Did my psychosis crawler die?!
Asked by Munix 12 years ago
Well I'm going to be using card:Jace's Archivist ability to get Psychosis Crawler 's damage ability really rolling. But if I discard my whole hand does he die? And if so does card:Geth's Grimoire save him from dying because the triggers would really go (opponent) discard, (I would)draw, (Opponent) discard, (I would) draw...ect? and then I would discard my old hand while this is happening?
MagnorCriol says... Accepted answer #2
So there's several things at work here for your questions.
First off, state-based actions - the in-game systems that are what would put your Psychosis Crawler in the graveyard - don't ever check during the resolution of a spell or ability. Once that spell or ability begins to resolve, it resolves completely before SBAs are checked and then anything else gets added to the stack.
This means that your Crawler won't die when you activate card:Jace's Archivist, because his schtick is all one big ability. You'll discard your hand, and for that brief moment the Crawler's P/T will be 0/0, but SBAs won't check to see if it's 0/0 until after the ability resolves and you've drawn cards again.
To address the second part of your question, which you never really asked but is worth explaining to you: An effect like card:Geth's Grimoire wouldn't save the Crawler even if something is about to kill it, because it's got a triggered ability. You can tell this because it uses the word "whenever". Because it's a triggered ability, that means it has to be added to the stack before it resolves, and SBAs are always checked immediately after anything resolves from the stack and before anything new can be added to it. So SBAs would check and kill the Crawler before the Grimoire's triggered ability let you draw cards to save it.
December 8, 2012 4:17 a.m.
MagnorCriol says... #4
Oh, and forgot one other part. Because abilities have to completely resolve from the stack before others can be added, if you activate card:Jace's Archivist while you have a card:Geth's Grimoire on the field, you will both completely discard your hands then draw cards, then you will draw a card for each card your opponent discards. You don't draw in the middle of discarding to the Archivist. So if you each had, say, 5 cards in hand, the order would go
[Archivist ability]
V
[You and opponent each discard your hand, then draw 5; Grimoire triggers 5 times]
V
[5 Grimoire triggers go on the stack]
V
[You draw a card as each Grimoire trigger resolves]
December 8, 2012 4:23 a.m.
I seriously just asked this again in another post. Lol but thanks. Just copy and paste and I'll pick this for the answer.
December 8, 2012 4:26 a.m.
MagnorCriol says... #6
Hehe, no problem. More answers means more people who need to see it, right? =p
Munix says... #1
What I mean from discarding my old hand while this is happening is from card:Jace's Archivist ability originally triggering this whole thing, but since opponents are discarding card:Geth's Grimoire would be keeping cards in my hand to keep from killing Psychosis Crawler ?
December 8, 2012 4:04 a.m.