Can I tap Mox Opal for mana before state-based action are checked?

Asked by WhatevWorks 4 years ago

I've got a Heartless Summoning and a Mox Opal on the battlefield, along with another artifact. If I cast the Myr Moonvessel in my hand, that's my third artifact, but can I tap the Mox Opal for mana before it dies to the -1/-1?

dragonstryke58 says... Accepted answer #1

No, you cannot.

Whenever a player would get priority, state based actions are checked. These actions don't use the stack and can't be responded to. Therefore, before you receive priority, SBA's are checked and players cannot activate any actions in response to them.

In your situation, state based actions will be checked once Myr Moonvessel enters the battlefield before you would gain priority. The game would see that it has a toughness of 0 and move it to the graveyard. Since that is a state based action, it cannot be responded to and Myr Moonvessel will be in your graveyard before you would receive priority.

704.1. State-based actions are game actions that happen automatically whenever certain conditions (listed below) are met. State-based actions don’t use the stack.

704.3. Whenever a player would get priority (see rule 116, “Timing and Priority”), the game checks for any of the listed conditions for state-based actions, then performs all applicable state-based actions simultaneously as a single event. If any state-based actions are performed as a result of a check, the check is repeated; otherwise all triggered abilities that are waiting to be put on the stack are put on the stack, then the check is repeated. Once no more state-based actions have been performed as the result of a check and no triggered abilities are waiting to be put on the stack, the appropriate player gets priority. This process also occurs during the cleanup step (see rule 514), except that if no state-based actions are performed as the result of the step’s first check and no triggered abilities are waiting to be put on the stack, then no player gets priority and the step ends.

June 10, 2019 3:45 p.m. Edited.

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