Bonds of Mortality vs Dauntless Escort
Asked by Andromedus 7 years ago
I recently came across what seems to be a straightforward interaction, but upon inspection turns out to be possibly a bit strange and I'm not entirely certain how it plays out.
The interaction involves Dauntless Escort being on the board on Player A side, and Bonds of Mortality on Player B. Let's assume Player B has a "destroy all creatures" board-sweeper, such as Novablast Wurm. He intends to destroy Player A's creatures by attacking with the Novablast Wurm. In response to the declare attack, Player B sacrifices his Dauntless Escort, so in response to that, Player B activates his Bonds of Mortality.
Now, looking at the stack, Bonds of Mortality fires off first, and then the Dauntless Escort, which means that Player A's creatures still survive. Is that correct?
Is there any way for Player B to overcome Player A's Dauntless Escort by spamming Bonds of Mortality, assuming that Player A utilizes Dauntless Escort in immediate response to the Novablast Wurm attack?
When I think through it my answer is "no," but this is very counter-intuitive based on the cards themselves and I want to be sure I'm correct.
Andromedus says... #2
I'm a little confused. If Player B does not respond to Player A's Dauntless Escort, wouldn't the Novablast Wurm also resolve at the same time as the Dauntless Escort? Once players decide not to interact with the stack, the whole stack resolves, correct? That would imply that Bonds of Mortality would not be effective in any case. What am I missing?
December 2, 2016 10:44 p.m.
No, once players decide not to interact with the stack, the top spell resolves, then the active player get's priority again. Usually the whole stack will resolve, because if nobody had a response to the top card, why would it resolving make a difference? This is one of the times the top ability resolving absolutely makes a difference, and you will respond to the bottom ability after the top ability resolves.
December 2, 2016 11:34 p.m.
Raging_Squiggle says... #4
The important information for this situation is that the stack does not resolve all at once. Each object on the stack resolves one at a time, with a round of priority in between each one.
Whenever the topmost object on the stack resolves, the active player receives priority once again. In order to resolve the next object in line, he/she must pass priority to other players to allow them to respond until everyone has passed. This happens for every object on the stack.
Because there is a time where every player has priority before each and every object resolution, Player B can certainly activate his own ability, after Dauntless Escort's ability has resolved, but before Novablast Wurm's ability has.
December 3, 2016 5:44 a.m.
Named_Tawyny says... #5
Also, note that when Player B attacks, they can retain priority, and activate Bonds of Mortality immediately after declaring attackers (and before Player A can activate Dauntless Escort's ability, if they wanted to.
December 3, 2016 6:08 p.m.
Raging_Squiggle says... #6
They can, but that would do nothing to solve the problem.
Neotrup says... #1
You are correct on how these things interact. The way to play it is Player B attacks, Novablast Wurm triggers. Player A responds by sacrificing Dauntless Escort. Neither player responds, so Escort's ability resolves, resulting in Player As creatures being Indestructable. Now, with the Wurm's ability still on the stack, Player B activates Bonds of Mortality. Once that resolves, it will undo Escort's ability, and allow Wurm's ability to resolve properly.
December 2, 2016 10:32 p.m.