When to cast Knollspine Dragon? Before or after combat?
Asked by NTakamura 3 years ago
When would I cast Knollspine Dragon get his Tigger? So if I cast it before combat then attack do I still get to draw cards? Or do I want to wait until after combat so Knollspine Dragon has something to check?
Knollspine Dragon is a creature card, which means it can be cast at sorcery speed (same with sorceries, artifacts, enchantments, and planeswalkers). That is, it can be cast only during your main phase and not in response to anything else.
However, you get two main phases. I'll summarize the turn here:
- Beginning phase (untap, upkeep, draw)
- Main phase, aka precombat main phase
- Combat phase (beginning, declare attack, declare block, combat damage, end combat)
- Main phase, aka postcombat main phase
- End phase (end, cleanup)
As you can see, you can wait to cast creature and other sorcery speed spells until after combat during your second main phase, and this will usually be the best time to cast Knollspine Dragon.
Necrosis24 says... Accepted answer #1
Knollspine Dragon's trigger goes on the stack when it enters the battlefield and will proceed to resolve unless there is another response. Thus it will check damage that has currently been dealt to target opponent up until this point (current game state). Any damage dealt after the trigger resolves will not draw you cards.
Let's say it is your first main phase and none of your opponents have been dealt damage this turn. When you cast Knollspine Dragon and it's ETB trigger resolves you will draw zero cards. Dealing any damage after this point will not draw you cards either. So even if you move to combat and deal 6 damage to the same target opponent you will not draw any cards from Knollspine Dragon.
Thus in most cases it would be best to cast Knollspine Dragon after combat during your second main phase when your opponents have already been dealt damage.
Fervor and Conjurer's Closet could let you get some good use out of Knollspine Dragon if it is your only creature in hand. In which case casting it before combat wouldn't be so bad.
March 4, 2022 8:55 p.m.