So a Distended Mindbender emerges from a Thought-Knot Seer?
Asked by Metroid_Hybrid 7 years ago
I'm pretty sure this interaction is pretty straight forward. However I wanted to double-check just to make sure before trying this out at an FNM..
Say I control a Thought-Knot Seer on the battlefield, and I decide to sacrifice it to pay for the Emerge cost for Distended Mindbender. Because I'm saccing the TKS as a part of paying DM's cost, TKS's second ability triggers & resolves, giving my opponent another card before I even have a chance to Cast the DM for 
. Correct?
Epochalyptik says... #2
Incorrect.
Triggered abilities are put onto the stack the next time a player receives priority after the ability triggers. No player has priority while something is resolving, while a spell is being cast, or while an activated ability is being activated.
Note also that announcing a spell and putting it onto the stack is the first step in the casting process. So anything that triggers during the casting process would naturally be above it anyway.
In this case, you're casting Distended Mindbender. You sacrifice a creature as part of the payment for Distended Mindbender's cost (specifically, its emerge cost). Thought-Knot Seer's ability triggers, and it'll be put onto the stack after you finish paying for Distended Mindbender (because cost payments are the last step in casting a spell or activating an ability).
Your opponent will draw a card, but only after you've finished casting Distended Mindbender. Note, however, that they'll still be able to respond to your spell before it resolves.
July 26, 2016 5:47 p.m.
Epochalyptik says... Accepted answer #3
Of course, I didn't take my answer one step further and describe Distended Mindbender's triggered ability, which is probably why you're asking this question in the first place.
Raging_Squiggle is correct in that respect. Note, however, that the abilities are not put onto the stack at exactly the same time. The stack is an ordered list. Objects can be above or below one another (vertically), but never next to each other (horizontally). If you control multiple abilities that have triggered since the last time a player received priority, you put them onto the stack in the order of your choosing. By specifying the order in which they're stacked, you're indirectly defining the order in which they resolve. You don't directly choose to resolve one ability before another.
So you would likely choose to place Distended Mindbender's ability onto the stack first, then put Thought-Knot Seer's ability above it. This would allow you to potentially choose the newly-drawn card as one of the ones for discard.
July 26, 2016 5:51 p.m.
Metroid_Hybrid says... #4
Okay, so the card draw doesn't necessarily happen before anything else happens, however I ultimately have the priority to stack it so that the Thought-Knot Seer LTB resolves before the Distended Mindbender's Cast ability resolves?
July 26, 2016 6:28 p.m.
Raging_Squiggle says... #5
Yes you have the choice to either let the opponent draw first before you pick at his hand; or pick first and then let him draw.
July 26, 2016 6:29 p.m.
Metroid_Hybrid says... #6
Excellent.. Thanks guys..
And here's a shameless plug for the evil little deck I plan on doing said shennanagans with..
Mono-Black Eldrazi Control..
Standard
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Raging_Squiggle says... #1
The way it works is, since you're in the process of paying for a spell, no play has priority. When you sacrifice Thought-Knot Seer, it's ability triggers but waits to go on the stack until the time a player has priority. This time is when you have successfully cast Distended Mindbender.
Since Mindbender's cast trigger, and Seer's LTB trigger go on the stack at the same time, you may choose which one to resolve first. In order to get the result you want, you will want Seer's ability to resolve first and then the cast trigger from Mindbender.
July 26, 2016 5:47 p.m.