Nice vid. It's really important to note that priority is passed around after the resolution of each object on the stack, so players could cast a bunch of spells, pass priority until several spells (but not the entire stack) have resolved, and then add more spells to the stack.
Thanks for the clarity. I mention that after something resolves on the stack active player gains priority again, but I think your clarification helps elaborate more
So if a player were to do a two card combo, and after playing the first card of said combo, asked the table, "Does this resolve?" Is that passing priority on the first part, meaning that card has to be resolved, or a situation where they can keep adding cards to the combo successfully? My play group is a bit more seasoned while I'm pretty fresh, so I'm trying to apply these shorts to situations to make sense of what's happened at those games.
@@Behmtastic to play two cards in succession, you have to hold priority. Usually, you have to expressly say this, as most players assume you pass priority after each spell. If you ask, "does this resolve?", you are asking other players if they have a response, which is effectively passing priority.
Magic players commonly like to short cut a lot of things in the game because if we didn't the game would get bogged down. Ways players like to also say they're holding priority is saying they're responding to their own spell or ability.
These shorts are a life saver, I wish I had these videos years back when I started playing good to see new comers have good sources to look up when learning the game.
Interesting. I just read up rule 117 to verify and yeah, I've been misplaying, and i think alot of people ahve been as well. I think it's pretty common for a player to put an ability or spell on the stack and then ask the table for responses, and then put another card on the stack if no one does, repeat until someone responds or they get their whole combo into play. Cause I'm not gonna activate Lethal Vapors if someone counters Teferi's Protection, for example. But you technically can't do that. You have to put all your abilities and spells on the stack and only if someone responds, will you get a chance to add to the stack again, otherwise at least one effect has to resolve prior to adding onto the stack again. I feel like it should require the last player who added to the stack to pass twice, or phrase it so that if any player passes priorty twice without the stack changing since the last time they passed priority, THEN the stack starts resolving. Meaning if I put a flusterstorm on the stack, no one has any more responses, I have to pass priority AGAIN before flusterstorm resolves and counters the stack. Just a teeny little detail that would give players the ability to play more cautiously without really costing anything else. Edit: I did learn you can get around this by putting a kind of "buffer" effect on the stack, top off your stack of combos with a meaningless or not strictly necessary effect that can resolve and then grant you priority again after the table has chose to not respond.
Yeah a common misconception for priority. Players do have the ability to maintain their priority and respond to their own things before other players can, but it can be an interesting choice to make depending on what it is you're trying to pull off
@@keepingitcasualmtg well, I think the most straightforward examples would be the Lethal Vapor/Teferi's Protection combo and Ral/Expansion, where having responding to your own abilities on the stack before they fully resolve is important. You don't want to stack a billion instances of the Lethal Vapor ability if your Teferi's is gonna get countered but you realistically can't avoid that.
That last little bit about if you don't add anything to the stack and it goes around you can't add another spell till the previous resolves. I've burned many a cedh player when they cast their ThOracle and ask does anyone do anything directly to each person and THEN say they respond to it with Demonic or Pact. Nah bruv you don't get to test out if your combo'll works before trying to snatch that win.
I think explaining priority to my buddy who plays Pokémon was the nail in the coffin for why he chose to only play Pokémon hahaha. I love both games, but MTG is superior, in my opinion. Great video though!!
Priority still works the same with Split Second. So even though spells and non mana activated abilities can't be put on the stack we still have a round of priority. You can take a special action whenever you have priority.
Priority used to suck because of the batch system and the timing maze. Imagine if you had a very specific window to do anything plus needing to know when anything resolves, big brain time.
I have a question regarding this topic, if let's say, my opponent casts a spell, and puts it on the stack and passes priority, and i have a mindstone i wanna crack for digging after a counterspell. How do i actually get to resolve the draw from the mindstone and still be able to counter said spell? My guess is holding priority myself.. but when the ability of the mindstone starts to resolve for the draw, isn't everything resolving and even if a draw that counter i can't put it on the stack since everything is already resolving? Or does holding priority actually work this way?
You don't exactly need to hold priority you can just activate once you have priority. Once activated the ability goes on the stack on top of your opponents spell. If no one has any actions then we resolve your card draw then active player gains priority again while the spell is still on the stack. This means once you gain priority again you can respond and counter their spell.
