Confused on how regeneration works.
Asked by Nuubi 6 years ago
Can anyone help me with the ruling on regeneration? I had Ezuri, Renegade Leader and several other elves. My opponent attack with 5/5 Dino of sorts and I blocked with Elvish Mystic . So Elvish Mystic obviously dies and goes to the grave. The question is can I regenerate it immediately in response to it dieing, so that when it’s my turn and they untap I have all my lands to spend on my turn or does the regeneration have to be done on my turn? And can any creature in the grave be regenerated at anytime? A bit confused on this ability.
Noire_Samhain's answer is not accurate. You cannot activate an ability "as [the creature] dies, during the combat damage step" as neither player has priority during this step until after damage has been dealt (see Rule 510.2 and 510.3, stating priority for that step occurs after the active player gains priority). At that point, state-based actions will check, and the creature will die before you have the ability to activate Ezuri's ability.
Generally, you can only activate abilities when you have priority. For Regenerate to work to prevent lethal damage, you have to activate the ability before the creature dies. For damage in the Combat Damage Step, this generally means you have to activate the regenerate ability during the priority portion of the Declare Blockers Step at the absolute latest.
Properly, you would activate Ezuri, Renegade Leader 's ability after blockers are declared, but before damage is dealt. When the Elvish Mystic , now with regenerate due to Ezuri, would die during the combat damage step, Regenerate's replacement effect would occur instead of the creature dying--the Elvish Mystic would be removed from combat, all damage would be removed from it, and it would become tapped.
Noire_Samhain's point about activated abilities is correct--unless they specify otherwise (ex. Equip is limited to sorcery speed), activated abilities can be done at instant speed.
While I generally do not like changing an an accepted answer after the thread has been closed, nor marking my own answers as accepted, I have gone ahead and done so in this case. The card page for Ezuri, Renegade Leader will link to this thread, and I want to make sure the correct rule regarding Regeneration is in the accepted response.
Noire_Samhain says... #1
"The next time this permanent would be destroyed this turn, it isn't. Instead tap it, remove all damage from it, and remove it from combat" is the official way of describing it. You would keep your Mystic.
Activated abilities can be activated on anybody's turn, and since Ezuri doesn't tap to activate it, you can do it without worrying about Summoning Sickness. You need to activate it AS it dies, during the combat damage step, not after it dies. Regeneration doesn't affect creatures in the graveyard already.
February 10, 2019 7:01 p.m. Edited.