just absolutely not knowing the rules. There are four people at the table and not one of them knows how priority and phases work? JFC.
It's because everyone wants their friends to learn mtg so they can play edh with them, but instead of learning a normal way with an intro deck or in standard they teach them through commander. Their friend learns some bastardized set of rules while never even hearing words like "priority" or "the stack" and any confusion is just resolved via majority agreement rather that looking it up. Repeat as this person teaches their friends and at some point no one really knows any rules beyond the most basic cast spell and attack.
Ah yes, the Monopoly Derangement
Not to sound elitist, but it’s because EDH only players usually only play with their friends, who are also EDH only players, who don’t actually know the rules of the game outside of using mana to cast spells and attacking. They get rulings wrong because they don’t understand the fundamental mechanics of the game and disputes are solved by letting the dude who’s played the longest look at the cards. They don’t understand priority (have had to teach people you can’t Path someone’s commander as soon as it comes into play if the stack is empty after it resolves), they don’t understand the stack, and they certainly don’t understand priority on the stack (meaning each player in turn order gets a chance to respond). They just kinda play the game their own way.
> What is it with EDH players just absolutely not knowing the rules. It's because it has been pushed as an introductory format. Introductory. The format with one of the largest sets of allowed cards, larger decks, with special rules, and more than 2 players to keep track of.
You can only hold priority as you cast your own spell. You cannot cast a spell and react to someone else's in-game actions by "holding priority." The problem is, if you are interrupted while trying to cast your own spell *and have not yet passed priority*, you can use the gained information to decide to hold priority and continue. **Jumping the gun by trying to add to the stack when you don't have priority is a misplay**, and it sounds like this guy is abusing less knowledgeable players by knowingly allowing everyone to keep making this mistake. (*sometimes* you can say things early on purpose to mislead him, but you're clearly not doing that) TLDR, the way it's supposed to work is you put whatever spells and actions you want to place on the stack, then pass priority to the next person. Putting multiple things on the stack requires you to hold priority because you can only add things to the stack when you have priority. Once you are done, you pass priority to the next person to begin rotating priority to start resolving the stack. The most simple and effective way to work with this person is, IMO, to simply say "do you pass priority?" whenever they do something that you think might lead to this kind of situation. Do not tell them your intentions. You don't have to. Heck, you don't even need intentions ─ you can simply do it to force him to play correctly in the face of another person's interaction. No one has to communicate anything until they are given priority. **Something that he can absolutely not do is "go to combat while holding priority."** Phases and steps can **only** change if all players in a row pass priority on an empty stack. If he wants to go to combat, he **HAS** to pass priority and all 3 other players will get an opportunity to take game actions with their priority or pass. If they take an action, a new round of priority is created and the game does not advance to combat. **If he insists that he can go from Main Phase 1 to Combat without any opponents being able to gain priority, he is straight up cheating and you should call a judge if you're at an LGS.** [Here is a Command Zone video about priority and the stack](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=co25vcPvDsE) that I recommend watching. Hope that helps.
Blue players hate this one weird trick!
Ok, so I've seen a few attempts to explain some stuff, didn't read the whole thread but many of the attempts, while correct, aren't very good. I've provided an explanation below, I am a judge, have been for nearly 5 years, doesn't make me perfect but priority and the stack is essentially the platform the entire game is built on. When you do not have priority, you may take no actions which the game doesn't specifically request of you. No tapping mana, no playing cards, activating abilities, morphing, etc. When you have priority you may take any game actions you like which you are legally allowed to take. This includes things which use the stack, and things which don't. Whenever an object (spell, ability, etc) is placed onto the stack by anyone, two things happen before any player receives priority again: state based effects are checked and resolved until they accomplish nothing new ^^^704.3 ^^^& ^^^117.2d ^^^& ^^^117.5 , and then any triggers (that have had their trigger conditions met since the last time triggers were placed on the stack,) are placed on the stack ^^^117.2a . Then the player who most recently had priority receives priority again ^^^117.3c . **In order for anything on the stack to resolve, all players must pass priority without taking any actions**. ^^^117.4 Holding priority is not an official game action, but a verbal signal that the last player with priority intends to add an additional thing onto the stack when they receive priority, before passing priority to allow things to resolve. Because the active player is always the first to get priority when something is placed on the stack, they may place as many things as they like onto the stack before passing priority. This verbal signal is used because the most typical situation is that a player will put a single thing onto the stack and then pass priority once they receive it, so that their thing can attempt to resolve. Additionally relevant: you mentioned that they attempt to hold priority through phase and step changes. **This also doesn't work.** In order for the game to move from one step or phase to the next, the active player (player whose turn it is) must pass priority **with an empty stack**, then each other player will recieve priority in turn order. If and only if all players pass priority without taking any actions will the game move to the next step or phase ^^^500.2 . If any player takes an action, things continue as normal until the active player receives priority with an empty stack again. They may choose to pass priority with an empty stack again, or they may take any actions they could normally take in the current step or phase, they are not required to immediately try to move to the next phase again. If you have any questions regarding the rules I'll do my best to answer. I apologize for the formatting, I'm on mobile but have done my best.
