Slow and controlling as they may be, those greedy Orzhov just can’t wait to dig their spectral claws into your opponent’s life points. In fact, when you cast a spell to trigger extort, they don’t even wait for that spell to resolve! When you cast a spell, each permanent with extort you control will toss a triggered ability on top of the stack, and you’ll chose whether to pay for each one in turn, all before the spell that triggered them resolves.

So what does this mean in practice? Well, for one thing, any card you cast with extort won’t be around to trigger its own extort ability, because it’ll still be a spell (and hence not on the battlefield to trigger) at the time that you would handle extort. It also means that you can’t play a spell like Dark Ritual and use the mana it produces to pay the cost of extort. Finally, you’ll have to pay for extort before you know whether your spell will resolve. Your opponent might just save you the hassle and counter it right off the bat — or he or she can wait to see whether or not you pay the mana for extort, after which time the spell will still be on the stack and your opponent will be able to counter it the next time he or she receives priority (perhaps using Izzet Charm now that you’ve already spent that mana on Extort!).

Today’s Rules Tip written by Jen Wong