Technical question, im playing zhulodok, if i trigger cascade cascade and its on the stack, and the first spell i get is artifact that exiles all nonland permanents, would i be able to let it resolve, exile all the permanents and then let the final cascade on the stack resolve?
I know in one of the previous videos talking about the stack, it was mentioned that the player who has priority can choose what order their spells resolve first. Would this have to do with multiple spells cast between each other players responses? Such as: P1: 3 spells P2: 1 spell P3: 1 spell P1: 2 spells P4: 1 spell With this player 4 resolves first, player 1 can choose whatever order the 2 spells resolve in, player 3 resolves, player 2 resolves, and then player 1 chooses the order for 3 cards?
It looks like I was getting a bit confused as I was thinking of triggers and not spells. With the same thought process, would triggers be able to resolve like in the previous example?
For spells they will resolve on the stack in the order they were placed there. It might have been referring to multiple triggers being put onto the stack. In a case where one player has multiple triggers going off at the same time, the controller of those abilities can order it in whatever way they choose. If multiple triggers from multiple players want to go on the stack then we go by Active Player- Nonactive player (AP-NAP) order, basically who ever turn it is puts their abilities on the stack first, then in turn order players put their triggers on top. So let's say my opponent has a Soul Warden on the battlefield and I control Witty Roastmaster and just resolved a Solemn Simulacrum. Since I am the active player I'll get two triggers that want to go to the stack and I can choose what I order to put them on there so lets say i stack it Solemn's trigger then the Roastmaster on top. Then my opponent's triggers will go on the stack on top. When we go to resolve the Soul Warden trigger resolves first, then each opponent takes 1 damage, then I can search for a basic. Hope this illustrates better what goes on when multiple triggers happens
Can you maybe go into detail about the keyword compleated, me and my friends had a discussion, that if you control vorinclex, that your compleated plainswalker can first double the loyalty and then loose the 2 of compleation in resulting him to use is ult the turn he was cast.
This is more of an interaction I think, but vorinclex doubles counters placed on something and compleated modifies how my counters something would enter with rather than something entering with counters then being removed. So it would enter with 2 less counters then double
@@keepingitcasualmtg I actually asked a judhe regarding that and cause it really bugged me 2 days ago, really went down the rabbit hole and it acutally turns out, that compleated and vorinclex are both replacement effects that alter the amount of counters with which the planeswalker would enter with. So you can, as the currentplayer order the replacements as you please and make them enter with double then minus 2 counters. But thanks for answering anyway, love your vids on the other key words, keep it up.
Thanks! The only time you don't get priority is during untap, the resolution of a spell, and usually players don't get priority. The priority always defaults to the active player at the beginning of each step and phase after all triggers have been put on the stack.
I didn't know once it went around it has to resolve. In Yu-Gi-Oh i think you play the spell ask of it's cool then add one thing then ask then resolve if theres nothing else(i think I'm not sure) anyways this is wonderful information to just know
I don't know much about Yugioh, but in magic there are so many things that can interact on other players turns, and commander being a multiplayer format it compounded even more. Priority helps with keeping everything in order.
So, can I float mana in response of a spell? If I do, then can another player response to that? If I pass priority and the next player cast an spell, if that spell resolves, can I response to the original spell again? Sorry if I express myself badly, I really have a lot of doubts about priority and I'm not and english speaker
It's no problem! Yes you can float mana in response. Using mana abilities doesn't use the stack and can only be done while a player has priority, so as long as you have priority, no one can respond to you. And when ever you cast a spell, say a counterspell, you can target anywhere on the stack doesn't have to be the spell that was previously added. Hope this helps!
If player two has priority after player 1 decided to pass priority cast a spell it would reset to player 1 again before going to player 3 right? I thought whenever a new spell is put on the stack and the player that cast it is not the current players turn passes priority it goes back to the beginning. Or does in always go in order until say player 4 put the last spell on the stack and people pass priority till it gets back to player 4 in order. So it always cycles around to the last person to put a spell on the stack or the player whos turn it is?
Great question. Adding to the stack does not give priority back to the active player, you would continue passing priority in turn order until all players have passed in succesion back to the last person to add to the stack. Whenever a spell or ability resolves then priority goes back to the active player
@@keepingitcasualmtg Ah, ok so the active player has to wait for other to respond to the player right after them in priority first before they can react...good to know.
So (in theory) you wouldn't be able to react your own spell? I can't think of any other examples but counter spell for example. I couldn't counter my own spell?
