Activating sorcery speed abilities at instant speed?
Asked by Teague_Mcgill 5 years ago
Okay so basically, If I've got a card like Nicol Bolas, the Ravager Flip on the field, his text for his ability says "Activate this ability only any time you could cast a sorcery". It doesn't explicitly say "on your main phase" so if a card like Vedalken Orrery is on the field, making any sorceries castable at any time, could you activate Bolas' ability at any time?
The only card I could find that allows you to activate sorcery-speed abilities at instant speed is Leonin Shikari, but that is limited to equip abilities only. As per the answer above, casting cards and activating abilities are two different things.
November 28, 2018 4:54 a.m.
TheLordStormCrow says... #3
Vedalken Orrery only affects casting spells, which does not include activating abilities (like Bolas')
when something says 'any time you could cast a sorcery', it means only in your main phases, and only then when the stack is empty
December 1, 2018 11:48 a.m.
Rhadamanthus says... #4
Teague_Mcgill: Correct answers to this question have been up for a while. I chose one to mark as the "Accepted Answer" so that the thread can move out of the Unanswered queue. Please remember to take care of this yourself in the future.
Caerwyn says... Accepted answer #1
This is a pretty common question on account of the language being a tad ambiguous. "Activate this ability only any time you could cast a sorcery" is a term of art specifically meaning "activate this ability only during your turn and only when the stack is empty."
That language does not change even if there are modifications to how you might be able to cast a sorcery in that given game.
As such, you can't activate Nicol Bolas' ability at instant speed, even with Vedalken Orrery in play.
November 27, 2018 5:01 p.m.