Playtesting Commander Decks.
Asked by LiquidKid 11 years ago
Here's the sitch... A friend has Jeleva, Nephalia's Scourge on the field with some crazy ass spells exiled with her...He announces his attack, I respond by playing Derevi, Empyrial Tactician by putting her on the field from the command zone for 1GWU so I could tap Jeleva, Nephalia's Scourge so I wouldn't get nailed with her Cast an Instant or sorcery ability for free. He responds by casting Soul Manipulation to counter Derevi, Empyrial Tactician . Can I then respond by casting Derevi, Empyrial Tactician to tap Jeleva, Nephalia's Scourge once again protecting me from this eminent threat?
Epochalyptik says... Accepted answer #2
First, your opponent needs to give you a cue signifying the transition from the beginning of combat step to the declare attackers step. The beginning of combat step is your last chance to preemptively tap a creature to prevent it from attacking. You can't respond to a creature's attack to prevent it from attacking after the fact.
Second, if you put Derevi, Empyrial Tactician onto the battlefield with its activated ability, your opponent can't counter it using a counterspell. Derevi, Empyrial Tactician isn't cast by its activated ability. You'd need a Stifle effect to prevent Derevi, Empyrial Tactician from entering the battlefield off its activated ability.
Third, if you aren't putting Derevi, Empyrial Tactician onto the battlefield with its activated ability, then you better have a way to cast Derevi, Empyrial Tactician at instant speed because Derevi, Empyrial Tactician doesn't have flash.
November 5, 2013 9:52 p.m.
Tradeylouish says... #3
When you activate Derevi, Empyrial Tactician 's ability from the command zone, Derevi does not become a spell and does not move on to the stack - only the ability does. Your opponent cannot use Soul Manipulation to counter Derevi, as there is no spell to counter. If, for example, your opponent used Stifle to counter the activated ability, you could activate the ability again after Stifle had resolved in order to tap down Jeleva, Nephalia's Scourge .
November 5, 2013 9:53 p.m.
He said "attack step'' and then I responded by putting the Bird Wizard in play, tapping his Vampire Wizard...So can I still use his ability at instant speed, in response to his announcing his attack step? Or can I only use Derevi, Empyrial Tactician
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November 5, 2013 10:47 p.m.
Tradeylouish says... #5
You may activate Derevi's ability any time you could cast an instant. It sounds like you did in fact activate the ability at the correct time, so your play was definitely legal.
November 5, 2013 10:53 p.m.
Thanks for all the quick responses...Sorry if the question wasn't clear, I'm still learning..
Devonin says... #1
The ability you activated to put Derevi onto the battlefield wasn't you casting a spell. Soul Manipulation simply wouldn't function at all in that case.
November 5, 2013 9:49 p.m.