Evolutionary Leap vs. Removal

Asked by KB2187 8 years ago

Can someone explain the timing for me of Evolutionary Leap and a removal spell or board wipe?

Say I have a 3 Monastery Swiftspears in play with two untapped [[Forest]s. Opponent plays Languish.

BlueScope says... #1

Assuming you also have Evolutionary Leap in play, you can activate it's ability any amount of times in response to Languish (or another activation of Evolutionary Leap, if you wish) as you can pay it's cost (which is and sacrifice a creature). That means you'll be able to sac two of your Swiftspears to get two creature cards put into your hand, while the third is looking lonely for only a very short period of time...

October 17, 2015 1:56 p.m.

Epochalyptik says... #2

There are two key rules here.

First, no player has priority while a spell or ability is resolving. That means that you can't activate Evolutionary Leap's ability in the middle of the resolution of something else.

Second, state-based actions are performed before a player receives priority, so a creature that has lethal damage marked on it or has 0 or less toughness will die before you get priority to activate Evolutionary Leap's ability.

This means that your last opportunity to activate Evolutionary Leap's ability is before the other spell or ability resolves. Evolutionary Leap's ability doesn't have any restrictions on how often or when you can activate it, so you can activate it whenever you have priority and as many times as you can pay for it.

October 17, 2015 2:01 p.m.

shinobigarth says... #3

simply put, when your opponent drops Languish, you activate EL's ability in response to that for 2 of your Swiftspears since you have open.

October 17, 2015 9:56 p.m. Edited.

titanreaver says... Accepted answer #4

112.3b Activated abilities have a cost and an effect. They are written as [Cost]: [Effect.] [Activation instructions (if any).] A player may activate such an ability whenever he or she has priority. Doing so puts it on the stack, where it remains until its countered, it resolves, or it otherwise leaves the stack. See rule 602, Activating Activated Abilities.

116.7. If a player with priority casts a spell or activates an activated ability while another spell or ability is already on the stack, the new spell or ability has been cast or activated in response to the earlier spell or ability. The new spell or ability will resolve first. See rule 608, Resolving Spells and Abilities

From the rules and simply the casting of the active player's spell passes priority to you, at which time you may place other items onto the stack. They will then resolve accordingly. Hope that helps

October 17, 2015 11:29 p.m.