unlimited abilities??
Asked by necromatic 14 years ago
can you use abilities like Pestilence Demon 's and Kuro, Pitlord 's with unlimited payment? I.e., could i pay ten life to have Kuro deal ten damage? or can i only pay the cost once? thankS!
You can use them as many times as you can afford. So, if you theoretically have 10000 black mana, you can activate Pestilence Demon's ability 10000 times. That's assuming that you won't lose the game due to hitting 0 life. Otherwise, you would be able to cast it up until you hit 0 life, and/or run out of black mana to activate his ability.
For example, if you have Pestilence Demon and 8 untapped swamps on the battlefield, you can tap your 8 swamps and activate Pestilence Demon 8 times.
As for Kuro, Pitlord, you can similarly pay 1 life X times. X would be the amount of times until you end up not having a target to get -1/-1 (and that would mean Kuro, Pitlord either having shroud or using its ability onto itself until he dies), losing the game thanks to paying all your life, or deciding to stop altogether.
So if you have 20 life, you can use Kuro, Pitlord's ability up twenty times, assuming there are enough targets available for it to be used that many times. You can't give -1/-1 to a creature more than its toughness, otherwise it'd enter the graveyard due to state-based effects, once it hits 0 toughness (I believe). In an alternate scenario, if you have Platinum Emperion on your side of the battlefield with Pitlord, you would be unable to activate Kuro, Pitlord's ability whatsoever.
Haven't played in awhile, but I'm positive. :)
April 20, 2011 12:46 p.m.
Aaand, I totally missed the part where it says on Pestilence Demon that it deals damage to each creature, in addition to each player.
Go me!
April 20, 2011 12:47 p.m.
AegairEtapa says... #4
Yeah but you can stack the effects so that Pestilence Demon deals damage after it dies.
April 20, 2011 1:55 p.m.
necromatic says... #5
thank you very much guys. very helpful. may i ask, will an ability like Pestilence Demon 's be able to be used over his health? i.e., can i pay ten black mana to do ten damage to all creatures and players, even though that woul kill Pestilence Demon??
April 20, 2011 2:15 p.m.
Epochalyptik says... #6
I think that after the 6th resolution of his ability, all his other on-the-stack triggers would fail because the Demon is the source of the damage, but it's no longer there to deal it (assuming you haven't done anything to protect it from itself).
April 20, 2011 2:43 p.m.
AegairEtapa says... #7
No Epochalyptik, Perilous Myr still deals damage when it's not on the battlefield, so long as the triggers are put on the stack before it dies it'll deal damage.
April 20, 2011 2:45 p.m.
MagnorCriol says... #8
Yes, you can - though you have to do it correctly. As long as you can pay the cost, you can put as many instances of an ability on the stack as you want before any of it starts resolving. If you for some reason have 15 black mana lying around, you can put 15 instances of his ability on the stack.
Once an ability is on the stack, it's entirely separate from the permanent that generated it (there are a few special exceptions to this but that's the usual case). This means that once those 15 abilities start resolving, while Pesty will die after 6 of them resolve, the other 9 are still on the stack and will go off regardless.
April 20, 2011 3:03 p.m.
Epochalyptik says... #9
That's why I said think. Live and learn, I suppose. I wasn't entirely sure because there are cards that specify that they deal damage when put into the GY.
April 20, 2011 3:06 p.m.
MagnorCriol says... #10
Yeah, I was confused about that for a while too, it seems like it'd be the other way around.
It makes a bit more sense when you think of abilities on the stack as separate physical objects, just like spells. When you can think of them as separate things, it's easier to get the idea that they're completely individual from the source that put them on the stack.
Epochalyptik says... Accepted answer #1
Yes. Activated abilities can be used an unlimited number of times unless the card specifically says so (i.e. Vampire Bats ), so long as you are able to pay whatever cost it takes to do so.
Be aware that you will kill Pestilence Demon with its own ability if you use it 6 times in one turn, unless you make it indestructible or prevent the damage.
April 20, 2011 12:30 p.m.