Are You Playing Magic the Gathering Correctly?

[@catman08724]

I'm not playing MTG if I'm not misplaying at least once per turn

[@hanschristopherson8056]

Nobody’s playing mtg if they’re not misplaying this game is too complicated

[@BanditZRaver]

"Oh I sequenced that wrong." "Me too buddy, me too..."

[@scottricks1676]

All part of the game! If me and my pod run into a situation, we normally talk it out right fast, er on the side of causation and make a note to look it up post game. Unless it’s something we can look up super fast. Double strike and trample still do this day will trip me up lol. Basic magic rules and I’ll over think the shit outta it.

[@athenazoey5093]

Its a matter of you agree to disagree 😂😂😂

[@omarescalante3114]

This is the way

[@TheCrAzYfox2332]

I feel like the stack can be difficult for beginners, but priority is straight up the hardest thing for people to grasp.

[@salmathe8bitSamurai]

Priority I think is hard because it's rarely formally passed. At least what I've seen. If I cast something I pause for a response, but it doesn't actually go around the table. I think people usually are like hold up I got a response (even if they're not next in priority). Definitely makes it confusing

[@chamaohug0]

"The more you know, the more you realize you don't know" type of thing. When you understand the stack, and then try to remove a PW before the controller active an ability, and then you realize that the priority was not been passed. Then when you get a grasp of the priority, and someone plays a Blood Moon making you sacrifice Urza's Saga, and then you realize that you don't know nothing about layers...

[@TheCrAzYfox2332]

@@chamaohug0 extremely accurate.

[@BeanWagon90]

Idk, what about layers? I think I have a solid grasp on priority but I don't understand layers

[@fallendeus]

The stack and priority are so easy to understand. The stack is easy to understand by thinking about it as a literal stack where everything that is activated or cast or triggered (aside from mana abilities) goes on the stack. Priority is even easier imo, "i do a thing, and it's the only thing im doing" ok well now it's the next person in turn orders turn to respond to the thing you just did, if they dont have anything repeat until the last player either has nothing to do or responds... if at any point someone decides to do something you repeat the above. There are some extreme nuiances to these but the basics are super easy to grasp.

[@BlazeHeroic]

If that commenter is watching this video, the exact wording in the rules is "the active player has priority when the stack is empty. When the active player advances phases or plays cards, they then pass priority to the next player until all players have passed priority, then the stack and/or phase transition occurs." The gist of this means that only the active player (ie. The player whose turn it is) can add to the stack when it is empty, and then priority goes in order. Player 4 cant do something in response until both player 2 and player 3 have a chance to respond.

[@Sean.Thomas2]

I think I know the reason for this common misconception .oftentimes these players will have played against control players who often say "in response to" or " before we go next phase". this gives them the illusion of the "before you do that thing" concept . One time I was at an LGS and a player had a combo involving crawler and ashnod's altar, another player wanted to kill grave crawler in response to one of the Spells he was going to cast. In the specific combo the opponent actually could never kill grave crawler and we had to explain to him because altar is a mana ability he will always be able to sacrifice grave crawler and keep recasting it.

[@ackbooh9032]

Absolutely

[@Thessik73]

Arena is actually a good resource for people wanting to get more familiar with the minutiae of priority and the stack, because it does the work for you and the graphics make it easier to understand. You can change the settings so that you have to manually pass priority, which will quickly cement exactly how often that happens, and when it doesn't.

[@alwaysabiggafish3305]

@@Justadadonthetok you stopped playing after the tutorial, yet you disagree its useful? arena literally is on rails, theres no way the game will skip your opportunity to play a card on your opponents turn.

[@Dragon_Fyre]

Arena had different issues. If it didn’t go on the stack, it wouldn’t even tell you. If a player tried doing that in real life, I would call them a cheater.

[@keithmpire]

I agree that Arena is a good resource, perhaps not for learning Magic, but for solidifying timing and interaction rules. I learned Magic from my friends, but Arena then cleared up many small things that I hadn't been clear on. However, in the long-term, don't keep playing Arena, because it's a free-to-play nightmare. Haha!

[@moocowp4970]

Agree entirely, I think it's great for teaching the basics and then also great for solidifying how the stack works and how priority works since you will intuitively start to understand how it works as the computer let's you know when you have priority etc. You probably need to hold full control to full appreciate it though, since it will skip through your priority otherwise if you don't have any cards to interact in those spots.

[@aznnissanskyline]

I only use the 'before that', but not in the context of the original writer, when someone skips steps or phases. I will say, 'before you move to the declare attacker' or 'before you move to the end step'. Happens a lot in edh.