You certainly can! It's called holding priority. You can add as many spells on the stack before you pass priority to the next player. Alternatively if someone else adds on to the stack when you get priority again you can counter a target anywhere on the stack including your own. It just can't target itself
Yes whenever a player casts a spell or activates an ability they regain priority again. They keep regaining it until they decide to pass. Most players naturally just pass since there usually isn't a follow up for most effects.
Active player can only put their own spells and abilities on the stack in the order they cast the spells or activate abilities. Once put onto the stack you can't change the order. Players can target any point on the stack but not change the order
After a player casts a spell or activates an ability, they usually get priority afterwards. After an ability or or spell has resolved, the active player gets priority.
This is perfect for actual game use. "Wait how does that work?"
"Here I got the perfect vid"
That's what I hope for my minute long content the challenge is fitting it all in sometimes
Nice vid. It's really important to note that priority is passed around after the resolution of each object on the stack, so players could cast a bunch of spells, pass priority until several spells (but not the entire stack) have resolved, and then add more spells to the stack.
Also, old enough to remember thinking to myself, "The stack? What newfangled tomfoolery is this?"
Thanks for the clarity. I mention that after something resolves on the stack active player gains priority again, but I think your clarification helps elaborate more
So if a player were to do a two card combo, and after playing the first card of said combo, asked the table, "Does this resolve?" Is that passing priority on the first part, meaning that card has to be resolved, or a situation where they can keep adding cards to the combo successfully? My play group is a bit more seasoned while I'm pretty fresh, so I'm trying to apply these shorts to situations to make sense of what's happened at those games.
@@Behmtastic to play two cards in succession, you have to hold priority. Usually, you have to expressly say this, as most players assume you pass priority after each spell. If you ask, "does this resolve?", you are asking other players if they have a response, which is effectively passing priority.
Magic players commonly like to short cut a lot of things in the game because if we didn't the game would get bogged down. Ways players like to also say they're holding priority is saying they're responding to their own spell or ability.
I feel that with all the shortcuts and lack of understanding of rules, my group plays a totally different game of Magic
These shorts are a life saver, I wish I had these videos years back when I started playing good to see new comers have good sources to look up when learning the game.
I'm glad they help!
This is perfect, the information is correct and explained very clearly, but it is so tightly packed that I had to go back and rewatch 10 times
Haha thank you, yeah you're right super condensed stuff. My older stuff I was still getting the hang of making videos
I already know most of the things you explain however I think they are great content and it sometimes help me clarify some specific things.
Thank you 🙂
Thanks for all your vids! My pod is pretty new to mtg and commander so I share a lot of your shorts so we all can learn to play better!
I'm glad my stuff is able to help you all out!
Appreciate this channel, you do a great job explaining things!
Thanks!
Nice clean vid. Good pacing, clear explanations! Very useful for new players!
Thanks khan!
Interesting. I just read up rule 117 to verify and yeah, I've been misplaying, and i think alot of people ahve been as well. I think it's pretty common for a player to put an ability or spell on the stack and then ask the table for responses, and then put another card on the stack if no one does, repeat until someone responds or they get their whole combo into play. Cause I'm not gonna activate Lethal Vapors if someone counters Teferi's Protection, for example. But you technically can't do that. You have to put all your abilities and spells on the stack and only if someone responds, will you get a chance to add to the stack again, otherwise at least one effect has to resolve prior to adding onto the stack again.
I feel like it should require the last player who added to the stack to pass twice, or phrase it so that if any player passes priorty twice without the stack changing since the last time they passed priority, THEN the stack starts resolving. Meaning if I put a flusterstorm on the stack, no one has any more responses, I have to pass priority AGAIN before flusterstorm resolves and counters the stack. Just a teeny little detail that would give players the ability to play more cautiously without really costing anything else.
Edit: I did learn you can get around this by putting a kind of "buffer" effect on the stack, top off your stack of combos with a meaningless or not strictly necessary effect that can resolve and then grant you priority again after the table has chose to not respond.
Yeah a common misconception for priority. Players do have the ability to maintain their priority and respond to their own things before other players can, but it can be an interesting choice to make depending on what it is you're trying to pull off
@@keepingitcasualmtg well, I think the most straightforward examples would be the Lethal Vapor/Teferi's Protection combo and Ral/Expansion, where having responding to your own abilities on the stack before they fully resolve is important. You don't want to stack a billion instances of the Lethal Vapor ability if your Teferi's is gonna get countered but you realistically can't avoid that.
