When can an opponent use planeswalkers abilities on my turn?
Asked by LikeMike 14 years ago
In what event can an opponent use a planeswalker ability on your turn?
Never. Planeswalker abilities can only be activated as a sorcery, therefore only in your own turn.
April 30, 2011 11:08 a.m.
MagnorCriol says... Accepted answer #3
Never.
306.5d Each planeswalker has a number of loyalty abilities, which are activated abilities with loyalty symbols in their costs. Loyalty abilities follow special rules: A player may activate a loyalty ability of a permanent he or she controls any time he or she has priority and the stack is empty during a main phase of his or her turn, but only if none of that permanent's loyalty abilities have been activated that turn.
So a planeswalker's abilities can very specifically only be activated on the controller's turn, at sorcery speed. This is one of the ways they keep the abuse down.
Note that this is quite unique in that this restriction is specially keyed to the type of ability, rather than even the type of permanent they're on.
This means that even if you manage to jump through a number of hoops and convert a PW to a creature, then put a +1/+1 counter on him, so that Experiment Kraj could have "all the activated abilities" of that PW/creature - even then, Kraj can only activate a loyalty ability once per turn, still.
April 30, 2011 11:29 a.m.
HumanTragedy says... #4
Sorry to put another question on this post, BUT, if you bounced the Experiment Kraj (Unsummon?) could you use the Experiment Kraj 2 or more times in a turn?
April 30, 2011 1:03 p.m.
Jarrod_0067 says... #6
Then what happens? Does Kraj get loyalty? Or can he only use positive abilities? And since it is a cost to put the loyalty counter on the PW, would the ability fizzle?
May 1, 2011 12:28 a.m.
Jarrod_0067 says... #7
If it could actually happen, Mycosynth Lattice + March of the Machines + Jace, the Mind Sculptor + Experiment Kraj = LOLZ
May 1, 2011 12:30 a.m.
MagnorCriol says... #8
To be honest, Jarrod_0067, I'm not entirely positive.
Before Gideon Jura was printed, a guy I know made an EDH deck whose main focus was turning PWs into creatures, getting +1/+1s on them, and Kraj'ing it up. At that time, the once-per-turn thing was not tied to the abilities, so getting them to Kraj allowed him to spam them. It was a sort of magnificent, janky combo.
Right before Gideon got printed, Wizards changed the rules to what they are today. (He bemoans this fact to this day, of course.)
I was under the impression, from what he'd said, that the combo still sort of worked, but you could only use them once per turn now even on Kraj.
But like you started to point out, they're tied to loyalty counters, and in the comp rules directly it says "Loyalty is an attribute only planeswalkers have."
It's one of two things:
A) Kraj can't use them at all because he can't have a loyalty attribute, or
B) He can do it because it simply says "put [X] loyalty counters on this permanent" as a cost, and you can add or remove counters even if you don't have the loyalty attribute, since it's just, well, adding or removing counters.
Option B sort of works because even if Kraj gets loyalty counters, they won't act like his life total like they do for a PW; he'll take damage like a creature. So, from that aspect he doesn't have a loyalty attribute, he just happens to have loyalty counters on him.
More research is required! Luckily, I'm going to be hanging out with a level 3 judge tomorrow, so I might get to ask him then.
May 1, 2011 1:30 a.m.
Jarrod_0067 says... #9
I should just e-mail wizards to fix it in their rules...
May 1, 2011 7:05 a.m.
So, there is not absolute way that a planeswalker my opponent controls could use an ability on my turn?Because its the same as using a sorcery.
May 1, 2011 10:23 a.m.
AegairEtapa says... #11
It's not the same as using a sorcery.* But yes, there is no way they can use an ability on your turn.
*Cards that affect when you can cast sorceries will not affect when you can use Planeswalker abilities.
May 1, 2011 10:25 a.m.
MagnorCriol says... #12
There is * absolutely* no way to use a PW ability on an opponent's turn (as of right now anyhow); it's very specifically coded into the rules that way.
Also, I double-checked, and I was right: Experiment Kraj CAN use a creature-ified PW's abilities once per turn. Like I guessed, you can place loyalty counters on him (and remove them later) just fine; the fact that he can't have a "loyalty attribute" simply means he won't treat them like his life total the way PWs do.
What do you mean fix it in the rules, though? I think the ability to do this is pretty dang awesome. It's one of those really goofy, really fun interactions the game has.
May 1, 2011 10:13 p.m.
Jarrod_0067 says... #13
Make a specific section, like 709.z subsection 9, paragraph 20, line 4 etc. "If a planeswalker becomes a creature, the following happens...etc"
May 2, 2011 2:37 a.m.
AegairEtapa says... #14
It's already in the rules though. It's just not got it's own section.
evil_monkey says... #1
They can't. Planeswalker abilities can only be activated as a sorcery and only if the stack is clear.
April 30, 2011 11:08 a.m.