[@EshaneDetroit]

"Before that" generally only applies to activating abilities of your own creatures or removing a threat before a new phase begins... Period

[@davidprentice4732]

Also on “before that” and “allowing” that doesn’t really exist in Pokémon either. There is your turn and your opponent’s turn. Anything else is known and you might make a mistake and play a card that you can’t actually play in a certain situation

[@alsoteam5544]

I think this misconception happens because from a rules perspective, there is no "before that", but in casual paper (and even fml level) play there sort of (but not technically) is. Most of the time you are in paper, you aren't formally announcing that you are passing priority, because that gets really tedious. Instead you often play under the assumption that other players don't respond. But if you play too fast you might not give your opponents enough time to declare that they have a response. In that case you opponent might say "hold on! Before x I do y". But from a rules perspective what the second player is actually saying basically means "wait, you don't have priority or otherwise cant to do X yet, which means it's not a legal action, so we have to roll back to right before it, at which time I will do Y" An example would be if player 1 says "I cast notion thief then windfall" player 2 might say "wait, before you cast windfall, I counter notion thief", but a more precise way to say this rules wise would be "you can't cast windfall while notion thief is on the stack, and you have to pass priority for it to resolve, which means I am supposed to have a chance to counter it before you cast windfall, so we have to roll back to when notion thief is on the stack, at which point I will counter it" So from a rules perspective there is no "before that" but from a practical perspective "before that" happens a lot and its more a way to shortcut a rules discussion

[@pianojoker2]

If there is one thing lacking within MTG community, that would be humility. Be humble, people make mistakes and that's okay. The ruling of the game is very complex and I learn a bit more almost every game and I've played for over 10 years now. If someone tells you "that's not how it works", just listen. If you're not convinced in the end, look it up together. Learn together. Don't act like a know-it-all because there is *always* a chance you're misinterpreting a given interaction.

[@weeklyweeks7545]

As a fairly new player that is learning how to understand the more technical mechanics of magic, this video/playlist is very helpful. Thank you!

[@edhdeckbuilding]

that's why i do it.

[@moocowp4970]

It's a great video, but also, I thoroughly recommend you play MTG Arena. Because the computer does some of this stuff for you, you will intrinsically learn what you can and can't respond to and when you do and don't get priority (you might have to go on 'hold full control' mode to fully understand priority though). Then you'll be able to just think "can I do this on Arena?"/"how does this interaction happen on Arena?" and you'll know how it will work the vast majority of the time.

[@edhdeckbuilding]

@@moocowp4970 agreed. playing a digital version helps with understanding the interactions, especially the stack.

[@weeklyweeks7545]

@@edhdeckbuilding @moocowp4970 thanks for the advice! been playing both Arena and Magic 2013 for Xbox... Man I kinda wish they would make those games again. It's fun to see all the cards that were new in 2013.

[@legi0n715]

I went to a library for "game night" someone's dad brought in common and uncommons from 8th edition and crudly taught a group of middle school kids how to play, they were tapping to block and they didn't know more then one creature could attack or block. it was fascinating to see..

[@xPikshade]

I came from Yugioh and there was definitely a lot to learn about the differences in the rules. Had to watch a lot of Game Knights and did a lot of googling during games to get them down lol. I think the most interesting difference is the Chain vs the Stack. In Yugioh, you can respond to your opponents moves just like the stack, however once you and your opponent stop responding, the entire chain resolves in order (same order as the stack), but you may not do any other responses until the entire chain has resolved. It creates a very interesting dynamic that can get pretty complex in if you want the chain to stop and resolve so you can start a different chain, or if you want to add something to the chain, or try to get your opponent to add a certain spell to the chain. Overall I prefer the stack because of it's flexibility, but the chain is definitely interesting.

[@MareczqZglos]

To be fair it was the same in MTG before "the stack" was offical in the rules :)

[@-8h-]

Coming from yugioh is why I dont have a problem with "you still get the effect because it was removed, not countered"

[@jmanwild87]

@@-8h- yeah mst doesn't negate is a big meme in yugioh for a reason. that first chain of comments is weird because while yugioh has more cases odf the requirements for this to work are no longer on the field therefore it doesn't resolve if i paid the cost to activate a card's effect and you pop it in response most of the time it still goes off. unless i'm forgetting someting because yugioh rules are weird

[@zefiend]

The thing with Arcanis the Omnipotent and Sudden Death that's tricky is that if you say to your opponent "I have an action in your upkeep," or "let me know before you go to combat," they might get scared and say, "In my upkeep (or as their first action in main phase 1), I activate his ability." Because they get priority before you do, responding with Sudden Death won't work. You have to verbally stop them when they go to draw a card or turn a creature sideways to attack in order to say, "Before you go to the next phase, I cast Sudden Death." Because by trying to draw or attack, they are implicitly passing priority. Just something I wanted to point out.

[@Leftists_are_Losers]

I don’t always misplay Magic: the Gathering. But when I do, misplay Magic in interesting and unique ways.

[@migsmigs2425]

One of the best way to explain the stack is to physically stack the spell cards cast in the table. This will help to visualize the entire thing. Use token cards for activated/triggered abilities. Then clear the stack one by one as each spell resolves.

[@shaunboyce6957]

Similar confusion to this is when a card says target and you remove target. Removing the target will make the original target on the stack illegal.

[@tobiasbourne8492]

I love these videos Demo... I have a suggestion for another one though! How about one to do with things you can activate that do not use the stack? Morph is a broken ability that can be used against split second cards like willbender and can be used even if a split second spell is on the stack. Just a thought as if many don't know about the basics of priority and the stack they defo won't know about abilities like morph!!! 🤔 Keep the content coming dude, it's great!!

[@ilyafoskin]

"Do or do not. There is no 'before you do' " - Master Yoda

[@BlackDumble]

I saw a "before that" scenario in first hand but in a possible manner. The active player didn't announce going to combat and just wanted to declare attackers, so the opponent claimed his possibility to tap the creatures when the active player changes phases. Many players forget to declare going into combat, so that is the only scenario I can imagine a correct "before that" reaction.

