Age counters And Cumulative upkeep
Asked by Terramune 13 years ago
Do I have time between getting an age counter and having to choose between paying an upkeep?? Reason I ask is just curious if I could say remove a counter withHex Parasite from Phyrexian Soulgorger so that I wouldn't be required to sac anything.
Rhadamanthus says... Accepted answer #2
No, that's not how cumulative upkeep works. When the triggered ability resolves, the counter is placed and you have the choice to pay the cost. Because it's all the effect of one ability resolving, no player has priority to play more spells or abilities in the middle of it. If you let Phyrexian Soulgorger's cumulative upkeep trigger resolve, the next chance you'll get to play more spells and abilities is after you've made the choice of whether or not to pay the cost for each of the age counters. This means you'll have to sacrifice at least one creature to Soulgorger each turn to keep it going, even if you have Hex Parasite for shenanigans. The following rule supports this position:
702.22a Cumulative upkeep is a triggered ability that imposes an increasing cost on a permanent. "Cumulative upkeep [cost]" means "At the beginning of your upkeep, if this permanent is on the battlefield, put an age counter on this permanent. Then you may pay [cost] for each age counter on it. If you don't, sacrifice it." If [cost] has choices associated with it, each choice is made separately for each age counter, then either the entire set of costs is paid, or none of them is paid. Partial payments aren't allowed.
December 29, 2011 9:57 a.m.
KrazyCaley says... #3
Rhadamanthus is correct in that cumulative upkeep happens all at once- "Add an age counter and then pay the upkeep or not" without any room to do anything in between.
However, it should be added that Hex Parasite DOES allow you to keep removing counters from the Soulgorger afterwards, so that, theoretically, you'd never have to sacrifice more than ONE creature to the Soulgorger if you had the mana to pay the Parasite.
December 29, 2011 6:50 p.m.
Thx for clearing that up. I just wasn't sure if I could sneak it in there or not lol.
Carn13 says... #1
Yes, if you stack the abilities correctly. Cumulative upkeep is a triggered ability, which uses the stack, so you could activate the Parasite's ability during your upkeep when the cumulative upkeep ability is on the stack to remove counters from the Soulgorger before you sacrifice anything.
December 29, 2011 5:56 a.m.