Does paying a card's cost to activate an ability resolve before the stack is triggered?

Asked by KaiserMTG 8 years ago

I ran into a tough scenario last night with my buddy. I had a Vampire Hexmage on the board and my friend played Myojin of Life's Web. He tried to remove the divinity counter to play some creatures in his hand but I tried to respond by sacrificing Vampire Hexmage. Once he announces that he's going to active Myojin of Life's Web does it go on the stack or would its cost (removing the divinity counter) resolve before the stack is triggered?

Colgate says... Accepted answer #1

Stack isn't triggered, but yes abilities' and spells' costs are paid as they are put on stack, so divinity counter is removed before you get to activate Vampire Hexmage. If you activated Vampire Hexmage first, they could still remove counter in response, because Vampire Hexmage's counter removal is part of effect. Abilities' syntax is cost:effect

March 27, 2016 2:41 p.m.