Best way would be to make sure your opponent can't respond themselves with a Grand Abolisher.
That last little bit about if you don't add anything to the stack and it goes around you can't add another spell till the previous resolves. I've burned many a cedh player when they cast their ThOracle and ask does anyone do anything directly to each person and THEN say they respond to it with Demonic or Pact. Nah bruv you don't get to test out if your combo'll works before trying to snatch that win.
That is why we do it like this 😁
Split second is better than I thought
It can be pretty good in certain scenarios
I think explaining priority to my buddy who plays Pokémon was the nail in the coffin for why he chose to only play Pokémon hahaha. I love both games, but MTG is superior, in my opinion. Great video though!!
It's definitely a more heady game than some of the others
Thank you
Absolutely
Can you explain where special actions and split second fits into priority?
Priority still works the same with Split Second. So even though spells and non mana activated abilities can't be put on the stack we still have a round of priority. You can take a special action whenever you have priority.
Priority used to suck because of the batch system and the timing maze. Imagine if you had a very specific window to do anything plus needing to know when anything resolves, big brain time.
I'm glad they made it easier to parse these days. It can still get complicated though
I have a question regarding this topic, if let's say, my opponent casts a spell, and puts it on the stack and passes priority, and i have a mindstone i wanna crack for digging after a counterspell. How do i actually get to resolve the draw from the mindstone and still be able to counter said spell? My guess is holding priority myself.. but when the ability of the mindstone starts to resolve for the draw, isn't everything resolving and even if a draw that counter i can't put it on the stack since everything is already resolving? Or does holding priority actually work this way?
You don't exactly need to hold priority you can just activate once you have priority. Once activated the ability goes on the stack on top of your opponents spell. If no one has any actions then we resolve your card draw then active player gains priority again while the spell is still on the stack. This means once you gain priority again you can respond and counter their spell.
Technical question, im playing zhulodok, if i trigger cascade cascade and its on the stack, and the first spell i get is artifact that exiles all nonland permanents, would i be able to let it resolve, exile all the permanents and then let the final cascade on the stack resolve?
Yup while the second cascade is on the stack players are free to respond to it if they wish
@keepingit.casual thanks so much, do you happen to know what rule applies so I can show peeps, again thanks soo much
702.85c If a spell has multiple instances of cascade, each triggers separately.
Could you make a comprehensive break down on "mana bullying"
Wow I never knew about this. I'll have to look more into it
I know in one of the previous videos talking about the stack, it was mentioned that the player who has priority can choose what order their spells resolve first. Would this have to do with multiple spells cast between each other players responses? Such as:
P1: 3 spells
P2: 1 spell
P3: 1 spell
P1: 2 spells
P4: 1 spell
With this player 4 resolves first, player 1 can choose whatever order the 2 spells resolve in, player 3 resolves, player 2 resolves, and then player 1 chooses the order for 3 cards?
It looks like I was getting a bit confused as I was thinking of triggers and not spells. With the same thought process, would triggers be able to resolve like in the previous example?
For spells they will resolve on the stack in the order they were placed there.
It might have been referring to multiple triggers being put onto the stack. In a case where one player has multiple triggers going off at the same time, the controller of those abilities can order it in whatever way they choose.
If multiple triggers from multiple players want to go on the stack then we go by Active Player- Nonactive player (AP-NAP) order, basically who ever turn it is puts their abilities on the stack first, then in turn order players put their triggers on top.
So let's say my opponent has a Soul Warden on the battlefield and I control Witty Roastmaster and just resolved a Solemn Simulacrum. Since I am the active player I'll get two triggers that want to go to the stack and I can choose what I order to put them on there so lets say i stack it Solemn's trigger then the Roastmaster on top. Then my opponent's triggers will go on the stack on top. When we go to resolve the Soul Warden trigger resolves first, then each opponent takes 1 damage, then I can search for a basic.
Hope this illustrates better what goes on when multiple triggers happens
@Keeping It Casual This cleared up a lot. Thanks for clearing up the confusion!
Can you maybe go into detail about the keyword compleated, me and my friends had a discussion, that if you control vorinclex, that your compleated plainswalker can first double the loyalty and then loose the 2 of compleation in resulting him to use is ult the turn he was cast.
