How does paying for Punishing Fire and it's other mechanics work?

Asked by Husky 7 years ago

I understand that Punishing Fire triggers when an opponent gains life but at what point can my opponent respond to the punishing fire trigger? If I have a Grove of the Burnwillows out and use its ability to cause my opponent to gain life and float one red mana and trigger the punishing fire and my opponent responds are they responding before or after I've paid the mana to get punishing fire back to my hand?

Say in the case that I have punishing fire in my grave yard and my opponent has a Deathrite Shaman I trigger the punishing fire in which case my opponent chooses to exile it. Is there anything I can do to save it without having to trigger it again from a second instance of life gain? Can I use red mana from another sorce to pay for its trigger while the exile is on the stack?

nobu_the_bard says... Accepted answer #1

The stack is starts empty, Punishing Fire is in your graveyard, you activate Grove of the Burnwillows's second ability. This doesn't use the stack - it is a mana ability so it resolves immediately. You do need priority for this though. That sets the stack like this -

Bottom -> Punishing Fire's triggered ability

You have a in your pool already. A round of priority ensues, allowing an opponent to respond at this point. If they move Punishing Fire from your graveyard or counter the ability somehow, the ability will fail. You need it to trigger again to save it (or use some other effect like countering their response). However, they do not know for sure that you intend to spend your mana on the trigger- that decision is made when it resolves; thus, if they do this, you don't necessarily lose the mana.

When Punishing Fire's trigger resolves, the stack returns to empty. You would normally have priority again and could cast it immediately unless you did this on someone else's turn.

July 21, 2016 2:58 p.m.

This discussion has been closed