[@edhdeckbuilding]

still there is a beginning of combat step where you can tap down creatures before attackers are declared.

[@botaspeter2716]

Have you ever played MTG Arena online? Maybe this person does...I am relatively new to this, but what I noticed, if I have a flashback card in my graveyard, or an instant spell in my hand, the game offers time to play it with pretty much every move of the opponent.I often think the opponent is hesitant and I realise I have to "let it resolve" whatever they do without me playing that instant spell. It does not change the outcome however. Meeaning what you are saying, the ability of a creatue does go through even if I activate the instant spell and kill it. "before that" would be the end of MTG on many levels.

[@AnonymousProffession]

This is because "holding priority" is a toggle used by advanced players and is not the default, otherwise the streamlined online play would take twice as long as an active player would have to manually pass priority every time they cast a spell, making games literally take twice as long.

[@Shacklefty]

A great analogy I've heard to explain abilities on the stack and how removing the permanent that put them there doesn't stop the ability - A soldier pulls the pin on a grenade and throws it, then before the grenade explodes, the soldier is killed. Does the grenade still go off?

[@hanschristopherson8056]

Some rules clarification I’m interested in understanding is if opponents can “hold priority” during your turn

[@krash391]

Yup! Once you get priority, regardless of whose turn it is, you can take whatever actions you want until you pass priority again. Each player will get a chance to respond before whatever actions you take resolve, though.

[@ojizzle20]

The answer is yes. If your opponent plays a spell and passes priority and you cast a spell in response, you now hold priority if you wish to cast another spell. Example: Your active player casts a creature spell and you decide you want to kill something in response, you may cast a kill spell, then cast another kill spell afterwards if you have one (so long as they are instants of course). To be perfectly clear you are killing “other” creatures in this example, not the creature on the stack. That spell needs to be countered.

[@markgaudy]

I agree a video would be good on this. To the best of my understanding: the person who has priority has the ability to respond to their own spell or ability prior to passing priority. Once you pass priority: if none of your opponents have any responses, when priority comes back to you the spell then resolves (you cannot further interact with the spell on the stack). I suppose one example I can think of is if you were to cast Wrath of God and you announce that you hold priority to the wrath. You respond by casting Flawless Maneuver. You pass priority with Flawless on top of the stack and Wrath of God below it. If there is no interaction with the stack from your opponents, your creatures gain indestructible then the destroy all creatures would only wipe out your opponents creatures. Holding priority can definitely be important in competitive formats with combos.

[@punkypinko2965]

Yes, if they have priority, then they can "hold priority" but all that means is they're letting you know they're going to do more than one thing, for example, let's say you play a spell then pass priority and I say "I'm casting counter spell and I'm going to hold priority and cast another instant." Hold priority doesn't mean they can just keep it and you can't do anything else during your turn. You will get priority back.

[@turkkanikula3795]

If I remember right, it used to be so in MTG (before stack and other rule changes) that if you responded to opponent activating a creature by killing it, the activation didn't happen, because it was dead before its activation would come to fruition.

[@Oxygen1004]

That would have been one way to nerf Golas before he was banned lol

[@ericdavis3046]

Great vid. It’d be cool to have an in-depth explanation of checking for state-based actions too. One person I played with insisted he could Brago-blink his other creatures that took lethal damage that combat to save them, and while I knew he couldn’t, I couldn’t really give a good rules-based explanation as to why.

[@BrennonA]

really appreciate you going through and clarifying things for all of us - hope this series keeps going!

[@gagestewart8667]

I love this video. Takes me back to 2015 when I really got into competitive play. I come back home after I had lived elsewhere for a while, and my old play group did all these silly things because that's how they have played forever. They were a little salty, but overall adapted and played very well. The most ignorant players take learning the real rules the worst and always become angry because it blows up their fantasy of being a great MTG player.

[@josephpurdy8390]

They should have never gotten rid of interrupts. Your playing by reimagined rules now. Interrupts made it very clear as to what goes first. Instants and creature activations go onto a stack. That means you need to wait to make instants most useful. Which means the player with the instant needs to hold back on every turn. By not blowing that mana on something else. Otherwise it goes onto the stack and the other player can activate their creature and still benefit. It was put into the rules at the beginning to prevent this video from being made. Did it confuse players, yes. However, removing it causes issues and that is why Richard Garfield added it to the rules.

[@robinkeating4521]

Any stack misconception, is because it didn't used to be a thing. When magic started, you could shut things down with an icy manipulator in response. Or stop the elixir by tapping it in response. They added the stack to streamline the game, which works as stated in the video.

[@eewweeppkk]

That may be why people who played 30 years ago don't get it but it doesn't change the fact that new players also struggle with it. Playing by the stack/priority 100% requires a very formal way of playing while magic is played casually 99% od the time.

[@AnonymousProffession]

​@@eewweeppkkThis. It wasn't until I went to sanctioned events that I learned how wrong my rules were, and I started as an adult in my 20's. Imagine how "incorrectly" people can end up playing when they play solely with friends, have no official arbiters, and try their best to understand what cards want without consulting the frankly unappealing tome of magic rules.

