Do I have to discard a card to draw a card?
Asked by WalzY 12 years ago
Tin Street Market - If i tap the enchanted land, and I have no cards in my hand, may I draw a card?
If I can't, was I allowed to tap the land in the first place?
UmbrotheUmbreon says... #2
An activated ability, as stated, is a [Cost]:[Effect] ability. The [Cost] must be paid in order for the ability to go on the stack. In this case you must tap the land and discard a card. If you cannot discard a card then you cannot use that ability.
If the ability had read "T: Discard a card then draw a card" you could do this, but since the discard is part of the cost and not the effect you must discard a card in order to draw a card from Tin Street Market
GreatSword says... Accepted answer #1
An activated ability like that is written as [Cost]:[Effect]. You need to pay everything in the cost before the effect goes on the stack. All costs are performed at the same time effectively, so if you couldn't discard a card, you couldn't tap the land for that ability.
January 30, 2013 9:46 a.m.