Fauna Shaman and Lotleth Troll discard issue
Asked by BlueGuildKnight 9 years ago
Alright, the question is pretty simple and I think I know the answer anyway but here's the scenario. I have Fauna Shaman and Lotleth Troll on the battlefield and a Gravecrawler in my hand. I tap a forest to discard my Gravecrawler with Fauna Shaman so I can fetch another creature card but then respond to my discard by discarding the same Gravecrawler with Lotleth Troll . Do both abilities trigger or is my Fauna Shaman 's ability negated since its target has been discarded due to another ability making its target invalid? I figured the latter.
GreatSword says... #2
You're correct in that you can't do this, but misguided about why exactly. Also, please ask technical rules questions like this in the Q+A page in the future please.
When you activate an activated ability like either Fauna Shaman or Lotleth Troll you pay the cost right away. The last step in casting a spell or activating an ability is paying the total cost. While you're doing this, no one has priority; you can't 'respond' to someone paying a cost, just like you can't Boomerang an opponent's land to prevent them from paying mana.
August 20, 2014 2:30 a.m.
Epochalyptik says... Accepted answer #3
The Deck Help forum is for requesting specific help with a specific decklist. Rules questions belong in the Q&A, which is linked in the header bar. I can't move this to the Q&A, so I'm moving it to BE.
You're making a lot of mistakes in your explanation of the situation. First, you can't respond to the payment of costs. When a player begins casting a spell or activating an ability, all players lose priority until the casting/activation process is complete. When players receive priority again, the costs for that spell or ability have already been paid. Gravecrawler will be in your graveyard before you have an opportunity to activate another ability.
Second, neither of these abilities trigger. Only triggered abilities trigger. This situation is concerned with two activated abilities, which you must manually activate.
Third, neither of these abilities targets anything. A spell or ability only targets if it uses the word "target." Furthermore, spells and abilities never target costs, and they never target cards in hidden zones.
August 20, 2014 2:40 a.m.
vampirelazarus says... #4
To help identify what a "cost" is, its the part before the colon on the card.
Fauna Shaman
's ability, therefore has the cost of 
, tap, and discard a creature: Then the effect happens.
PasorofMuppets says... #1
You pay for the cost of an ability or spell before the spell resolves (or even goes on the stack). So as soon as you elect to discard your Gravecrawler to Fauna Shaman it's in the graveyard before you can activate Lotleth Troll 's ability.
Another way of thinking of it is just that you can't use one resource to pay for two different costs and paying costs doesn't really use the stack and can't be reacted to.
August 20, 2014 2:22 a.m.