[@c-mac9902]

I wonder if some of these misconceptions come from people not keeping up to date with rule changes. I’ve played off and on four different times in my life. 95-98 02-03 2010 And then I started again in 2017 I knew the rules very well in the 90s, when I started again in 2002, I don’t think very much changed so it never occurred to me to look up any changes. When I played briefly in 2010, it was with a coworker, he hadn’t played in like eight years and we both made proxy decks, so it never occurred to us to look for rules changes. I had a heckuva time coming back in 2017. Trying to understand why they got rid of mana burn. Seems like a needless rule changed to me. But the thing that changed the most was the stack. I understand it now, but when I started playing, the other players, didn’t know that I wasn’t aware of it. It’s easy to say go read up on the rules but there’s like 10,000 pages of documents and sometimes you need someone to explain it anyways because it’s a little harder to conceptualize without an example such as you give in this video. Thank you I have learned a great number of things from your videos, I hope this is some insight into why some people may not understand the rules.

[@ArchetypeGotoh]

Lol @ “before that”, it’s like the hidden tier-0 of response time. Tier 3- Sorcery Tier 2- Instant Tier 1- Concede Tier 0- BEFORE THAT

[@christianstudtrucker1892]

What sometimes is a bit of confusing is the difference between: permanent, card, token with effects that referes to a type. So for easy example: return target zombie from youre graveyard to your hand: you can return an instant with shapeshifter to your hand :) or whenever a devil card enters the battlefield: imho this is no token because a token is no card

[@zoshk]

The only reason this whole "allows it" makes sense is a misunderstanding of "any responses?". Spell/ability goes on the stack no matter what and opponents can "disallow" it by preventing it from resolving somehow. And "before that" seems to be from "before going to the next phase/step"...which happens because priority gets passed around before changing phases. And announcing moving to a new phases isnt something going on the stack. This is a weird misunderstanding of stack and priority mixed together.

[@punkypinko2965]

Yeah, exactly. I think the "before that" is a misunderstanding based on me saying "I'm going to go to combat" and another player saying "before that, I'm going to do something", which is possible only because every player gets priority, after me, at the end of each step or phase on my turn. That's not in response to something on the stack; that is just how turns work.

[@SwedeRacerDC]

"Before that" exists because people keep playing their turn with themselves giving nobody an actual chance to respond. So "before that", I'm still dealing with this current stack that you assume resolved. But this makes it confusing because "before that" doesn't really exist, it's just necessary when people are abusing it

[@varsoonhks3211]

What's really frustrating is playing in a setting where people all shorthand and go through phases quickly for ease of play but you happen to be running something that really cares about timing. All it took was one time for a table to insist I couldn't play Master Warcraft because a player quickly declared all his attackers for lethal at me and, despite no other interactions or cards being brought to the equation after the hasty declaration, I was shouted down that Master Warcraft can only be played *before attackers are declared*. While I knew there was Pro Tour precedent for allowing a roll back on declaration of attackers, I just took the L and removed the card from my deck entirely. It sucks but it's more trouble than it is worth sometimes and being the one guy in a play group that asks if everyone please declare their combat steps feels awkward and far too much a tip of the hat that my deck is looking to play some tricks.

[@omarcedric9193]

I found the whole exchange! 🤣🤣 Of course I won't be mentioning who initiated the argument. Thumbs up to demo for being patient and making that exchange to an opportunity to reiterate these rules. I'm really glad I found your channel. I gotta admit that when we were kids, our playgroup used to play like that. I think one of the things he's confused about is when can a non-active player cast a spell or activate an ability. Like for example during an active player's upkeep he does nothing then proceeded to immediately draw a card in his draw step without verbally passing the priority not knowing of course that an opponent is going to cast something (like Silence or whatever). This way of playing kinda gives the impression to new players that there are no priorities or active players.

[@moocowp4970]

Yeah, I agree that situation probably causes lots of misunderstanding. Particularly because the person who wants to cast silence might take the initiative and say "before it passes to your draw step I cast silence!" At which point someone at the table probably learnt a bad habit about how priority is passed, but also the person who's turn it is could theoretically say "well actually I was going to cast X spell on my upkeep step before I drew a card for the turn anyway", and now an argument is going to follow about who had priority when and who is BSing everyone :P Of course the only way around it is to wait for someone to touch the cards on their deck but yell out "before you go to your draw step!" before they pick up the card :P

[@ryosaebafr2000]

Lol this seems like basics of Mtg gameplay to me! All the interaction part is what make the game so interesting... I so amazed by people that dont understand the concept of stack and priority, and yet seem so confident ... I d just say to this people "just read rules! instead of making wrong statements ^^" loved the "before that" and "do you allow me to play my card" parts! was really hilarious :=D and the final "Have a nice day" at the end of his comment... just lol. You feel clearly the contempt of a person which gets something wrong and is so convinced he is right^^ . Great video, if the guy do not still understand, it is his own problem now :) Thanks for all you video dude...

[@AnonymousProffession]

To be fair, introductory product does not do a very good job of explaining priority, the stack, or layers. It took me literal years to just learn all of that through osmosis and corner cases. Now, that's definately high, but to assume these are basics is elitist and dismissive to new players.

[@oxpolitik]

Use The Stack, Luke...

