question about instants

Asked by marvinrebong 9 years ago

on my opponent's turn he casted an instant adding a +2/+2 to a 3/3 creature he controls. Can I cast Fiery Temper targeting his creature and will it destroy it?or his creature will survive due to the instant spell he casted?

acbooster says... Accepted answer #1

The stack resolves in FILO (First In Last Out) order. So your opponent casts the spell targeting his 3/3 creature. In response, you cast Fiery Temper targeting the same creature. If there are no other spells cast or abilities activated or triggered, your spell will resolve first and 3 damage will be marked on the 3/3 creature. Now that players have priority again, State-Based Actions are checked and the creature will die because it has lethal damage marked on it. The creature will be sent to the graveyard and your opponent's spell will resolve and fizzle because it has no more legal targets.

May 20, 2016 10:49 p.m.

marvinrebong says... #2

i see..but what if that creature has an ability that says "+1+1 while attacking" and i've casted the Fiery Temper during his combat step?

May 20, 2016 11:01 p.m.

acbooster says... #3

It really depends on how the ability is worded. If it's worded as, "Whenever (creature) attacks, it gets +1/+1 until end of turn" then you can respond to the ability since it's an ability that triggers when the creature attacks. However, once it resolves, unless there're other effects reducing its toughness or spells/abilities dealing damage, then Fiery Temper won't be enough to kill it since it keeps the +1/+1 until the end of the turn.

If it's worded instead as, "(creature) gets +1/+1 while attacking", then you can't respond to the ability because it's a static ability that modifies the creature's power and toughness when certain conditions are met, in this case only when the creature is attacking. You can still cast Fiery Temper on it and mark 3 damage, but it wouldn't die until after combat. The reason for this is that the +1/+1 will cease to affect the creature when it's no longer attacking, bringing it down to a 3/3 again.

May 20, 2016 11:28 p.m.