Gaea's Blessing + Mirror-Mad Phantasm
Asked by suneater 8 years ago
What happens if you hit Gaea's Blessing while using Mirror-Mad Phantasm's ability? I need ways to reliably keep myself from being milled out but these two cards interacting seem like it would cause a ton of shuffling.
You would shuffle Mirror-Mad Phantasm into your library, then reaveal till you get a creature card to put in play and all others into your graveyard. If you hit Gaea's blessing, then that abiltiy would be put on the stack to shuffle your graveyard.
So you would snuffle once for Mirror-Mad, and once for each blessing that goes into the graveyard from the library. Depending on how your opponents are, they may allow you to only shuffle your graveyard into the library once.
July 12, 2015 8:49 p.m.
So Mirror-Mad Phantasm's ability would cause you to continue digging for it after you hit Gaea's Blessing and shuffled your graveyard into your library? I thought that's how it worked but I wasn't totally sure. Hmm... I might just go back to using Elixir of Immortality in that case.
July 12, 2015 8:59 p.m.
GreatSword says... #4
Yes, no one has priority while an object on the stack is resolving, so no one can interrupt or 'respond' to it, until they have priority again.
July 12, 2015 9:22 p.m.
Epochalyptik says... Accepted answer #5
Wait.
Post #3 describes a process in which you begin revealing cards for Mirror-Mad Phantasm's ability's resolution, reveal Gaea's Blessing, shuffle your graveyard into your library, and then continue milling.
This is NOT what happens.
As the other answers state, you must resolve Mirror-Mad Phantasm's ability completely before anything else can happen. If you mill Gaea's Blessing during the resolution of Mirror-Mad Phantasm's ability, then Gaea's Blessing's ability will trigger, but it won't be put onto the stack yet. Mirror-Mad Phantasm's ability will finish resolving. Then, Gaea's Blessing's ability will be put onto the stack. It will resolve long after the mill process is complete.
July 12, 2015 9:42 p.m.
Gaea's Blessing's ability does not trigger until it is put into the graveyard from your library.
Mirror-Mad Phantasm's ability shuffles itself into the owner's library, then that player reveals cards till they hit a creature card. Then the reveled cards are put into the graveyard. (The cards are all put into the graveyard at the same time, but would not matter either way as the trigger would not go onto the stack until after Mirror-Mad Phantasm's ability completely resolves anyway).
Then, for each Gaea's Blessing that is put into the graveyard, it triggers.
Then barring any other responses, the trigger resolves, shuffling your graveyard into your library.
July 12, 2015 10:52 p.m.
FancyTuesday says... #8
You activate Mirror-Mad Phantasm's ability and shuffle it in, then start revealing cards from the top of your library until you hit a card named Mirror-Mad Phantasm. The cards are still in the library at this point. Then the revealed Mirror-Mad Phantasm is put onto the battlefield and the other revealed cards are put into the graveyard. That ability has resolved once the event that triggers Gaea's Blessing has happened.
If the ability that put Gaea's Blessing into the graveyard was something that put cards into the graveyard prior to being fully resolved (say, Grindstone), it would trigger the moment it went to the graveyard and would go on the stack the next time a player would receive priority.
603.2e If a triggered abilitys trigger condition is met, but the object with that triggered ability is at no time visible to all players, the ability does not trigger.
603.3 Once an ability has triggered, its controller puts it on the stack as an object thats not a card the next time a player would receive priority. See rule 116, Timing and Priority. The ability becomes the topmost object on the stack. It has the text of the ability that created it, and no other characteristics. It remains on the stack until its countered, it resolves, a rule causes it to be removed from the stack, or an effect moves it elsewhere.
July 12, 2015 11:23 p.m.
Epochalyptik says... #9
@FancyTuesday: It's important to note that it doesn't actually matter whether Gaea's Blessing's ability triggers at the end of Mirror-Mad Phantasm's ability's resolution or in the middle of it. Either way, the new ability will wait until the end of the current resolution, at which point it will be placed onto the stack.
At the point at which Gaea's Blessing is milled, Mirror-Mad Phantasm's ability is still resolving. This is the final instruction in resolving Mirror-Mad Phantasm's ability.
July 12, 2015 11:28 p.m.
FancyTuesday says... #11
@ Epochalyptik: Aye, that's why I added the example with Grindstone and the pertinent rules. I should've added "It will go on the stack the next time a player would receive priority, which would be after the current ability resolves." And you're right, it's still technically the case with Mirror-Mad Phantasm's ability, it's just conveniently timed to resolve so that Gaea's Blessing's ability can be put on the stack right after it's triggered.
Didn't mean to make it sound like it could interrupt the resolution otherwise, just wanted to break it down because everyone was giving the right answer but it was coming off as kinda jumbled. It seems I didn't help any, but I got to quote rules so it made my day.
July 13, 2015 12:01 a.m.
Epochalyptik says... #12
@FancyTuesday: Grindstone isn't really a counterexample. The repetition occurs within the resolution. You have one ability that instructs you to perform a set of actions until the condition for their repetition is no longer met. Any abilities that trigger from any of the mills will wait until all of the cards that will be milled have been milled (until the ability finishes resolving, in other words).
Also 603.2e isn't really relevant here. That rule covers cases like miracle. A miracle ability only triggers if its controller reveals the miracle card in accordance with miracle's rules. A miracle ability triggers if the miracle card is the first card a player draws in a turn, but since the card is normally drawn face down, its triggered ability can only function because miracle's rules require that the controller of the miracle ability reveal the miracle card in order to put the ability onto the stack.
That's not what's happening here. The ability will trigger when the cards are put into their owner's graveyard, at which time they will be visible to all players. The cards will be visible before that point as well because Mirror-Mad Phantasm's ability instructs its controller to reveal those cards.
603.3, however, is applicable here.
July 13, 2015 12:23 a.m.
FancyTuesday says... #13
Oh crap, I quoted the wrong rule, I meant to grab:
603.2 Whenever a game event or game state matches a triggered abilitys trigger event, that ability automatically triggers. The ability doesnt do anything at this point.
No wonder I've been scratching my head over your response. I shame my family. That's why I cited Grindstone, because it can trigger abilities like Gaea's Blessing while it's resolving and still doing things and I wanted to show that the triggering event and going on the stack were two separate things.
GreatSword says... #1
Yes, this works the way you want.
Gaea's Blessing last ability will trigger when it's put into the graveyard by Mirror-Mad Phantasm's ability. It will go on the stack after the Phantasm's ability has resolved, and then shuffle your graveyard and library together.
July 12, 2015 8:43 p.m.