[@michaelsaldana4103]

My first mtg game back in 92 involved a guy showing me how to use dark rituals like they were lands that tapped for 3 black mana and never left the battlefield. IRL it is way easier to show people they are wrong via group effort and physical examples. Over the net is very hard even with video. Since this is the net an old phrase comes to mind in this situation. Don't feed the trolls.

[@cowabunka]

dude, back then we have a little booklet that comes with a starter deck so, everyone was making up rules left and right. I bet each school played the game differently

[@pitman3090]

Magic didn't start until 1993

[@nicks4802]

I’ve had people try to stop me and ask me why im playing an instant on my own turn…. Its because thats when i had mana to cast it, and thats when i was able to benefit from the spell…. I stopped playing in that group I play how i want to, within the rules of the game, inoffensively. I don’t need to be told how to play my turns when you, the opponent, can’t see whats in my hand (usually)

[@Yakiro255]

You may have already made a video with this one but one thing I run into with new players a lot is they misunderstand summoning sickness. Essentially it's very common that players will use Mind Control or other permanent control effects and assume the creature can tap and attack since it's " already recovered from its sickness" as if it were a status condition like paralysis in Pokemon.

[@DCII]

Pretty good explanation, but you missed a subtle wording that goes a really long way to explaining how the Stack works. That's the concept of maintaining priority. If I play a spell when I have priority no one, except me, can respond at all until until I pass priority. If I cast a Blasphemous Act I can maintain priority then cast a Teferi's Protection. I can't cast or activate sorcery speed stuff while maintaining priority, but I can cast 20 Instants in a row before anyone can respond, with anything (that I know of) until I PASS priority.

[@peterlof]

I do understand how you could end up with "your own set of rules" as a group of friends who just bought some random magic and started playing without any guidance or supervision, but you should always be open to learning and improving your play. If there are release events and/or drafts in your neighbourhood / local game store, these will often be supervised by certified judges, who you can also ask these and other questions. Imo magic only gets better if you understand and follow the rules, specifically regarding priority and stack.

[@christopherdirks9929]

Great info. Magic can be a confusing game. Always great to learn more.

[@ilyafoskin]

16:42 On the subject of minor rules misunderstandings, I encountered someone at a Commander FNM game who thought that vigilance meant that the attacking creatures tap to attack and then untap immediately as an attack trigger. He had other actual attack triggers going off when he swung in so he was adding the untaps to the stack and I was so confused. I had to interject to figure out what was happening.

[@mlpocsidetrack]

Force tapping is basically "use it or lose it". If there is an ability yhat you want to tap something after combat, and someone force taps it, you tap to pay the cost NOW or wait until next turn

[@LexAnarchy]

Yugioh player here, as long as you have priority you can do whatever you want and don't have to announce anything. You pay the cost that's listed on the card you activate and then your opponent can respond. The only thing that works differently that I can think of off the top of my head is Planeswalkers. In Yugioh you would be able to for example destroy it as soon as it hits the field before you get to activate any loyalty abilities, whereas in Magic, you have no response window to that iirc.

[@yodabuddy2112]

The thing with pokemon is that it's all basically ran at sorcery speed. As long as it's your turn, your opponent can't play any cards, although that may or may not have changed since the Sun/Moon sets because of potential power creep

[@setiahardinugroho8170]

I learned alot from your series, keep it up🎉

[@Stryk_Redkite]

About the only time I 'announce before I do a thing' is if I'm playing something unusual and I don't want newer players to get caught unawares. (My Myrel, Shield of Argive deck does this sometimes. I mention "Hey, it's about to be my turn with Myrel on the field, anyone got anything before she locks you out?") But there's no rule that makes me do that.

[@JetNAmplify]

Prority is sometjing that needs tonbe explained over and over again. Its just legitimately something people dont know about. I mean there are times where someone ends their turn and the next person starts their beggining pases and i have to be like. Hold up hold up. I wanted to respond on that endstep so that you dont have mana to respond. And you just flew through that end step. Can i please do the thing i was planning to do at the approprite time when i should have had priority? And usualy thats fine with our playgroup. As we dont always wait for everyone to pass priority since that would take forever. But we do understand it. And as long as people dont wait too long, we usualy allow that kind of thing. In all honesty i dont really see a better way to do that. I guess i could announce ahead of time that i want to stop on the end step. But that might change what they are going to do...

[@blacfiberx7x]

Thank you for this video. I'm a relatively new player and am always confuwhen the flow of play gets complicated. I think this helped me with the stack and priority. Cheers

[@quadeflanders7905]

Im fairly confident that the person who said "unless they don't let you" was referring to the opponent's option to counter it. They just used the more casual wording. And if you're playing against a blue player, it's the more accurate wording.

[@moocowp4970]

I think a reason people may have to use "before you do that" when other players skip passing priority (obviously incorrect to do). E.g. player 1: "okay i cast this spell to give your creature -2/-2 and now i cast lightning strike to kill it" (note that they incorrectly didnt give a chance to interact after casting the first spell, they just assumed it would resolve, maybe because they havent seen an island before? 😅) Player 2: "um, before you cast lightning strike I cast this spell to give that creature protection from black" Obviously in that case player 1 was meant to pass priority when the first spell they cast was on the stack, but they just incorrectly skipped that and the second player had to correct that mistake and say that they wanted to cast a spell when they were meant to have priority. So it's fine to say it in that context, but then i think others probably hear that phrase and incorrectly assume that there is some weird timing window that lets interact with spells before you've finished casting them... Glad you clarified it.

