Current Events > Hey MtG people, I got a question about the Stack

(+) Yeah! (+)

Ok, let's say I'm playing some form of control against a guy playing infect.

The infect guy is on turn two or three and is about to blow his load on an Inkmoth Nexus or Blighted Agent. He casts the usual shit like, Blossoming Defense, Giant Growth, and Landswell.

My question is, do all three spells go on the stack? Or can he cast and resolve them individually?

And if I let the first two resolve, but then I play Mindbreak Trap (exile any number of target spells), would I be able to exile the first two?

Apologies if that sounds confusing, but it's even more confusing in my head.
---

basically, it up to him.

After he casts his first spell, he gets priority to respond with an instant. if he does, he can respond again, etc. once he doesn't, you get a chance to respond with instants, until you don't. then he can respond to yours, and back and forth, until you both decide not to respond.

at that point, the top spell/ability of the stack (the most recently played thing) resolves, and the active player gets another chance to respond to what's left. again, then the non-active player gets a chance. back and forth until there are no responses, and then again the top of the stack resolves.

that goes on until the stack is empty. then the active player gets to do another thing. if he passes, then you can do a thing. if you pass there, then the game moves on to the next step/phase.

so, specifically in your example, you both need to make sure to communicate whether he's just rushing, or if he's specifically responding to his own spells. if he just threw all three of those spells out there, then no, nothing has resolved yet.

Mindbreak trap only exiles spells. spells only exist on the stack (everywhere else, they are "spell cards"). so, no, nothing that has already resolved will be exiled, as it's now a spell card in the graveyard, not a spell.
---

Ok, I think I get it. Thank you.
---

good, because that was a mess to write out, lol.
---

DuranOfForcena posted...

it would be a kinda noobish play mistake of your opponent if he threw out multiple spells without passing the priority to you and seeing how you might respond first, especially against a control deck, and especially if a card like Mindbreak Trap is in the cardpool. i remember during Alara Block a RDW tried to Lightning Bolt me twice and i just Double Negatived both of them lol. he never made that mistake again.

I was playing on untap so communication is less clear on there depending on the player. This guy was being really careful about it though, so I believe he knew to not play all his instants on one stack.
---

yeah. especially with Blossoming Defense, because after it resolves you can't target the creature anymore. so he need to make sure to time it so it's most likely to protect both his creature and all the spells he's trying to use to pump it up.
---