"Whenever you cast a spell" vs. counter spells
Asked by Trumbone 11 years ago
Lets say I have a Consuming Aberration in play and I cast a Thought Scour . My opponent counters it with a Dispel . Does the Aberration trigger go on the stack as soon as I pay the mana and cast Thought Scour ? Or does it not trigger at all? (I'm pretty sure it triggers since this happend against a judge and he told me himself this is what happens) My bro wanted to know so I thought I would ask so he wouldn't think I was lying. Thanks
Epochalyptik says... Accepted answer #2
On-cast abilities trigger when you cast the spell, which means they will be put onto the stack immediately after the casting process is complete. The player who cast the spell then receives priority.
On-cast abilities also don't care whether the original spell even resolves. The ability will actually resolve first anyway because it was put onto the stack last.
June 16, 2013 9:02 p.m.
Popsicle.Season says... #3
Getting countered means the spell won't resolve, but you still cast it, so Aberration's ability still triggers. The same applies for cards like Talrand or Guttersnipe.
June 16, 2013 9:03 p.m.
The answer to your question is yes. To cast a spell, you pay its mana cost and place it on the stack. Any triggers which occur "whenever you cast a spell" such as Consuming Aberration will trigger whether or not the spell resolves.
June 16, 2013 9:03 p.m.
So Aberrations ability will go off even before the counter spell resolves? As in the grind effect will occur, then I would put thought scour in my graveyard/exile
June 16, 2013 9:05 p.m.
GreatSword says... #6
The Aberration's trigger will go on the stack as soon as the Thought Scour is cast (part of casting something is putting it on the stack). Then your opponent will play Dispel . So the stack will look like: Dispel --> (aberration trigger) --> Thought Scour , in that order.
June 16, 2013 9:17 p.m.
The process of casting a card means only that you've paid the card's costs, the card has legal targets at the time of casting (if applicable), etc. For example: if an opponent has Dovescape on the field and you cast that Thought Scour with your Consuming Aberration on the field, you'd still get the aberration effect. You cast the spell, and then the two triggered effects (one for aberration and one for Dovescape would go on the stack in APNAP order), and the effects would resolve before Thought Scour even has a chance to resolve.
However, in your example, the opponent is casting Dispel after you passed priority after casting Thought Scour , which means at that point, the triggered ability of Consuming Aberration is already on the stack. Dispel is put on the top of the stack and will resolve first, before the aberration effect.
Trumbone says... #1
Sorry for my horrible grammar as well. :|
June 16, 2013 9:02 p.m.