[@jesper1029384756]

So a question about priority... I think its said here that if a player casts a spell, then it passes priority, meaning, he will let it resolve. Then the next player passes priority, meaning he lets it resolve. But what if player A casts a spell, then passes priority, then player B passes priority, then player C, responds with his own spell. Everyone passes priority for that spell (C, D, A, B). After that spell is resolved. Is just player D able to respond to the first spell from player A? Or is there a full round of priority making everyone able to react to the first spell again? And if so, starting with who?

[@ThisNameIsBanned]

In a multiplayer game you CAN announce what you WANT to do before you do it to make some political plays, but thats a technical thing. It can be important if for example there is something that prevents you from casting something or would give another player a trigger (like a Rhystic Study card draw) , so you ask someone else to remove it before you make your play ... so that requires you give them priority, if they then say i do nothing, you would not get priority again in the same phase, the game goes on with an empty stack and everyone passing their priority ... so the political "announce" what you want to do is the only way to make that kind of play. BUT if you do that all the time the game kinda grinds to a slow crawl, so you only should do it when it matters and not automatically do it.

[@lyschyk19]

I think the only thing you forgot to mention for this is "End the turn" Effects. which have the effects of; (Exile all spells and abilities from the stack, including this card. Discard down to your maximum hand size. Damage wears off, and "this turn" and "until end of turn" effects end.) You can reply to it, but if an ability is already on the stack when these effects resolve, they are canceled out and the turn ends. At the same time I want to confirm if this is true or not, if you do end up reading this.

[@isaaccourter8286]

When I was first learning magic with my friends, not only did we think blocking creatures tap... But we also thought you could block for another player🤦

[@NoMercyFtw]

some people dont understand that if u have a tap target perm ability on a card u have the time to use it is on upkeep or use it on instant speed if its a only activate as a sorcery speed ability, i was confused on these cards also on the time to use them when i was a newb.....................

[@metalplaysgames]

I had friends that played for years recently. Tell me, they just found out that when someone triggers an ability like the example here with the draw cards. They also thought if you kill the source before it resolves the ability goes away and they probably played like this for 20 years. Kitchen table always not really interacting with many other people, but I feel like some of this is pretty common for people who aren't on the internet

[@eloidasarmi6815]

"Before that" is such a casual thing amongst kitchen players, I'm not surprised somebody thinks it actually works like that

[@ratska96]

Colloquially I think there are some "before that's". Like if someone says "and that my turn, it's your turn now" it's fair to say "before that, on your end step I do ..." because technically speaking at every possible instance we could ask if someone has a response but alot of the time, at least at my table, we just say this thing happens, then this thing happens, but if you have a response to the first thing you can say "before that second thing happens I respond to the first thing" and we trust each other to not to use any information we have about the second thing that is gonna happen to inform the response to the first thing. That's the problem with what that one guy said. "Before that" is not a game mechanic, it's just to help people not constantly hold games up. This person is responding to information they could only know once it's too late to respond.

[@user-pv1ue4fl4t]

Maybe it is a good idea to distinguish “ACTIVATION COST” and “EFFECT”.

[@oals29]

Yes. Same with casting cost (particularly 'additional cost to cast X'). No, you can't kill the creature I sacrificed to cast this Diabolic Intent, it is already dead.

[@peckerblaster69]

So fun fact. My buddy played white when we started. And if he didn't like the way a turn went he would cast silence and we thought we had to walk the whole turn back. (Including putting spells and creatures back to our hands and untappinh lands) we also tapped our creatures to block. 🤯🤠 but we also gad so much fun back in those days. 8+ people FFAs no deck restrictions, just playing big dumb spells.

[@edhdeckbuilding]

this is literally how i started. no deck restrictions. no idea how the rules worked. 5-6 guys just casting big dumb stuff. my buddy had about 12 copies of counterspell in his deck.

[@bryanholdren9043]

I think the reason why interrupts were removed was because it created a "before that" effect. But I'm really speculating here.

[@greysonmiller9407]

Something I see constantly is people trying to respond to an instant with a sorcery because the instant is being cast on one of their main phases.

[@ofskittlez]

Paying the cost of an activated ability doesn't use the stack and happens immediately. So if the cost is tapping the creature, as soon as I activate the ability, the creature is tapped.

[@tonglai7499]

It is the same in yugioh. You can’t randomly activate cards in opponent’s turn. And it is more crucial in yugioh because most cards are sorcery speed. You can’t just randomly blow my sorcery speed cards if I didn’t declare anything. In magic it is less important to understand priority because I can usually respond by activating it anyway. One great example I tell people is that removal never stops planeswalker. Planeswalker always gets to use ability before you can destroy it.

[@kukivave]

did that control deck tapping guy, also not realize anything he uses to tap down Arcanis would be put on the stack, so even if they had priority, because the "tapping down" ability is on the stack, the Arcanis owner can then just respond to it on the stack and activate it (unless its a split second ability of course). Also with split second, some people dont understand that it doesnt stop "triggered" abilities from going on the stack so there's some poenitentia for shenanigans with that (i.e morph cards dont use the stack to activate, so the morph abilities like willbender can be used to redirect split second spells). .

