Stifleand Activated Ability Costs
Asked by Profet93 6 years ago
I understand that if you Stifle an opponent's creature's activated ability that requires them to tap their creature, the activated ability of the creature is countered and since the creature is tapped, it cannot use it's activated ability again unless they somehow untapped it (Ex: Captain Sisay)
Let's say I have a Myojin of Night's Reach with a divinity counter and I want to remove the counter to make my opponent's discard their hand. The blue player casts Stifle in response to the activated ability, does Myojin of Night's Reach still have a divinity counter on it? Since they counter the ability, I assume it does not counter the cost associated with the ability (removing the divinity counter) and therefore the counter is removed and my opponents keep their hands.
Thank you for your detailed explanation. I greatly appreciate it and that is good to know for future reference.
Tyrant-Thanatos says... Accepted answer #2
Anything before the : in an activated ability is a cost. All costs are paid before priority passes to another player. By the time they even can cast stifle, the costs have already been paid, so no, Myojin of Night's Reach would not have a Divinity Counter on it.
Edit: For that matter, it may be worth noting, that because all costs are paid in order to put the ability onto the stack, if an opponent has, say, a Go for the Throat in their hand, they can cast it, targeting Myojin of Night's Reach in response to his ability. Because the counter has already been removed, it will resolve and kill him before they have to discard their hand. They still discard their hand anyhow, but they get to take him out in the process.
August 30, 2017 7:53 p.m. Edited.