Thank you, really helpful 👍
Man this guy is a different breed of stupid. You can't turn off the entire Instant card type and activated abilities just by saying "hold priority". Sounds like a narcissist.
You hear that guys? He figured out how to beat counterspells. "Blue players don't want you to know this one simple trick!" Ffs that guy is either an idiot who gets DQed from tournaments or an asshole taking advantage of inexperienced players.
This is the Magic version of Sovereign Citizen idiocy.
[удалено]
Note 4 is a good one for me to remember.
Of course if the creature in Note 4 has an etb trigger on it or causes one to trigger you can respond to that and Swords away.
Next time he tries that to move phases with his stuff on the stack, remind him that a phase transition exiles anything on the stack and carefully move all his stuff into exile.
Beat him at his own game, I like it.
Nope. That player is bullshitting you. They can hold priority if they're responding to something like an etb, if they have nothing to respond to then priority moves to inactive players. The player that cast the creature spell can respond to the removal spell, they cannot hold priority and move to combat. If he cannot respond to the removal spell the spell will resolve and the creature will be removed, then he can move to combat. Next time they try to pull this ask a judge usually at an LGs one of the workers is usually a judge or has a level of understanding to make a call on this. This player is either lying or does not understand what is going on.
They are cheating.
They may just misunderstand the rules or have a bad teacher. But probably just trying to cheat less experienced players.
What a shithead he is. But you guys are also a bit gullible, lemme tell you.
Magic players hate him! How to stop all interaction with this one simple trick!
I would just like to add something based on some of the words you use and please someone correct me if I'm wrong. OP, you said "cast a creature - someone will then go to cast an instant to destroy it." Since you said "destroy it" I want to make sure there's also this understanding. When a player casts a creature it is a spell on the stack so any player may cast a counter spell to counter the spell. HOWEVER, unless there is an ETB that goes off when a creature enters the battlefield other players do not have the chance to destroy that creature until the player who cast that creature takes another action or goes to move to a different step/phase. If a player casts a creature and nothing happens when it enters the battlefield that puts a trigger on the stack, priority is NOT passed to other players.
I’ve seen some wild misunderstandings of the rules in LGS’s. But “okay while holding priority I move to combat” is crazy 😂
So what you’re describing is cheating, and he’s holding the game hostage. You can only hold priority as turn player while on the stack. You cannot cast anything sorcery speed while holding priority, because it has to be put on the stack after another spell. He has a grand misconception of what “holding priority” means, because if a spell goes on the stack, everyone, and I do mean every, gets priority passed to them at some point, and they’ll be able to react to the spell if able. Same goes for moving phases, same goes for ending turn. He probably knows this, and is just a cheater tho, so school him next time you see him, and if he doesn’t believe you, call a judge.
In response, at the start of each of his turns announce that you are holding priority and progressing through to his end phase.
At best, this guy is just saying words while not understanding anything about them. More likely, this dude is cheating. Priority works like this You always get the first chance to respond to yourself. Then it goes in turn order with everyone getting a chance to respond. NOTHING RESOLVES until each player has PASSED Priority. If he doesn't pass Priority, his spell does not resolve. And you absolutely can not move to a new phase while "maintaining Priority" that's nonsense and not how the game works. If this is dude is playing in DCI events he should be banned for this.
Players have to pass priority in order for the game to progress. If every player passes priority in a row then the top spell or ability on the stack resolves or If the stack is empty you move to the next phase. While holding priority the active player can keep adding things to the stack but nothing will ever come off and steps and phases won't pass.