[@20x20]

"Before That" sounds like something they'd include in an un set

[@drunkennephilim2995]

I feel like a bit of this comes from misunderstanding the rather vague interaction that is "open game state" in Yu-Gi-Oh. Similar to Magic players can respond to cards after costs are paid and to phase changes in a similar vein to magic but Yu-Gi-Oh also has Open game state where priority is passed back after a "Stack" is cleared fully cleared allowing players to interact in an opponents turn without it being a direct response. Its a rather advanced and complicated step in the game that became a harder for players to understand after Yu-Gi-Oh got rid of priority.

[@CaptainGulasch]

To clarify on the priority part. On your turn you can activate abilities and cast spells without anyone being able to interject as long as you do not go to resolve any of them, this is called holding priority and responding to your own spell casting or ability activation. As soon as you go to resolve the stack, the next person in turn order is given priority and now they can react and hold priority until they are fine with resolving the stack, then the next player in turn order gets priority and so on until every player has had priority once since the last effect was put on the stack, then the stack resolves. During resolution after each effect resolves the effects controller gains priority and the ability to respond to the next effect that is on the stack, if the stack is empty the turn player gains priority.

[@bigbadwolf6256]

I think it has to do with the old rules in magic where some actions where faster then other actions, that rule has changed. An instant is not faster then a sorcery anymore.

[@sgtflamingo6532]

Many players dont understand how priority works. Alot of these misconceptions come from lack of understanding priority.

[@RagnorBC]

16:53 Same thing when my wife and I first started playing. We got one of those game night boxes, and the rules in the box are actually not very elaborate. We figured we had to tap the creature because we "used" it to block. Took us a game with more experienced players to figure that out, along with a few other things we were doing wrong.

[@williamenciso9198]

@edhdeckbuilding As someone who used to play YGO, things are actually very similar. (I’ll be using some YGO terms for my explanation, and for the YGO players keep in mind that I played before Link Era, so things might be incorrect now) For your 1st point, YGO has a specific line for monsters that have resolution conditions: “This card must be face-up on the field to activate/resolve this effect”. BUT if it doesn’t have that text, then it won’t matter if the Monster Card leaves the field as long as the activation happened. Assuming the effect wasn’t negated of course. Also, there is player priority in YGO as well and it works incredibly similar to MTG. I as the turn player get to do my effects first and opps can only respond to activations or changing phases (there has been some changes in how YGO priority works over the years but that’s another story). The opp can’t just activate whatever they want whenever they want. All that said, no, this isn’t a ruling thing that was taken from YGO and applied to MTG. The people that you described are simply playing the game wrong and making up rules.

[@jumbleumble5386]

Basically(?) Paying the activation cost of an activated ability does not go on the stack so you can't interact with that.

[@bobbobnz]

Agree with everything said. The only thing "if xx allows that" i can think of otherwise might be, is more political rather than MTG Rules. Ie if there is a heavy control player, someone might ask, "if you don't counter this, I'll attack the other guy with it" type of scenario. Not a rule per say, and there is nothing stopping said player to go back on the deal. Similar to, "I won't attack you if you don't use X on me"

[@jaysonvick2175]

Pretty sure you just 360 dunked on that person. I love the content! Please more!

[@enigmaticvaran6597]

The first one is kind of mind-blowing... I have an entire LGS of players to convince.

[@MentalCrusader]

Im happy that the stack was one of the first things I learned about

[@DrnknMc]

Either it works or it doesn’t. “Does this resolve?”

[@scottricks1676]

I’d love to see you do a vid breaking down how holding prioritization works. Command zone did a vid but I love the way you break thigns down.

[@punkypinko2965]

People definitely say "before that" in MTG. I think the "before that" misunderstanding probably comes from when one player says "i'm going to go to combat" and another player says back "before that, I'm going to do X". I think he is confusing getting priority at the end of steps and phases and responding to things on the stack. You're right: a player can't respond to a spell or ability or trigger on the stack by saying "before that ...".

[@bluemoonflame342]

Yeah, I think this comes about because most of the time when you are moving through phases, opponents don't have a response or action. Probably about 95% of the time. So when you do have something to do when phases end, you kind of have to go "wait, before you leave the phase, I'm going to actually take my priority and do X".

[@punkypinko2965]

@@bluemoonflame342 Exactly. It's not really "before that" it's really, "hey you didn't pass priority, so we need to back up a step here because this time I do actually have something I want to do before you proceed to the next step or phase."

[@sgtflamingo6532]

Casting and resolving planeswalkers are a good example of priority. Once a spell resolves and the stack is empty, priority goes back to the active player. After the planeswalker spell resolves, the active player has priority and can activate the planeswalker. The non active players cant destoy the planeswalker unless the active player passes priority.

[@natelagrassa9337]

You are absolutely correct… you’d have to stifle it in response to stop the ability. Love your channel brother

[@LukeFromNY]

My buddies and I do 1 honorary scry to the start of the game we don’t do a Mulligan rule we just mull until have a playable hand

[@giannameranto3926]

Can you PLEASE do a video explaining how Mereike can use her ability to take all of someone's creatures in one turn?

[@edhdeckbuilding]

not sure that she can. unless you copy the ability for other creatures or untap her a whole bunch. radiant performer for instance would work to gain control of all creatures.

