Can I respond to a Star/Star creature that enters as a 0/0 like Consuming Aberration
Asked by addam11 2 years ago
Hi everybody, I rarely post so apologies if I've incorrectly set this up or asked in the incorrect area. Anyhow, I was thinking of creating an Umbris, Fear Manifest deck, and with it, wanted to use Consuming Aberration. Since I care so much about exile, I planned to use cards like Silent Gravestone and Soul-Guide Lantern to mill and constantly exile opponents graveyards. Keeping that in mind, I was wondering if it was possible to play Consuming Aberration as a 0/0 and then respond to either:
- The enter-the-field trigger
- Or the On-death trigger
I was speaking to a friend that said that since Consuming Aberration has Star/Star, it is a constant state based card or something, and therefore cannot be interacted with once it enters (It just dies). Thanks!
Also, any time you, say, activate Soul-Guide Lantern to exile opponents' graveyards, Consuming Aberration will die immediately after the ability resolves from being a 0/0, unless you have some kind of anthem effect that can raise its toughness.
For a little background to how these things work: Consuming Aberration's power and toughness are a characteristic of the card. There's no delay to it updating; its power and toughness are always equal to however many cards are in your opponents' graveyards at any given moment.
State-based actions are checked when players get priority like Named_Tawyny said - generally right after something (a spell or an ability) goes on the stack, right after something resolves, and at the beginning of most steps. If it's ever a 0/0 at any of those times, it will die (possibly triggering abilities) and then another round of priority will happen. You will not have time to respond to it being 0/0 before it dies.
There are rare situations where it could dip to 0 toughness momentarily without dying (for example, if a card said "exile all graveyards, then each player mills a card"). By the time state-based actions are checked, your opponents would have cards in their graveyards again.
Named_Tawyny says... Accepted answer #1
Your friend is correct. Assuming your opponents had no cards in their graveyard, Consuming Aberration would be a 0/0 when it enters the battlefield.
It won't die immediately, but it will die before you have a chance to do anything. As soon as you would get priority (which happens right after it finishes entering the battlefield) the game would see that it has 0 toughness, and move it to your graveyard as a State Based Action. By the time you could cast anything, it will already be gone.
November 9, 2021 11:49 p.m.