Who gets priority in the following scenario?
Asked by vic 5 years ago
I control a creature with flying and I am holding an Unmake . My opponent controls a Smuggler's Copter . It is my turn. I declare my attack (including my flyer) and my opponent taps a creature to make his Copter into a creature (he wants to block my flyer with it). I want to Unmake the Copter before combat so my flyer can hit, but I need to let the effect of turning it into a creature resolve first, so I don't want to put Unmake on the stack. Once he makes the Copter into a creature, can I cast my Unmake before he gets to declare his block or does he get to declare the block first? Who gets priority?
The short answer is this: you will still gain priority at least once between your opponent crewing Smuggler's Copter and your opponent declaring it as a blocker, and thus be able to cast Unmake on it.
With Madcookie's explanation, it's important to note that you can't shortcut straight to declaring attackers in order to prevent your opponent from doing something in the beginning of combat step. If you skip from your first main phase to saying something like, "And now I attack with this creature," your opponent is allowed to say "Wait, before you declare attacks, I do this thing." Best to first indicate you're moving to combat so they can opt to do things during the beginning of combat step if they want (such as killing that Ballista Charger before it can be declared as an attacker).
March 25, 2019 8:56 a.m.
Thanks Madcookie. That's helpful to know. But it begs a followup question. Since my opponent, in this scenario, will obviously be able to crew his Copter during the Declare Attackers step (assuming he knows the rules), is there some way that I CAN use my Unmake to get rid of the Smuggler's Copter and make it so that my flyer is unblocked and deals damage? That's what I'm really after, here.
March 25, 2019 9 a.m.
Kogarashi, we were typing at the same time. Yes, I do know to say "Going to combat..." before declaring attackers. But thanks. So how exactly will I go about making it work? When do I cast my Unmake ?
March 25, 2019 9:06 a.m.
Kogarashi already mentioned this in their post, but "you will still gain priority at least once between your opponent crewing Smuggler's Copter and your opponent declaring it as a blocker, and thus be able to cast Unmake on it."
Since you seem a bit confused on this point, I wanted to elaborate a bit on this. At the risk of being over-informative, I'm going to cover the basics as well.
Players can only cast spells when they have priority. Times when players gain priority are carefully defined within the rules. Within a round of priority, the active player begins with priority; they then can cast spells, activate abilities, or pass priority to the next player in APNAP order. When all players pass priority while the stack is empty, you move to the next step or phase of the game. If all players pass priority while something is on the stack, the top item on the stack resolves, then the active player gains priority. (Rule 116 and subsections).
In this case, there is a round of priority during the Declare Attackers Step (Rule 508.2). You pass priority during this step to your opponent, who activates Smuggler's Copter 's crew ability. Until this ability resolves, Smuggler's Copter is not a creature.
Priority passes back to you with the crew ability on the stack. You pass priority and the ability resolves and the Smuggler's Copter becomes a creature.
You now gain priority. Here is when you will cast Unmake , targeting the Smuggler's Copter . If they do not have an answer, the Unmake will resolve, and the Smuggler's Copter will be exiled.
Priority passes back to you. You pass priority; they pass priority; you move on to the step where they will declare their blockers. At this point, the Smuggler's Copter has been exiled, so is not able to block your creatures.
March 25, 2019 9:59 a.m.
Rhadamanthus says... #6
Yes, the play you want to make will work.
The key thing to know is that declaring blockers is the very first thing that happens at the beginning of the declare blockers step. This means that if anyone wants to do something that could affect the declaration of blockers, they need to do it before the declare blockers step actually starts. Also, the game can only move on to the next step or phase of the turn if all players pass over an empty stack. If your opponent crews Smuggler's Copter before declaring blockers, you will be able to Unmake it before the game moves on to the declare blockers step.
March 25, 2019 12:15 p.m.
Thanks everyone. Good stuff. cdkime's clarification on Kogarashi's (I said the wrong name before) first sentence did it for me. I just wasn't sure when the moment was that I needed to cast the Unmake. Got it now.
Madcookie says... #1
It is not that much a question about priority, but rather about steps.
Beginning of combat step - effects that trigger on beginning will trigger here Brudiclad, Telchor Engineer . The each player gets priority to do stuff, if all pass proceed to next step.
Declare attackers step. Once in this step declaring attackers it doesn't use stack to make a creature attack. For example you declare Ballista Charger as an attacker and its trigger goes on the stack. While in this phase the opponent can't say wait I'll kill it so it doesn't deal me 1 damage. If he wants to avoid the damage he has to kill it in the previous step. After attackers are declared players get priority, and may case something like Gideon's Reproach to kill a creature. Another important point in your case if your opponent wants to block with Smuggler's Copter he has to crew it in this phase or before it, any crewing after that will render it unable to block.
Declare blockers phase. Again doesn't use the stack. Creatures that are alive in this phase can be assigned as blockers. Once you declare a creature as a blocker for an attacking creature, it is considered blocked for the rest of the combat. The opponent can do something like, I'll kill your creature so my creature suddenly gets unblocked and damages you (if it has trample it can still damage you if blocker is removed), or enables ninjutsu Ninja of the Deep Hours . Also if the opponent crews Smuggler's Copter in this phase it will be once blockers are declared and it will be alive but not assigned as blocker.
So in other words your opponent has to crew Smuggler's Copter in declare attackers phase or before it, but can't assign it as a blocker until the next step. You can freely exile it once priority gets back to you at the end of the crew action.
Cheers!
March 25, 2019 7:47 a.m.