If I discard a Prized Amalgam as part of the casting cost to activate Stitchwing Skaab, will the Amalgam come back on my end step?

Asked by SmugLookingBarrel 7 years ago

Let's say I have a Stitchwing Skaab in the graveyard and a Prized Amalgam in hand. I Activate the Skaab's ability, which requires I pay 2 mana and discard 2 cards. I discard the Prized Amalgam. The Skaab then comes back from my graveyard to the battlefield. Prized Amalgam states that whenever a creature enters the battlefield from the graveyard, the Amalgam will return from the graveyard to the battlefield on the next end step. I thought this was pretty cut and dry, but I had a judge called on me when I did it and the judge ruled that it didn't work. Can anyone explain why?

Neotrup says... Accepted answer #1

First off: Stitchwing Skaab doesn't have an ability to cast it from the grave, it has an activated ability with discarding cards as part of the activation cost, not the casting cost. Here's the order of what happens:

  1. You choose to activate Stitchwing Skaab's activated ability, moving it to the stack.
  2. You pay the cost of the ability, discarding two cards from your hand, including putting Prized Amalgam in your graveyard.
  3. With Stitchwing Skaab's ability activated you now have priority again and pass priority to your opponent.
  4. Your opponent with no responses passes priority as well and Stitchwing Skaab's ability returns it from the graveyard to the field.
  5. Prized Amalgam's ability sees that it's in the graveyard and a creature entered the battlefield from the graveyard and triggers.
  6. Your opponent calls over a judge, who proceeds to give a bad ruling for no apparent reason. Were they an actual judge or just the tournament organizer?

What should happen is neither player responds to Prized Amalgam's ability and resolves creating a delayed triggered ability which will trigger at the beginning of the next end step.

February 23, 2017 4:39 p.m.

BlueScope says... #2

You pay costs as part of casting a spell or activating ability, meaning you pay and discard two cards long before anyone can respond, and before the ability resolves. Assuming nothing else happens, Stitching Skaab is returned to the battlefield from the graveyard. Because Prized Amalgam has been in your graveyard ever since you paid the costs for the ability, a delayed triggered ability will be created and trigger at the next end step, returning it to the battlefield.

Note that you can't just discard a single Prized Amalgam, but you have to discard two cards. This is paying a cost, and therefore different to cards that have players discard as part of their effect. The latter has them discard up to a certain number, whereas paying costs means you have to discard exactly the amount of cards stated, not less.

In any case, noone can tell you why a judge ruled the way they did. It is in their job description as well as interest to explain those reasons to you, though, partly to avoid having to ask external sources for help after the fact. The problem with that it's impossible to judge the actual game situation from here - maybe your opponent controlled a Yixlid Jailer and noone was paying attention, or maybe the judge messed up... maybe you only had a single card in your hand and attempted to activate the ability without being able to pay the cost, and that judge failed to be elaborate about what exactly you messed up.

February 23, 2017 4:42 p.m.

Alright, thanks for clearing that up.

And I don't think they were an actual judge, but since they were the ones who organised the event (it wasn't a tournament, just an FNM at my local game store) I decided just to go with the judge ruling. The person didn't explain to me why, he just said that it didn't work.

February 23, 2017 6:22 p.m.

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