Morph & Mana abilities vs The Stack
Asked by keyno 9 years ago
Okay, so i've heard that morph abilities such as Abzan Guide don't enter the stack. I also know that mana abilities & land effects also don't enter the stack.
So, I got into a little argument over when these things can be done. A friend used Lure on one of his creatures, so before the battle phase, I tapped all of my Llanowar Elves to ensure they couldn't block. He argued that because they don't enter the stack, you can only tap land or mana abilities when casting spells or effects, but I thought that would ruin the point of the old Mana Burn, or Omnath, Locus of Mana , since you'd have NO mana left over at any time.
When I raised the argument of Morph he argued that this could only be done at "relevant times" such a when being targeted or when attacking or blocking and otherwise during your main phase as a sorcery. I don't think "relevant times" sounds like a roper ruling at all.
But it got me thinking, say someone activates Lightning Bolt on my face down Abzan Guide , can I react by Morphing it, or must I wait until we are outside of a stack?
It's just that this is about to get very relevant with Kharns
Also it is called combat phase and not battle phase and you don't activate a Lightning Bolt you cast it.
September 14, 2014 6:45 a.m.
Brilliant, I expected as much, and apologies regarding my Syntax, still got a few other gard games knocking about in my rulings =P
Pilz_753 says... Accepted answer #1
You can activate mana abilities and turn morph cards face up at any time you have prority. They don't use the stack and your opponent can't respond to it. There are also no "relevant times". If you want to you can just add mana to your mana pool and don't use it. Also you can turn morphs face whenever you want. But not all abilities of lands are mana abilities so it's not generally right that can't respond to abilities of lands. You can respond to abilities of lands that aren't mana abilities. For example you can respond to it when somebody uses Wasteland to destoy one of your lands.
September 14, 2014 6:42 a.m.