If I cast Terminate in response to Aether Vial cheating in Cursecatcher, can they use Cursecatcher to counter?
Asked by ToolmasterOfBrainerd 8 years ago
I had this recently come up in a game against Merfolk. They had a Lord of Atlantis in play and an AEther Vial at 1. EOT my turn they activate Vial to put Cursecatcher into play. I have 2 mana open. I respond to the activation of vial with Terminate targeting Lord of Atlantis. Can he sac his Cursecatcher (the one he's putting into play) in response to me casting Terminate? Or I guess the real question is if AEther Vial is an activated ability so does Terminate go on the stack before Cursecatcher is put into play?
Thank you!
GoldGhost012 is correct, but there is an additional wrinkle: When the AEther Vial's ability gets activated, you have to respond before the player activating it reveals what is getting put onto the battlefield. Once the ability is resolving (and the creature is revealed), there is no time to respond before the creature is in play.
In practice, of your opponent taps the Vial and immediately reveals the Cursecatcher, this is a proposed "shortcut" to resolving the ability; if you want to respond, you still can, and the game essentially "rewinds" to having the ability on the stack and the Cursecatcher not yet revealed. What your opponent should be doing in this situation, however, is activating the Vial and then asking if you have any responses before they reveal what is being put onto the battlefield. If they do ask this, and you do not use your Terminate at that time, then there will not be another opportunity to cast your Terminate before the Cursecatcher is on the battlefield.
October 7, 2015 11:54 p.m.
ToolmasterOfBrainerd says... #3
Thank you both of you. I can't mark both as the right answer, unfortunately, but thank you! That's what I thought would happen, but I'm used to players using the shortcut so I wasn't sure.
Thanks!
GoldGhost012 says... Accepted answer #1
AEther Vial's ability to put creatures on the battlefield is an activated ability, so it'll use the stack. If you respond to the ability while it's on the stack, Terminate will be put on top of the stack above the AEther Vial ability. Therefore, Terminate will resolve before the AEther Vial ability, and Cursecatcher will not be on the field by then.
tl;dr, Terminate resolves before AEther Vial puts Cursecatcher on the field. Thus Cursecatcher can't counter your Terminate since it's not on the field yet, and Lord of Atlantis will be destroyed.
October 7, 2015 11:34 p.m. Edited.