This is more of an interaction I think, but vorinclex doubles counters placed on something and compleated modifies how my counters something would enter with rather than something entering with counters then being removed. So it would enter with 2 less counters then double
@@keepingitcasualmtg I actually asked a judhe regarding that and cause it really bugged me 2 days ago, really went down the rabbit hole and it acutally turns out, that compleated and vorinclex are both replacement effects that alter the amount of counters with which the planeswalker would enter with. So you can, as the currentplayer order the replacements as you please and make them enter with double then minus 2 counters. But thanks for answering anyway, love your vids on the other key words, keep it up.
Oh yes it appears I was wrong about my ruling 😬. Thanks for the correction!
Do i get prio after untap?
Btw. Love your shorts
Thanks! The only time you don't get priority is during untap, the resolution of a spell, and usually players don't get priority. The priority always defaults to the active player at the beginning of each step and phase after all triggers have been put on the stack.
I didn't know once it went around it has to resolve. In Yu-Gi-Oh i think you play the spell ask of it's cool then add one thing then ask then resolve if theres nothing else(i think I'm not sure) anyways this is wonderful information to just know
I don't know much about Yugioh, but in magic there are so many things that can interact on other players turns, and commander being a multiplayer format it compounded even more. Priority helps with keeping everything in order.
So, can I float mana in response of a spell? If I do, then can another player response to that? If I pass priority and the next player cast an spell, if that spell resolves, can I response to the original spell again?
Sorry if I express myself badly, I really have a lot of doubts about priority and I'm not and english speaker
It's no problem! Yes you can float mana in response. Using mana abilities doesn't use the stack and can only be done while a player has priority, so as long as you have priority, no one can respond to you. And when ever you cast a spell, say a counterspell, you can target anywhere on the stack doesn't have to be the spell that was previously added. Hope this helps!
If player two has priority after player 1 decided to pass priority cast a spell it would reset to player 1 again before going to player 3 right? I thought whenever a new spell is put on the stack and the player that cast it is not the current players turn passes priority it goes back to the beginning. Or does in always go in order until say player 4 put the last spell on the stack and people pass priority till it gets back to player 4 in order. So it always cycles around to the last person to put a spell on the stack or the player whos turn it is?
Great question. Adding to the stack does not give priority back to the active player, you would continue passing priority in turn order until all players have passed in succesion back to the last person to add to the stack.
Whenever a spell or ability resolves then priority goes back to the active player
@@keepingitcasualmtg Ah, ok so the active player has to wait for other to respond to the player right after them in priority first before they can react...good to know.
So (in theory) you wouldn't be able to react your own spell? I can't think of any other examples but counter spell for example. I couldn't counter my own spell?
You certainly can! It's called holding priority. You can add as many spells on the stack before you pass priority to the next player. Alternatively if someone else adds on to the stack when you get priority again you can counter a target anywhere on the stack including your own. It just can't target itself
So if you passed priority to everyone and they don't respond, then the spell resolve, are you still the one with priority?
After the spell resolves then active player gains priority.
Can the non active player hold priority to cast multiple spells?
Yes whenever a player casts a spell or activates an ability they regain priority again. They keep regaining it until they decide to pass. Most players naturally just pass since there usually isn't a follow up for most effects.
This sounds a lot like legends of runterra? Although only the turn player can play a land and creature spells right?
Yes active player on their main phase can play a land for turn, use sorcery speed spells and abilities, cast creatures, and activate loyalty abilities
Does the active player also sort the order of the stack?
Active player can only put their own spells and abilities on the stack in the order they cast the spells or activate abilities. Once put onto the stack you can't change the order. Players can target any point on the stack but not change the order
While watching a cEDH game I heard (heard?) the term "reset priority", the question is: is that a real thing?
Yes anytime any time a spell or ability goes on the stack or a mana ability is activated it starts another round of priority
This helps
Glad it helped!
This is interesting because it does not work this way in yugioh. Great rules to keep in mind if you enjoy both games
I see there are a lot of similarities and differences at the same time
More rules please!
I'll try to keep em coming!
After a player casts a spell or activates an ability, they usually get priority afterwards. After an ability or or spell has resolved, the active player gets priority.
This is magic 101. Commander is just a format.
But yeah this is a useful video for people
Haha yes I hate the title of my older videos cause I started going more into general magic. I've since now changed it to Minute Magic
These vids would be so much more helpful if it was shown in practice.
I might make more in depth videos in the future