Yesterday we looked at the six special actions that do not use the stack. There are a lot more turn-based actions, so I will not go over all of them, but cover the more important ones. Unlike special actions, turn-based actions happen at very specific times in the game. They are different from state-based actions […]
Category: Turn Structure
How cards that do things in your opening hand work.
There are not many cards that have abilities that work if they are in your opening hand, but there has been a large increase in the last year. Five were printed in Magic 2011, the Leylines, of which four are new, and five Chancellors were printed in New Phyrexia. All of these cards work after […]
At the beginning of the end step vs until the end of turn.
There are a few things that happen at the end of every turn; players discard down to their maximum hand size, damage on creatures goes away etc. One area that often confuses players is the difference between effects that last until the turn ends and triggered abilities that trigger at the end of a turn. […]
You can’t forget to untap.
You cannot forget to untap your permanents on the battlefield at the start of each of your turns. If you move on to the upkeep step, or even draw step, you need to go back and untap all the necessary permanents. If you are playing quickly and draw before untapping everything you control, thats generally […]
Are you ‘ready for combat’?
When in the first main phase of the the active player’s turn the active players says something alone the lines of ‘attack?’ or ‘combat phase’ it indicates that the active player wants to move on to the beginning of combat step, which is within the combat phase, AND is passing priority to the non-active player. […]
You can’t play Bonds of Quicksilver in an untap step.
Players do not gain priority in the untap step at all. If you want to make sure that a creature does not untap, then it much be enchanted by before the untap step begins. Bonds of Quicksilver has flash which allows you to play in whenever you receive priority, but you will not receive priority […]
When does Argent Sphinx come back into the battlefield?
When ’s activated ability resolves the Sphinx is exiled and a delayed triggered ability is put on the stack. This trigger will wait around until the next end of turn step begins. If this ability is activated in an end of turn step, then the Sphinx will not return to play until the next end […]