MTG Salvation

My question is on cards like Phantom Nomad, does the 'remove counter in place of damage' clause go on the stack? For example, if my Phantom Nomad is down to only having one +1/+1 counter, and I attack into my opponent's Mons's Goblin Raiders, would they trade immediately, or does Nomad deal its damage, the ability go on the stack, giving me an opportunity to ephemerate the nomad before the last counter is removed?

Thanks.

The Phantom abilities are static abilities that create replacement effects. They don't use the Stack. Instead of being dealt damage, the damage is prevented and a +1/+1 counter is removed - that happens at the time the damage would have been dealt. A Nomad and a Raiders trade in combat and die at the same time; Raiders, for having lethal damage, and Nomad, for having 0 toughness.

Thanks!

Note that abilities that lack the word "when", "whenever", and "at" are not triggered abilities (C.R. 603.1, 603.7). For this reason, for example, neither ability of Phantom Nomad is a triggered ability.