Yes. If a blocker blocks multiple attackers, the defending player chooses the damage assignment order for those attackers.
509.3. Third, for each blocking creature, the defending player announces that creature’s damage
assignment order, which consists of the creatures it’s blocking in an order of that player’s choice.
(During the combat damage step, a blocking creature can’t assign combat damage to a creature it’s
blocking unless each creature ahead of that blocked creature in its order is assigned lethal damage.)
This turn-based action doesn’t use the stack.
If you manage to steal a bunch of creatures with Merieke and the delayed triggers are still waiting, just untapping Meriake will cause those creatures to be destroyed.
Even if I tap Merieke Ri Berit right after she untaps (as a response to her untapping) the creatures will be destroyed? Like if I tap, untap, tap, untap, tap to steal creatures on my turn. And then the next time it's my turn, if I allow Merieke Ri Berit to untap, there's no way I can prevent her second ability from destroying the three creatures, even if I tap right away?
Yes. A trigger goes off when its trigger condition is fulfilled, and it is put on the stack the next time a player would receive priority. There is no further check on wether the condition is still true. (This is different from triggers with an intervening-if clause. Such a condition is checked again before the trigger would actually resolve.) And the condition would still be true since Merieke got untapped, nothing here cares about her being untapped.
If you respond to an ability/spell, your response goes on top of that ability/spell on the stack (if it is something that uses the stack) and resolves first. Activating Homeward Path in response to a control change spell/ability is useless as the control change effect will be created after HP created its own effect. The most recent control change effect remaining on a permanent wins.
So if I tap Merieke Ri Berit to gain control of my opponent's Sun Titan, and then after I gain control of Sun Titan, my opponent activates Homeward Path, should I respond to the Homeward Path activation by using Triton Tactics to untap Merieke Ri Berit and then tap her again to gain control of Sun Titan or should I let the Homeward Path ability resolve, and once my opponent gains control of her Sun Titan again, I play Triton Tactics to untap Merieke Ri Berit and then tap her again to steal Sun Titan?
Doesn't matter, since as soon as Merieke untaps, the delayed trigger goes off and it will destroy the Sun Titan, even if you don't control it anymore. If the delayed trigger is already a nonissue (as explained above), then you need to let HP's ability resolve first. If you don't, this ability will take control away from you after Merieke's ability resolved (and you would still control the Sun Titan at that time anyway, so Merieke essentially does nothing except create a new delayed trigger). As I said, the latest control change effect still remaining determines the controller of a permanent. A control change effect (like any other effect) is created when the spell/ability resolves, not when it is cast/activated.
OK I'm beginning to understand it. Thank you very much for your patience and attention to detail.
So, lastly I have a question about responding to Homeward Pathtriggers activations from my opponents with untapping and tapping abilities. I just sometimes get a little mixed up and confused at people responding to abilities and how the timing and sequencing goes. I essentially want to know about any cool tricks to know about beating or besting Homeward Path.
If you respond to an ability/spell, your response goes on top of that ability/spell on the stack (if it is something that uses the stack) and resolves first. Activating Homeward Path in response to a control change spell/ability is useless as the control change effect will be created after HP created its own effect. The most recent control change effect remaining on a permanent wins. HP does not remove a control change effect, it creates a new one. So to use HP correctly, the opponent has to wait until the control change effect is actually created (so he has to let the spell/ability resolve), and then activate HP. The permanent will change control, and then change control back. A control change also results in a creature suffering from summoning sickness again.
I still don't think I quite get it. I want to know what I can do to keep being able to untap and tap Merieke Ri Berit to steal more creatures without them being destroyed and I also want to know what I would need to do if I wanted to destroy all the creatures I stole with her.
Those delayed triggered abilities still are normal triggered abilities, with a trigger condition and chances for all players to respond before they resolve. Delayed triggered abilities only go off once (unless they state a duration), even if the trigger never gets to resolve. So besides ending the turn in response (Sundial of the Infinite), you can counter them with appropiate spells/abilities (like Stifle), or interfere with their effects (here, granting the creatures indestructible would do the trick, for example with Boros Charm). If the creature survives the trigger somehow, it will never be bothered again by it. You will lose control of the creature if Merieke leaves the battlefield, but her becoming untapped doesn't matter anymore.
If you manage to steal a bunch of creatures with Merieke and the delayed triggers are still waiting, just untapping Meriake will cause those creatures to be destroyed. Also since you control the stolen creatures, you are able to sacrifice them, provided you have a sac outlet. If a creature already survived its delaed trigger, you can simply activate Merieke again to take control again (even though you still/already control it) and create a new delayed trigger, then untapping Merieke will cause the creature to be destroyed.