[@giannameranto3926]

​@edhdeckbuilding you need a way to untap her. Plenty of ways to do that. Do the ability, then before you the creature crosses into your control you do it again and repeat. Then they all resolve and come your way.

[@abiggs4828]

Lol this reads like you need a video on the internet to show your playgroup because they won’t let you do the thing.

[@edhdeckbuilding]

@@giannameranto3926 but they wouldn't. read her ability again.

[@giannameranto3926]

@edhdeckbuilding which is exactly why I asked for the video lol. It can be confusing. I had a judge explain it back in the day. I think he said if you can do it multiple times, each time before you take control of a creature then they all stack and you don't have control of the creature to destroy it yet. Then they all resolve. The next time she untaps though, they all die. But you have to be very specific.

[@Ninja_Geek]

I will admit one thing I didn't understand correctly was what specifically happens when a commander would go from field to the graveyard/exile vs to the hand/library. I was playing with a different group than usual, and someone had an online Bloodchief Ascension on board. I had to sacrifice my commander, and I just put it straight to the command zone like most people do, so I didn't think I had to take the damage from Ascension. They explained to me, and I later looked it up just to be sure, how a commander going to the graveyard or exile functions similar to tokens where it still hits the new zone, but you can then move it to the command zone as a state based action. I wasn't entirely wrong in my understanding, though, since when the commander would move to the hand or library, you can *instead* move it to the command zone as an inherent replacement effect via the commander rules.

[@lewys9204]

Yeh he's right it goes grave or Exile, whatever the board state is.. and then when that resolves you can opt to take action by sending it to the command zone or reject. Everybody chooses command zone for this. It will cost 2 more to cast next time though

[@Ninja_Geek]

@@lewys9204 I know he was right now. The only time I've seen someone keep it in the grave is if they are playing a reanimation deck

[@lewys9204]

@@Ninja_Geek yeh there's also some other combos that work well if you summon a legendary aswell but... anyone can negate it anytime. It's risky. When I play against 3x others at Friday night magic I an usually trying to be knocked out first because apparently I'm the biggest board threat. So my commander bounces in and out all the time and I do 3xplain this ruling to them to.

[@tyrusconley]

@@Ninja_Geekwith the previous rules you would have been right. The rule changed a few years ago, but it still occasionally causes confusion.

[@avista1521]

Well explained…the stack can be really confusing for many non-seasoned players

[@lokifeyson]

This!!! I've always loved sudden death for these exact reasons, it just sucks explaining it and its such a feels bad for the player that doesn't know how stack/priority works. another comment suggested using arena to show new players how stack/priority work. I agree, my friend who played back in the 90's got into arena last year, he hadn't played in a long and told me how arena showed him on how it was supposed to be played, more then any amount of kitchen table magic he had played

[@metaphics]

Holding priority is still weird for me. I built an Imotekh deck, and I wondered whether necropolis from the Dark was bad or sneaky good due to priority not passing, and the oracle text making the exile effect part of the activation cost. Can I respond to my own activations repeatedly and get separate triggers on Imotekh?

[@nelsikegaming]

Great video that I will use as a teaching tool for many new players

[@celphys]

Hey would you consider doing a video on regenerate ? It is not easy to actually find some concordant opinions on the ability: can I use it in response of combat damages? Does I need to tap my creatures (and as I such I cannot regenerate multiple times a tuen, can I regenerate when somebody destroys or exile or minus X/X. I "think" I know how to play it but....

[@zip258]

Someone said "no other game is played so wrong with so much joy"

[@ronmcguire9045]

In such a complex game, it’s nearly impossible to know concisely how the rules work in every instance. But also missing basic rules for newer players is common too - I didn’t remember about summoning sickness for about a year after I started playing/collecting.

[@N4chtigall]

I think that some people (including me) treat "before that" as just using the priority. For example, if someone wants to pass the turn and I still want to, e.g., crack a land, I may say, "Before that," even though in practice I'm not rewinding board state or anything. I don't know if I explained it correctly since English isn't my first language. Maybe in my language people treat that words differently.

[@4c3fr3h1y]

Arena can be a huge help for new players who dont understand some of the basic mechanics of the game, since it auto resolves those things and allows the player to observe how a spell or sequence of spells is meant to resolve according to the proper rules.

[@Golden12123]

I had a friend thinking that when a creature is countered it still enter the battlefield and etb. Maybe make video talking about this?

[@tauntdragoon]

I Wana make sure I got this correct if someone has a white card that say tap target creature if I cast an instant that says target creature gains pro white and in response the white player responds with the white card to tap my creature that I targeted with the spell that give pro white it still gets tapped

[@TimboFromLimbo]

If I use a Duplicant to remove my opponent's Wight of Precinct Six, is my Duplicant's power/toughness equal to the Wight's current pow/tuff or its printed pow/tuff?

[@tucker_last_name]

I don't understand, it seems like your saying before that happens when your talking about tapping at the end there. If I tap your elixer of immortality than it's tapped it's been tapped right you can't before that and tap to gain life right?? It's quite littlerly before that I do that?? But than you said that even the reverse wouldn't work, if you tap elixer and I force tap it elixers ability still goes threw?? What about the before that, the stack, why does it work one way and not the other??

[@CreditedJester2]

Priority is definitely one of the most difficult thing to grasp for newer player in my experience