Priority question about equip
Asked by Sai 9 years ago
Hi all
I have a bit of confusion about the priority I hope to get some help to:
I do understand that the player who's turn it is has the priority, until the active player casts a spell or uses an ability, the non-active player gets the priority. Yes?
For example If I use Royal Assassin's tap ability to destroy opponent's creature, the opponent gets the priority and he can attempt to destroy Royal Assassin if he wants to, but the ability of the Royal Assassin still resolves. Because of these rules:
Rule 112.3a tells us that activating an ability puts it on the stack, until it resolves, or is countered. And the Rule 112.7a tells us that activated ability exists independent of the source, and does not quality this separation with objects moving to a hidden zone.
On to the real questions I have:
If I have Neurok Stealthsuit on the battlefield and I wanted to equip it to the creature I have there. I pay the equip cost and the opponent who is the non-active player gets the priority, and then he attempts to destroy my creature with Murder and my creature dies.
So my two questions are:
1#: Why does my creature die before it's equipped? Shouldn't the Rule 112 prevent this form happening? Like it did with the Royal Assassin example?
2#: Does my creature die in this case if I would have used the Neurok Stealthsuit's unique instant [U][U] "attach" abilility?
When you activate the 
Attach ability, your opponent has an opportunity to respond while the ability is on the stack. If they choose to cast a spell (ie Murder targeting the creature you want to Attach to), their spell will go on the stack on top of your ability. If neither of you wants to add anything else to the stack, it then begins to resolve from the top down, beginning with their Murder targeting your creature. As long as your creature is still a legal target (your ability hasn't resolved yet, so the creature can still be targeted), your creature will die. Next, your Attach ability will attempt to resolve, but since the creature it targeted is no longer there, nothing will happen.
If your opponent attempts to Murder your creature, you can use the Attach ability the next time you have priority. If nothing else is added to the stack, the stack will resolve in the opposite order as above. The Equipment would become Attached to your creature, making it unable to be targeted. That, in turn, will make it an illegal target for Murder and Murder will be countered for having an illegal target
March 12, 2015 8:07 a.m.
First of all, let's explain the difference between the Equip 
and the : attach ability: The Equip ability can be activated only during during your main phase, when you have priority and the stack is empty (commonly known as when you could play a sorcery), whereas you can attach the equipment to a creature for whenever you have priority.
Aside from the speed you can cast it with, though, there's no difference in the effects of the two that are relevant here.
On to your question: If you equip the Stealthsuit to a creature paying either cost, and an opponent casts Murder in response, it will kill your creature before Stealthsuit will actually be attached and would grant the creature Shroud. Because by the time Stealthsuit would attach, the targetted creature isn't on the battlefield anymore, Stealthsuit won't be attached.
You get the opportunity to respond to that, however, but only with the attach ability that costs . If you do that, the suit will be attached before Murder resolves, which by that point will be countered for not having a legal target.
The same as the last example happens if your opponent decides to cast Murder, and you attach the suit in response.
That being said, let's clear some other things up:
- lordoftheshadows said that the stealthsuit will be destroyed, which I assume is a typo, but that doesn't happen in any scenario, as the stealthsuit is an equipment, not a creature
- When you cast a spell, the active player gets priority - not your opponent. That means that if it's your turn, and you cast a spell, you will first receive priority.
March 12, 2015 9:05 a.m.
Thanks for the response.
I don't quite understand this:
"When you cast a spell, the active player gets priority - not your opponent. That means that if it's your turn, and you cast a spell, you will first receive priority."
But the player who's turn it is (the active player), always has the priority? Until the active player casts a spell? No?
March 12, 2015 9:21 a.m.
Rhadamanthus says... #6
These are the times a player gets priority:
- At the beginning of each step and phase (except for Untap or Cleanup) the active player gets priority
- When a player casts a spell or activates an ability that player gets priority after the casting/activation process is complete
- When a spell or ability is finished resolving the active player gets priority
- When a player passes priority the next player in turn order gets priority
Some other things related to priority:
- State based actions are checked and executed simultaneously right before each time a player would get priority. If any SBAs were processed after this check the game checks again, otherwise the player is given priority.
- Triggered abilities trigger whenever the appropriate event happens, but aren't put onto the stack until the next time a player gets priority. If multiple triggered abilities are trying to go onto the stack at the same time then the active player puts all the ones they control onto the stack in the order of their choice, then the next player in turn order puts theirs onto the stack on top of those, and so on around the table.
- If all players pass in succession the topmost object on the stack resolves, unless the stack is empty, in which case the game moves on to the next step or phase
March 12, 2015 9:45 a.m.
filledelanuit says... #8
BlueScope I got a little confused. You're right that I meant the creature that is targeted by the equip ability.
filledelanuit says... Accepted answer #1
The two rules you referenced don't mean exactly what you think. You're right about the first one. The second one, however means that if the source of an ability changes zones the ability still resolves. However, if the ability cannot do something then it ignores the impossible part. The important thing you need to know is how the stack works. The stack resolves first in last out. So the first thing to go on the stack will resolve last and the last object on the stack will resolve first.
So in you example Murder is on the top of the stack and the equip ability is on the bottom. Murder will resolve first killling the Neurok Stealthsuit. Then the ability will resolve. It will try to equip the Neurok Stealthsuit but since it's not the same object it cannot so nothing happens.
The reason that your scenario works with Royal Assassin is that destroying a creature doesn't need Royal Assassin to be on the battlefield.
March 12, 2015 8:03 a.m.