Note, that card draws are always split up into individual draws. Not just for one player drawing multiple cards, but for all players drawing cards:
120.2. Cards may only be drawn one at a time. If a player is instructed to draw multiple cards, that
player performs that many individual card draws.
120.2a If an effect instructs more than one player to draw cards, the active player performs all of his
or her draws first, then each other player in turn order does the same.
Therefore, this proposal
As you can see, these scenarios are getting quite complicated. But I see one way out for these scenarios in particular. Since cards are drawn one at a time even if multiple cards would be drawn at once (C.R. 120.2), you may find it less complicated here to treat each card draw separately: Each player draws a card, each player draws a card, etc.
is technically not viable under the CR, since one player draws all his cards before the next player does. But scenarios where it matters are very rare.
Since the target is still legal when the spell resolves, the impossible instruction to destroy the land is simply ignored. You still carry out the possible instructions, in this case searching for a Forest and shuffling.
Always use the current Oracle wording of a card. Prowess of the Fair has been updated with new terminology, changing "from play" into "from the battlefield". As such, no instants/sorceries will trigger this card. (and didn't even with the old terminology, since those cards go from the stack to the graveyard after they resolve, not from play.)
Yes, Elvish Harbinger can search up the PotF, since the Harbinger only requires it to have the elf subtype, which it has.
And yes again for the Druid. It, too, only requires the permanent to be an elf, not a creature.
The card IS revealed since the contents of any public zone is free information. All players will know which card was put into the hand. And if the card is an actual target (like with Raise Dead) it has to be announced as the target when the spell is cast.
Unfortunately, this doesn't work as you intend. Hidden Stockpile's trigger has an intervening-if clause, it has to be true at the time the ability would trigger, or it doesn't go off. The return to hand trigger from dash is an "at the beginning of the end step" trigger just like the revolt trigger, meaning, by the time the revolt trigger would fire, the dash creature hasn't left the battlefield yet (that trigger needs to resolve first for that to happen). In essence, if no permanent under yor control has left the battlefield before the end step begins, HS won't trigger. Dash is too late.
Yes. By the time SP's trigger makes it to the stack, the Wall is already on the battlefield. Unless the Wall leaves before this trigger resolves or loses its ability somehow, it will trigger its own ability when SP's trigger resolves. And when the Wall's trigger resolves, it will get a +1/+1 counter, provided it is still on the battlefield at that time.
Everything that goes on the stack is put on top of the stack, always.
After the Skinrender spell resolves, before any player gets priority, its trigger goes on the stack (on top, but usually the stack is empty so the trigger is the only object on the stack). Only afterwards can players respond, and their responses naturally are put on top of this trigger and thus resolve before it. Objects on the stack always resolve from top to bottom with chances for all players to respond in between. Any such responses will be put on top of the stack and thus resolve before what was already there.
Note, that triggers never activate, they trigger. Only activated abilities can be activated, and they never do so on their own. A player has to choose to activate them, and pay their costs.
Any search effect that has some condition as to what you can search up will always have you reveal the card(s) before putting it/them into your hand. Only unconditional searches skip that because there is nothing to verify. To be clear: There is no card that has you search for something specific and not have you reveal it.
If there is no reveal, then the card is going to a public zone anyway.
For a permanent to leave the battlefield it has to go from being on the battlefield to not being on the battlefield. Where it goes doesn't matter. That means, that any zone changes from the battlefield count as leaving the battlefield (so going to hand, library, graveyard, exile, or command zone). Which makes phasing NOT count, since that is only a change in status, not a zone change.
For the purposes of O-Ring and JtN to return the exiled cards, how the permanent leaves doesn't matter, only that it leaves. Again, phasing will not count.
No. Neither hexproof nor indestructible prevent damage. Hexproof makes the permanent/player immune to targeted spells and abilities an opponent controls, while indestructible just makes destruction of the permanent impossible. While planeswalkers can be destroyed with some spells, usually a planeswalker goes to the graveyard as a state based action for having no loyalty counters, which is not destruction. Damage to planeswalkers causes that many loyalty counters to be removed from them, while damage to a creature usually results in that much damage marked on the creature. Note that desruction is not mentioned anywhere in that last sentence. What destroys a lethally damaged creature is not the damage, but a state based action that has lethal damage as its condition.
