Last time I described the colours of the Magic rainbow (no mushrooms involved). Today, in a change to the advertise topic, I wanted to go through the Stack, linking in to all the various basic types of cards.
The Stack is the imaginary spike upon which all Spells and Activated Abilities are placed in the order they are played, kind of like the orders spike in a no-where American grease pit.
Spells and Activated Abilities are placed onto the Stack placed in the order they are played, so the top one will be the most recent. But once everyone has stopped placing spells on the Stack, they resolve in the opposite order to which they were cast.
A prime example of this is the classic Blue Counterspell. An opponent has decided to play a ‘I win and you weep’ card, so you decide to turn the tables and make him weep by countering the spell.
First thing to note here is that as you have decided to add to the Stack, the ‘I win and you weep’ card is not in play yet – it is still in the process of being cast, and so is a SPELL not a PERMANENT. Doesn’t matter if it’s a creature, enchantment, artefact or what ever. The only exception is Land – they are NEVER a spell.
The ‘I win and you weep’ spell is on the bottom of the Stack, and Counterspell is on the top. As such, Counterspell resolves first. It does it thing, countering the ‘I win and you weep’ spell so that it is removed from the Stack. As its no longer on the Stack, it cannot resolve, so the opponent does indeed start to weep as he’s paid all that mana for nothing.
That is a classic example of the Stack in action.
But it can become insane with players placing several Spells and Activated Abilities on the stack. But as hectic as it may first appear, it really is as simple as resolving them in reverse order. Any countered Spells and Activated Abilities and simply removed from the Stack, whilst certain effects will be cancelled out in the long run.
Eg: Someone attacks with a Necropede, which the opponent blocks with a Llanowar Elf. It’s a 1/1 vs a 1/1, so both should die, but before it does, the Elf’s controller plays a spell to put a +1/+1 counter on the Elf. Its now a 2/2. Next on the Stack is combat damage – the Necropede takes 2 damage will die at end of the combat phase. The Elf takes 1 infect damage to gain a -1/-1 counter. This would have killed it, but because the Elf’s controller playes that spell on the stack, the -1/-1 counter instead cancels out the +1/+1 counter, so both counters are removed, and the Elf lives to fight another day.
This is the other most frequent use of the Stack – damage cancellation or boosting through stat manipulation.
So that’s the Stack in its simplest form. Now you need to know what Cards/abilities can be played onto the Stack and which can’t. It’s as simple as:
Instant Speed:
Anything that can be played at instant speed can be put on the Stack, whether empty or not, and include the following:
- Instant Spells (old cards stating ‘Can be used to Interrupt’ also count as Instant Speed Spells) – You’ll know many by now – Fireball, Giant Growth, Counterspell, Doomblade…. There are loads that do all manner of things.
- Activated Abilities – Unless a cards with an Activated Ability (“tap for 1 mana” and “to gain life” are but two examples of thousands) specifically state that it can only be used any time you can cast a sorcery, you can use it any time at Instant Speed. Some even let you play non-Instant speed cards out of sequence as if they were Instant Speed – that’s a powerful trick to have up your sleeve.
- Cards with the Flash ability - This was a block specific keyword that was immense fun! Imagine bringing out a surprise defender with Deathtouch when the opponent thought they were on to a winning strike. A butt saving enchantment at the last moment maybe? Oh the mirth bred from this Keyword….
As you can see, it’s a short list, but it’s by no means a small set of cards! It’s knowing how to link together these that allow you to set up an uber combo on the stack.
Sorcery Speed:
If it’s not Instant speed, it’s Sorcery speed.
- Enchanments (Global and Auras)
- Creatures
- Artifacts (Non-Creature, Creatures and Equipment)
- Sorceries
Or for short, basically else, and you can only play these cards when both the following are true:
- During either of your own two Main Phases and
- Only if there is nothing else currently on the Stack
As such, it not unusual to find it s Sorcery Speed card at the bottom of the Stack.
A Stack can also be formed in reaction to any event, not just a player casting a Spell or using an Activated Ability - start or end of phases or turns, death of creatures, declaration of attackers or blockers, death of players, card drawing or discarding.
Combat is a classic one, and is a Stack of its own – Attacker declares Attackers, Defender declares blockers, and then, before damage is dealt, you can start throwing Instant speed Spells and Activated Abilities at each other.
There are any number of events that you can react to and start a Stack, but regardless, they same rules above apply to all circumstances.
Next time – Deck Building Considerations
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