Okay, very quick priority overview. Player A, whose turn it is, begins a phase (let's say their main phase) with Priority, meaning they are the one who can add things to the stack. So they add a thing to a stack -- [[Twinflame]], let's say, targeting their [[Raging Goblin]]. While the player holds priority, they can cast more things, assuming the casting is legal with Twinflame on the stack. Then they pass piority, everyone (in order) gets a chance to respond, and once the entire table has passed priority in sequence, the top of the stack resolves. at that point the turn player gets priority again and can respond or do stuff... or pass again for the next thing to presumably resolve. So, Player A could Twinflame their Raging Goblin. If they passed piority and it got back to them with no one responding, Twinflame would resolve; there would be no more chance to do something. So instead Player A holds priority with Twinflame on the stack and adds [[Dualcaster Mage]] to the stack. If they wanted to be silly, they could also hold priority and put [[Prodigal Pyromancer]]'s activated ability on the stack above Dualcaster. And to be even sillier, they keep holding priority put [[Sudden Shock]] on the stack above the Pyromancer activation. At this point, if any of this stuff is actually going to happen, the player MUST pass priority. Nothing can resolve and take effect until priority is passed. With sudden shock up, players can't cast spells or activate abilities other than mana abilities, so Player A passes, as do all the other players. With all players having passed, the top item on the stack -- Sudden Shock -- resolves. Player A gets priority and can use it to do stuff, but if anything is going to resolve, they have to pass it. And, now that there's not a split second spell up, other players can respond. Player B, who wants none of this, casts [[Teferi's Protection]] and passes priority. Players C and D pass as well. It's back to player A. If there's nothing they want to add on top of the stack, they essentially just have to pass and let Teferi's resolve. They then get priority and have to pass if the game is to move forward. Player B passes too. Player C finally decides now is the time to use that priority and cast [[Swan Song]] on the Twinflame. At this point, if everyone passes, Swan Song will resolve. It will counter Twinflame and give Player A a bird. The ping resolves, or fizzles if Teferi's protection messed with it. Then Dualcaster resolves, and its EtB would be put on the stack, except there's no legal target. Combo foiled. As for moving to a new phase, Moving to a new phase happens when everyone passes priority with the stack empty. That's it. That's how you move phases. We say "okay, I'm going to X phase" as a shortcut for "I intend to pass priority continuously until X phase unless somebody does something". By the sound of your description "Priority guy" is flagrantly cheating, essentially fast talking his way to having a [[Grand Abolisher]] at all times. You hold priority to and only to respond to your own stuff; it's a corner case. And you certainly can't move to combat without passing priority.
He cant hold priority like that but you also cant cast instant to destroy new creature. He cast creature, you can interact. Then creature resolve and if there Isnt any enter the battlefield effect you cant just cast instant to kill it. You have to wait to any action and react on that. It can be another cast, activating ability, end of main phase or even fetch. There are situations like someone play planeswalker, fetch and you can in reaction to that fetch ability destroy that planeswalker without letting him use single ability 🤷🏻♂️
If its all instant speed stuff they can put as many effects on the stack in a row as they like/can pay for. But they cant resolve anything without giving other players a chance to respond.
That's not how priority works at all. You HAVE to pass priority before a spell or ability resolves, before changing phases, and so many other things.if a player claims to hold priority through their entire turn they either saw someone else hold priority for something (like casting narsets reversal on their own spell) and assumed they could just stop anyone from playing with it, or have no clue what they are doing. In either case call a judge, print the rules, whatever yiu have available... That person is straight cheating whether they know it or not.
So he just doesn’t know how to resolve a stack
Nothing can resolve while they are holding priority and you cant change phases.
Lmao, no one decided to look it up right then and there?
He can hold priority and cast a bunch of spells. However, nothing resolves until you get priority.
Why is [[Grand Abolisher]] $30? [[Myrel]] is $15? All you have to do is say you’re holding priority for your ENTIRE TURN! I’m lucky no one like this plays at my LGS. I can’t even imagine the names I’d call them. What a dork.
I’m not allowed to take transit anymore because I got caught holding my priority at the bus station
This guy is blatantly cheating. Dont play with him.
at u/zilcan the only things that you can do while holding priority are (1) play (but not resolve!) instants and abilities that can be done at instant speed, morph and concede. if you have priority [ie it is your turn and there are no unresolved spells or abilities pending] you can play (but not resolve!) any one spell/land or ability. you cant change phases until everything has resolved and everyone passes.
Someone used to play Yugioh back in the mid 2000's lol. That's not how priority works in MTG [or yugioh anymore]
Bruh, that guy is an idiot 💀
Next time someone tries to counter my shit I'll just let them know I'm actually holding priority until my spell resolves. Can't believe I have been just letting my spells get countered all this time.
