When you teach a new player how to play 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Magic: The Gathering, the bare minimum basics are usually enough to get that player engaged in understandi🤡ng how the game works. Draw cards, play lands, cast spells – that's all someone really needs to know to k🐎ick off their Magic career.

However, there are some fairly complex systems that govern the way Magic works. These systems aren't always intuitive, and are rarely explained to new players at all, so they can come off as a bit convoluted when the time comes to put them into practice. Still, priority and the stack are two core concepts that you should at least ha🅷ve a fundamental understanding of.

What Is Priority?

Priority is the underlying system in Magic that determines who actually gets to take actions first during any given 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:step or phase of a turn. Only one player ever has priority at any given time, which🌳 helps to make sure players aren't fighting to cast their spells before their opponents can do th🐓e same.

Think of it like a game where players pass a ball back and forth to one another. The ball can only be held by one player at a time, and must be passed to another before that second player can take action. In Magic, the player with𒉰 pr💯iority (i.e.: the player holding the ball) is the first person who gets to take action.

Who Has Priority In The Game?

The active turn player is always the first person to receive priority at the beginning of each step and phase. If it's Player A's turn,ꦗ and they enter their pre-combat main phase, they receive priority, which means they're the first player who gets to take game actions that phase.

From there, one of two things happen: if Player A takes an action like casting a creature or activating an ability, that spell or ability will go on the stack and priority will pass to the next player in turn order. Technically, a player can 'reta🎉in' priority immediately after taking an action, but this is only done in specific corner-case scenarios.

Playing a land, using a mana🐲 ability, or flipping a face-down card with morph or disguise does not use the stack and does not initiate passing priority.

If the player with priority passes without taking any actions, priority will continue to the next player in turn order, who is given the same option to either take an action or pass priority again. Since it's not their turn, this usually means 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:casting an instant or using an activated ability.

If each player passes priority in succession without anyone taking an action while the stack is empty, the game will proceed to the next step of the turn, where priority is once again given to the active player. If an action is taken by any player at any time, priority will 'reset' with the active player being given a chanc༺e to act once again.

When Do Players Receive Priority?

There are some steps and phases where players don't receive priority at all🐓, exce𝔉pt in niche situations. Below is the list of steps and phases in a turn cycle, and the ones in which priority is involved.

Note that players don't usually receive priority during the untap, damage, and cleanup steps. However, if an event causes an ability to trigger during the cleanup step, players will be given priority with the chance to interact. For example, if you 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:discard a card with madness when going down to your maximum hand size, that will prompt players to gain priority during that st🔯ep.

How To Handle Priority During Games

Priority happens during games whether players intend to take actions or not, but it would be an absolute hassle to announce that you're passing priority every single time. Most players shortcut this process by saying things liဣke 'passing the turn' or 'going to com൲bat' during their main phase. This is the equivalent of saying 'passing priority until someone else wants to interact.'

Priority passes still happen even if a player literally can't take any game actions. Non-active players will have to wait their turn, but the active play𝔉er can't skip over their opportunities to interact even if they have nothing to do during their turn. For example, saying 'pass the turn' does not mean the turn immediately ends, it means 'passing priority during my end⛄ step.'

What Is The Stack?

Think of the stack like the waiting room of Magic. If every spell just happened as soon as it was cast, things like 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:counterspells and 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:pump spells would lose a lot of their functionality. Priority makes it so players can't just butt in with game actions when it's not their time to do so, but the stack ensures that there's order in the way that spells and abilities iไnteract and resolve.

When you cast a spell or when you activate or trigger an ability, that game object is placed on the stack, a zone in Magic that isn't actually physically represented, but rather exists as a temporary zone when it's needed. After you put something on the stack, you pa๊ss priority to the other players, who may now choose to react wi𒀰th their own spells and abilities.

If an opponent 'responds,' they place whatever spell or ability they're using on the stack above your original spell, and priority continues in turn order. If even one other player interacts, priority will continue in turn order and reset with the active player. Once everyone passes priority without adding anything new to the stack, the stack will resolve from top to bottom (newest spell to oldest).

A classic example involves Lightning Bolt vs. Giant Growth. Imagine Player A wants to use Lighting Bolt on an opponent's 3/3, so they cast it as the first spell on the stack. Priority passes and Player B casts Giant Growth on the 3/3. No one else takes any actions, so the top spell (Giant Growth) resolves first, making the creature a 6/6,🦄 then Lightning Bolt resolves and fails to kill the creature.

Most spells and abilities use the stack, but not everything does. Here's a list of regul♏ar game actions t﷽hat either do or do not use the stack.

What If Multiple Triggers Happen At The Same Time?

Triggered abilities are placed on the stack whenever they occur, usually from creatures entering the battlefield or at the start of steps and phases like the upkeep or end step. Sometimes, a single event will cause multiple abilities to trigger, maybe all from the same playe༺♏r, and sometimes from different players.

If all of the triggers are controlled by the same player, that player puts those triggers on the stack in the order of their choosing, after which those triggers will resolve from top to botttom (the 🐻reverse order of how they were placed 🧔on the stack).

If triggers are controlled by different players, the active player puts their triggers on the stack first, followed by each other player in turn order. They are placed on the stack in turn order, but resolve in reverse turn order (also known as "last in, first𒀰 out")♈, so the active player's triggers are actually the last ones to resolve.

Remember that targꦉets for a spell or ability are announced as soon as that game object is placed on the stack.

Replacement Effects

Replacement effects, like the ones found on Doubling Season and Anointed Procession, don't typically use the stack and follow slightly different rules than triggers. As a rule of thumb, the player or controller of the object being affected by a replacement effect is the one who orders those꧒ 🐟effects. The ordering of replacement effects is not based on whom the active player is.

For example, if player A deals damage while controlling a Torbran, Thane of Red Fell and a Furnace of Wrath, the player taking the damage determines in which order those effects apply. More likely than not, they'll want to double the damage, then ꩵadd two to minimize the damage they receive.

You can almost always spot a replacement⭕ effect by the use of the w💝ord "instead" in the rules text.

How Does Paying For A Spell Or Ability Work?

Paying costs for a spell or ability is a requirement of putting that game object on the stack in the first place. As soon as you announce you're putting something on the stack, you have to choose your targets, modes, and pay all relevant costs before anyone (including yourself) has an opportunity to take additional game actions. This means the cost is already paid by the time players can react.

That's very important for spells that require an additional cost, say, how Thrill of Possibility requires you to discard a card, or Village Rites 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:sacrifices a creature as an additional cost. Those costs are paid upfront when casting the spell, which means no one can stop you from paying that cost, and you don't get your additional cost payment back if your spell is countered.