Do I have to ask permission to cast an instant/activated ability at the end of an opponents draw step?
Asked by Vediowave 11 years ago
A guy I was playing against drew a card on his turn and then quite quickly cast an enchantment (indicating to me that he had moved to his main phase). The enchantment was seen by me though I wanted to cast an instant (discard spell) at the end if his draw step. Am I within my rights to say back up, I wanted to cast this before you move to your main phase, making you discard that enchantment? Or do I have to butt in after he draws?
jan2692wal says... #2
well if you're allowed to cast spells during a certain phase then your opponent should announce the change of phase before casting something, and until you pass priority he/she should not cast a spell. in the situation you are explaining, if you are planning on casting a spell and he just rushes into the nest phase you can stop him or call a judge over and backtrack it because technically you didnt pass priority
June 22, 2013 4:17 a.m.
technically you have to say "pass" the priority and you cant rush to the next step. like a guy who plays a Geist then instantly says TURN OVER before you can counter... that isnt how the game works
June 22, 2013 4:26 a.m.
Nigrescence says... #4
You can cast a spell on the draw step before the game moves to the first main phase. However, be aware that it is unusual and you should notify them either in advance to let you do something at the end of their draw step. Waiting for them to attempt to cast the spell and then wanting to backtrack can be seen as cheating of a sort. If you plan to make them discard at the end of their draw phase, you should be prepared to give advance notice.
June 22, 2013 4:29 a.m.
jan2692wal says... #5
while that might be a courtesy to the other player, the player who's turn it is is required to wait until the in-active player passes priority. things like that can get you a game play violation and possibly even a disqualification in larger tournaments (depending on the number of offenses you might have under your belt)
June 22, 2013 4:32 a.m.
Thanks all for the help! Makes me feel a lot better about it. Nigrescence - my problem with that is that I'm playing a discard deck so if I announce to them sometime at the beginning of their turn that I want to cast an instant at the end of their draw step, they're able to react to that. I suppose it doesn't matter that much though as the only way they could react would to be to cast instants anyway.
June 22, 2013 4:40 a.m.
Epochalyptik I believe you also forgot to mention that players are supposed to pass priority at the beginning of each phase as well.
It does come up occasionally in tournament play, for instance if active player tries to pass priority at the end of their first mainphase and their opponent casts a spell, when the stack empties they don't just go to the declare attackers step, instead they will still be in the first mainphase, allowing the active player to be able to cast sorceries before passing priority again to end the mainphase. This was sometimes used by the infect decks in standard to bait out possible removal spells before they tapped their Inkmoth Nexus ' to attack, if a removal spell was used they then would tap it for mana and cast their Ichorclaw Myr .
June 22, 2013 5:33 a.m.
Epochalyptik says... #8
@Demarge: Players do not have to pass priority at the beginning of each phase. Only at the end.
June 22, 2013 6:39 a.m.
Epochalyptik says... #9
I should note that passing to end a step or phase is different from passing to resolve something. Successive passing over an empty stack ends the current step or phase. Successive passing over an object on the stack resolves that object.
June 22, 2013 6:46 a.m.
so if I were to say "I am going to enter combat" and my opponent responses with a Gridlock targeting my Hellraiser Goblin , after it resolves am I still in my mainphase, thus allowing me to cast my Emrakul, the Aeons Torn before I declare my attackers?
June 22, 2013 7 a.m.
I personally found Epochs last comment a little confusing. Ive always seen it done that the active player need to basically narrate his phases. before the main phase is Untap, upkeep, Draw in that order. and before they start there main phase it needs to be acknowledged by both players. take an instant spell. you can play that instant at any point in those three steps before there main phase. idk the exact ruling on this top be honest
June 22, 2013 7:05 a.m.
Demarge says...
so if I were to say "I am going to enter combat" and my opponent responses with a Gridlock targeting my Hellraiser Goblin , after it resolves am I still in my mainphase, thus allowing me to cast my Emrakul, the Aeons Torn before I declare my attackers?
Technically yes, if he were casting his spell at the end of your Main Phase you would still get a chance before moving into the Combat Phase to cast your creature, but if he casts his instant at the Beginning of Combat Step he can tap all of your monsters before you can declare any attackers and you cannot summon your creature until you move into the second Main Phase
June 22, 2013 7:14 a.m.
Epochalyptik says... #13
You are correct in what you're saying, Demarge, but your first comment was a bit confusing.
@ApocryphalSaint: it's good practice for the AP to give clear verbal indication of any progression.
June 22, 2013 8:27 a.m.
Rhadamanthus says... #14
@Vediowave: Though everyone who responded is technically correct that the active player is supposed to make it clear when they're moving between steps, it's very rare that people play that way when they're leaving a step that hardly ever gets interrupted before it ends (like the draw step). In a case like that, you have to be ready to say something after the opponent draws his card but before he starts doing other things. A simple "Wait - before you do anything else..." will suffice.
@Demarge: No. Statements like "attackers", "going to combat", and similar sounding things are established tournament shortcuts meaning "I'm passing until you have priority in the Beginning of Combat step". I suppose a tournament shortcut doesn't really apply if you're playing a casual game, but doing this to purposefully "jedi mind trick" someone is kind of a jerk move and if someone did it to me I would not be cool with it.
June 22, 2013 4:20 p.m.
most people prefer to call it a dick move, also attackers and going to combat sound entirely different to a tournament player, especially ones used to having to deal with tap effects, even most casual players quickly learn the difference when running against stuff like Feeling of Dread and quickly accept such differences can make a difference.
June 22, 2013 8:56 p.m.
Nigrescence says... #16
Yep, I ran Feeling of Dread quite a bit in my control deck, and the first time somebody in a match said, "I'm attacking with..." I interrupt them and say that I cast it on moving to the attack step. Then I tell them to let me know until the end of our match to declare whenever they move to combat (because at that point the cat is out of the bag and it's a common strategy I can use, especially since it has flashback).
Generally if your deck takes advantage of sneak attacks during step changes, YOU should take the initiative to be aware of when those step changes happen and to interrupt them, and then let them know to expect it in the future.
For example, if you plan to interrupt them on moving from draw step to main phase one, AS SOON as they draw, tell them to hold on and let you do something before they move to main phase one.
It's as simple as that. It's your deck. You know what you can do with it. It's your responsibility, but it's ALSO their responsibility to acknowledge such a setup for the rest of the match, if you request it.
June 22, 2013 10:07 p.m.
Rhadamanthus says... #17
They're the same thing. This is from Section 4.2 of the MTR ("Tournament Shortcuts"):
A statement such as "I'm ready for combat" or "Declare attackers?" offers to keep passing priority until an opponent has priority in the beginning of combat step. Opponents are assumed to be acting then unless they specify otherwise.
Epochalyptik says... Accepted answer #1
If your opponent didn't give you priority between drawing a card and casting something in his main phase, you are well within your rights to back the game up to the end of the draw step. All players must pass priority in succession before the game progresses to the next step or phase. In this case, you weren't given priority.
June 22, 2013 4:16 a.m.