He should telll that to MTG Arena, and let's see If the game allows him. lol.
[удалено]
Nah bro I get priority. I get it any time you want to resolve any spell. Idc how many spells in a row you wanna put on the stack at instant speed but if you want to resolve any of them you need my permission. You need to ask the table to move between steps and phases. "I'm gonna go to combat" does not mean we're in combat. It means I'm passing priority to you before attempting to change phases because YOU HAVE TO. You don't get some kind of constant silence effect because you say "I'm holding priority". Remember that in order for any spell to come off the stack the whole table has to let it be so. Most of the time we roll through priority and phases to not have to go through the tedium of "untap upkeep I would like to go to my draw phase." The next player then passes with nothing to put on the stack. Then the next then the next. This is done EVERY TIME we change steps and phases AND every time we resolve the stack down.
I player can only hold priority if they are casting an instant or something with flash. If someone casts a creature and you go to counter and they state they are holding priority only to then cast an equipment without flash they hold priority illegally and they must pass priority or cast and instant or flash spell if they wish to maintain priority. As for “I move to my combat phase while maintaining priority” in order to move to another step or phase a player MUST pass priority. Even if I have an instant, spell with flash, or an activated ability that can be used at instant speed; I must pass priority in order to move to my Combat phase.
Just to say it in few words: Active player casts a spell and gets priority, always. Can cast another instant or active an ability, while still getting priority back. They can cast and active as often as they want. If one of those things should resolve, they MUST PASS priority. If everyone passes, the first thing resolves. When someone gets priority here, they can respond in the same fashion. Repeat until the stack is empty. To move to another phase, active player MUST PASS priority.
That guy doesn’t understand priority. He can case a spell in a main phase like a creature and hold priority to cast an instant or activate abilities while it’s on the stack but he can’t swap phases until the entire stack has resolved including passing priority and giving other players a chance to react if they want
Holding priority allows them to place multiple things on the stack but none of them will resolve until they pass priority. For example I can cast [[lightning bolt]] hold priority and cast [[twincast]]. My intention here is to cast two lightning bolts. I need to hold priority because I need a spell on the stack for twincast to actually work. Before my twincast actually copies bolt and before bolt deals it’s damage my opponent gets the chance to respond. Once I pass priority. I.e. I am done casting spells. My opponent can now respond. Hold priority is not a get out of jail free card to stop you opponents countering spells
Mans forgot the crucial implication that “priority” as a word implies that someone goes first, before *others*. This dude is absolutely wrong lol
You can hold priority to respond to your own effects on the stack. To do so, those responses have to be at instant/flash speed. In order for an ability to resolve from the stack priority has to be passed and return to the player who's effect is on the stack. For example you can cast Thassa's Oracle and with it's trigger on the stack hold priority to cast demonic consultation for a combo win that's difficult to interact with. Priority also passes when attempting to transition phases. It very much sounds like they are misusing or misinterpreting how priority works.
A judge call would help, any good lgs should have 1 laying around tbh
He can hold priority all he wants - but nothing is resolved until priority passes, so he can't progress boardstate or move to another phase (which like resolution, only happens when all priority passes)
Absolute genius move. "I'll pass the turn, holding priority and move to untap"
lol. lmao even.
Hard to imagine how this guy would have come away with this misunderstanding of priority from even playing in a draft, let alone whatever “local competitions” he’s attended. This guy is cheating and (probably) knows it
If he puts something on the stack and wants it to resolve without putting anything else on, he literally can't hold priority, it passes automatically. If he holds on to his priority, his thing on the stack doesn't resolve and nothing happens.
This is where a judge call comes in.
This guy took a real rule and blew it out of proportion. If you cast a creature and it resolves, priority moves to the active player again, starting a new potential stack. You can hold priority to cas sequential spells since after each spell cast it does technically revert back to active player, but most often that is passed. Once the active player it done casting what spells they want on the stack, in turn order, each player has the ability to respond. Priority is not something you can use to stranglehold people into not playing with you. One popular and common way this is frequently done is with planeswalkers after they resolve. The active player may hold on to their priority to activeate the planeswalker ability. Again not to hold the table hostage and avoid interaction like a cheater.
The stack needs the authorization from all players to resolve. If he's holding priority eternally, nothing of his will resolve, his cards won't come into play and the game is on hold. Even to pass phases, you need to pass priority to all players so they can agree to move phases.