Two decks of similar strategy likely face the problem of not having enough cards for the strategy to implement two decks. After all, you're sharing a very limited card pool with your team mate in 2HG Limited. Dividing up a limited number of cards for aggressive play into two decks will weaken both as they would usually compete for the same cards. If you can make aggressive decks that don't overlap in color AND provide enough playable cards for each deck, then go for it. But if you can't make two viable decks, it's better to make one extremely aggressive deck and one supporting deck instead. Like one deck having all the aggressive creatures while the other packs removal to strip away the opponents' defenses and the finishing spells for when the partner runs out of gas. Two controllish decks likey face the same dilemma of having to share limited resources. So the aggro+control mixup is most common. Or both players just build midrange decks and rely on playing all/most of the bombs in the pool to max out the use of powerful cards.
509.3. Third, for each blocking creature, the defending player announces that creature’s damage
assignment order, which consists of the creatures it’s blocking in an order of that player’s choice.
(During the combat damage step, a blocking creature can’t assign combat damage to a creature it’s
blocking unless each creature ahead of that blocked creature in its order is assigned lethal damage.)
This turn-based action doesn’t use the stack.
Yes. A trigger goes off when its trigger condition is fulfilled, and it is put on the stack the next time a player would receive priority. There is no further check on wether the condition is still true. (This is different from triggers with an intervening-if clause. Such a condition is checked again before the trigger would actually resolve.) And the condition would still be true since Merieke got untapped, nothing here cares about her being untapped.
Doesn't matter, since as soon as Merieke untaps, the delayed trigger goes off and it will destroy the Sun Titan, even if you don't control it anymore. If the delayed trigger is already a nonissue (as explained above), then you need to let HP's ability resolve first. If you don't, this ability will take control away from you after Merieke's ability resolved (and you would still control the Sun Titan at that time anyway, so Merieke essentially does nothing except create a new delayed trigger). As I said, the latest control change effect still remaining determines the controller of a permanent. A control change effect (like any other effect) is created when the spell/ability resolves, not when it is cast/activated.
If you respond to an ability/spell, your response goes on top of that ability/spell on the stack (if it is something that uses the stack) and resolves first. Activating Homeward Path in response to a control change spell/ability is useless as the control change effect will be created after HP created its own effect. The most recent control change effect remaining on a permanent wins. HP does not remove a control change effect, it creates a new one. So to use HP correctly, the opponent has to wait until the control change effect is actually created (so he has to let the spell/ability resolve), and then activate HP. The permanent will change control, and then change control back. A control change also results in a creature suffering from summoning sickness again.
Those delayed triggered abilities still are normal triggered abilities, with a trigger condition and chances for all players to respond before they resolve. Delayed triggered abilities only go off once (unless they state a duration), even if the trigger never gets to resolve. So besides ending the turn in response (Sundial of the Infinite), you can counter them with appropiate spells/abilities (like Stifle), or interfere with their effects (here, granting the creatures indestructible would do the trick, for example with Boros Charm). If the creature survives the trigger somehow, it will never be bothered again by it. You will lose control of the creature if Merieke leaves the battlefield, but her becoming untapped doesn't matter anymore.
If you manage to steal a bunch of creatures with Merieke and the delayed triggers are still waiting, just untapping Meriake will cause those creatures to be destroyed. Also since you control the stolen creatures, you are able to sacrifice them, provided you have a sac outlet. If a creature already survived its delaed trigger, you can simply activate Merieke again to take control again (even though you still/already control it) and create a new delayed trigger, then untapping Merieke will cause the creature to be destroyed.
Therefore, this proposal
is technically not viable under the CR, since one player draws all his cards before the next player does. But scenarios where it matters are very rare.
Yes, Elvish Harbinger can search up the PotF, since the Harbinger only requires it to have the elf subtype, which it has.
And yes again for the Druid. It, too, only requires the permanent to be an elf, not a creature.
After the Skinrender spell resolves, before any player gets priority, its trigger goes on the stack (on top, but usually the stack is empty so the trigger is the only object on the stack). Only afterwards can players respond, and their responses naturally are put on top of this trigger and thus resolve before it. Objects on the stack always resolve from top to bottom with chances for all players to respond in between. Any such responses will be put on top of the stack and thus resolve before what was already there.
Note, that triggers never activate, they trigger. Only activated abilities can be activated, and they never do so on their own. A player has to choose to activate them, and pay their costs.
If there is no reveal, then the card is going to a public zone anyway.
For the purposes of O-Ring and JtN to return the exiled cards, how the permanent leaves doesn't matter, only that it leaves. Again, phasing will not count.