Extort Clarification

Asked by Lotacus 11 years ago

I have always wondered how exactly does extort work. If i have 1 Basilica Screecher and play a sell, can i use multiple mana to extort multiple times with that 1 creature or can i only extort multiple times with multiple extort creatures such as twice with 2 basilica schreecher?

Devonin says... #1

Extort triggers once per spell you cast. When the trigger resolves, you have the option of "pay B/W" or "don't" and if you do, each opponent loses 1 life and you gain that much life.

Multiple sources of extort will all trigger and can all be paid for, but you can only pay for a given instance of it one time per spell.

January 8, 2014 5:26 p.m.

Drilnoth says... #2

You can only extort as many times as you have permanents with extort. When you cast a spell, each extort ability of permanents you control triggers once. For each extort trigger, you may pay 1 or 0 mana.

If you control one Basilica Screecher and no other extort permanents, you can only extort a spell once.

January 8, 2014 5:27 p.m.

nobu_the_bard says... #3

Note that you can actually extort as many times as you have instances of extort on permanents you control. Unlike Lifelink, Trample, and many others, multiple instances on one permanent are not redundant. However, as far as I know, the only way for a permanent to gain an additional instance of Extort is Pontiff of Blight , but you'll see it clarifies this in his reminder text.

January 8, 2014 5:38 p.m.

Lotacus says... #4

So if i play 1 spell, have 3 extort creatures, i can extort 3 times unless they have double extort granted by Pontiff of Blight then? So to my understanding, I can only extort once per spell per creature provided that i have the mana to do so?

January 8, 2014 5:45 p.m.

Devonin says... Accepted answer #5

Once per spell per instance of extort on your permanants. The fact that it is almost always the same as "one per spell per creature with extort" doesn't make it not an important distinction.

1 creature with extort = 1 trigger
2 creatures with extort = 2 triggers
1 creature with extort and a Pontiff of Blight = 3 triggers

January 8, 2014 5:48 p.m.