Timing for Three Dog, Galaxy News DJ's ability
Asked by TitanWalls 9 months ago
Regarding timing for ability interaction: Given a hypothetical where I have a Krenko, Tin Street Kingpin in play as well as Three Dog, Galaxy News DJ enchanted with Nurturing Presence. At start of combat, say I attack with Krenko as well as 3 other creatures. The question is this: is the time I am allowed to activate Three Dog's ability strictly dictated by the text "whenever you attack" so that I would need to specifically pay the 2 when I declare the last of my attackers to have it resolve first on the stack? Or is it, as I suspect, where all triggered abilities are put on the stack simultaneously after declaring attackers such that I decide how they resolve. i.e Three Dog resolves first so that the four attacking creatures receive the aura, generating 4 token creatures, and then Krenko generates an additional X goblins afterwards to provide additional value to the auras' effects?
Rhadamanthus says... Accepted answer #1
It's the second one. Krenko's ability and Three Dog's ability are both triggered abilities that trigger from the same event and will try to go onto the stack at the same time. Since you control them both, you get to choose the order.
To be clear: you aren't "activating" Three Dog's ability because it's not an activated ability (written in the form "[cost] : [effect]"), but a triggered ability (written to start with "when/whenever/at"). The and sacrifice of the aura isn't an activation cost, but rather an optional cost you can pay during the resolution of the trigger in order to get the rest of the effect.
February 28, 2024 9:09 a.m.