Sources of Abilities

Batibot23 · Joined: 14 Dec 2006 Posts: 31

Q: I sacrifice my three creatures in play to Flashback Dread Return, targeting Flame-Kin Zealot in my graveyard. In response, my opponent Extirpates, targeting my Bridge from Below in response. Do the triggers go on the stack before Extirpate resolves, resulting in me getting my three 2/2 Zombies?

A: No, you will not get any Zombies. Bridge from Below's triggered abilities have the "intervening if" clause. In order for the ability to trigger, this additional condition must be true. When the ability goes to resolve, this condition must be true then as well. If it is not, the ability will do nothing. When you played Dread Return, you sacrificed three creatures, causing the ability of Bridge from Below to trigger three times. These triggers went on the stack on top of Dread Return. Then your opponent played Extirpate. As it has Split Second, no other spells or non-mana abilities could be played. When Extirpate resolves, the Bridge from Below in the graveyard, and all others found in any of the searched zones, will be removed from the game. Then Extirpate will go to the graveyard. When the Bridge from Below abilities on the stack attempt to resolve, the Bridge from Below is no longer in your graveyard, so these abilities will do nothing.

Taken from SCG.

If my opponent has Prodigal Sorcerer and he used its ability at his turn dealing 1 damage to me. Can i play Disperse targeting Prodigal Sorcerer on top of its ability so it won't deal damage anymore?

T: Prodigal Sorcerer deals 1 damage to target creature or player.

If my opponent has Urborg Syphon-Mage and I try to bounce it back in response to its ability, will it still take effect?

2B, T, Discard a Card: Each other player loses 2 life. You gain life equal to the life lost this way.

thedarkness · Joined: 13 Jul 2006 Posts: 449

It doesn't matter what the ability is or what its source is; once it's on the stack, bouncing the source of that ability will not remove it from the stack.

The reason this works for Bridge from Below, if you actually read that post, is because of the "intervening if" clause.

Basically that means that Bridge checks to see if a condition is true as each triggered ability it generates resolves.

In English, that translates to: if the Bridge from Below isn't in your graveyard when the "put a zombeh into play" ability RESOLVES, you don't get the zombeh.

Hardtrack · Joined: 10 Aug 2005 Posts: 234

And yes, that only applies to a very small subsection of the triggered abilities. As a rule of thumb, removing the source of an ability won't do anything to the ability.

ILikeBananas · Joined: 01 Aug 2006 Posts: 102

To hit it home...

It doesn't say "when a critter you control hit the bin, put a 2/2 zombie token"

Bridge says "blah blah blah....If bridge is in the graveyard, put 2/2 zombie tokens".

So it checks if bridge is in the grave, if true --> put tokens.

While we're at it, aside from extirpate, bridge trigger can be responded to by saccing your own creature. If the remove bridge from the game trigger is on top and resolves first, then again, there's no bridge in grave and therefore no tokens.

I remember so many people called me a noob and left when they tried to argue the incorrect result lol.

Prodigal sorcerer case:
Abilities are like spells, once they go on stack, they are independent of the source, and will resolve in order of the stack.

In some cases, an ability will check if the source is still in the game. I think Stalking Yeti does this. In that case, if conditions are not met, the effect will not occur.

Also, prodigal sorcerer's ability requires a target, if the target becomes illegal (say by pro blue or by gain of untargetability), then the ability will fizzle.