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[The Technomancer]

THG Sealed went well, we ended up going 2-1. My partner was running U/W control with some big blue zombies and I was running straight aggro R/B Vampires since I pulled a Bloodline Keeper. Other notable pulls were an Evil Twin, Mikaeus, Reaper from the Abyss and in my prize packs a Grimgrin and a second Mikaeus. Overall a really good time, except the first game where I played the Reaper and they killed us next turn by stealing it with Traitorous Blood and swung for lethal.

I didn't play or play against many werewolves but I heard that while they suck in THG they were surprisingly potent 1v1, since the imperfect tempo of Limited made transformation more likely then you'd think.

 

[noquarter]

Went to the sealed event last night. Did pretty bad, played U/W spirits. Only rare I played was Divine Reckoning. I got two black rares (including the one that gives enchanted players creatures -1/-1, but nothing else except for zombie recursion) Should have won my last game/match but I didn't want to argue with the guy I was playing (fit the stereotype very well though, maybe this week he will shower) Ended up 1 and 2.

I enjoyed playing the set in limited, but don't really know how I want to play in standard. Still am looking forward to next week and cracking open a box.

 

[TerminalDogma]

Went to a draft tonight, didn't do so grand. 2-2. I had a B/R vampire deck, also got the Bloodline Keeper (and I never even got to play him!). The cards that helped me win the most were the Vampire Interloper, Crazed Neonate, and the Reckless Waif. My big dudes almost never actually helped me win.

 

[siddx]

Went to a 36 person sealed draft, came in 4th with a green/white human focused deck. Pulled two skaab ruinators out of my prize packs, getting my entry fee back plus some.

The flip cards worked far better than I thought, they weren't amazing but they definitely weren't useless like I thought they'd be. The one that turns into a 3/3 intimidate especially managed to win me a few games. And the 2/2 that becomes a 5/4 trample was very useful as well.

Best cards I used were
Geist Honored Monk : Turned the tide 80% of the time.
Gustaf Shepherd : Great turn 2 drop, often flipping to a 3/3 intimidate fairly quickly
Ambush Viper : Killed a lot of big fatties by flashing this one in
Spare from evil : Holy fuck this card was useful. Pulled two of them and they saved my ass or got me the win more times than I could count.
Bonds of Faith : The duel ability of either being a pacifism or a +2/+2 pump was a huge help every time I drew it
Fiend Hunter : Saved me several times from big nasties
Doomed Traveler : Such a great first turn creature
Gnaw to the bone : with such a creature heavy deck, I was gaining 20 life over two turns quite easily. Was directly responsible for winning me at least 3 games
Mask of Avacyn : turns a 1/1 spirit flyer into something to be feared, and makes you big fatty safe and secure from your enemies removal. Got a ton of use.

 

[Zaraki_Kenpachi]

I hate you all, wish there was a prerelease by me. Cool hearing how everyone did though.

 

[number47]

Best cards I used were
Geist Honored Monk : Turned the tide 80% of the time.
Gustaf Shepherd : Great turn 2 drop, often flipping to a 3/3 intimidate fairly quickly
Ambush Viper : Killed a lot of big fatties by flashing this one in
Spare from evil : Holy fuck this card was useful. Pulled two of them and they saved my ass or got me the win more times than I could count.
Bonds of Faith : The duel ability of either being a pacifism or a +2/+2 pump was a huge help every time I drew it
Fiend Hunter : Saved me several times from big nasties
Doomed Traveler : Such a great first turn creature
Gnaw to the bone : with such a creature heavy deck, I was gaining 20 life over two turns quite easily. Was directly responsible for winning me at least 3 games
Mask of Avacyn : turns a 1/1 spirit flyer into something to be feared, and makes you big fatty safe and secure from your enemies removal. Got a ton of use.

From what I'm reading, you used alot of removal spells? What was your ratio of sorcery:creatures:lands.
a bit nervous about this sealed tourney.

 

[Morn]

I pulled a rooftop storm. All I really wanted. Now my Zombie deck will be ready for FNM

 

[Spwn]

Got an Innistrad fatpack and display box pre-ordered from a local Magic retailer and really excited for the new expansion. I started playing just recently after 10 years of hiatus (the latest booster pack I found among my old cards was from the Odyssey expansion) and now I'm trying to build a deck I'm comfortable with to go into FNM tournaments. Haven't had the guts to go yet. Would take part in draft tournaments, but I haven't figured out how it works yet.

 

[TerminalDogma]

Oh yeah, and the Booster Draft I went to last night was my first ever. Thats actually a really fun way of playing. I think I like it more then sealed. I was always wary of doing it cus I was like "you don't get to keep your cards in the pack?! NO WAY!" But then I realized you're most likely going to be keeping the best ones anyhow, do you really care about the jank commons you miss out on?

 

[Jacobi]

Went out on Friday night so didn't go to the midnight draft and overslept for the sealed today, but planning on going to the a sealed and draft event tomorrow.

I'm still new to the game and put together this as my first target for a Standard deck to put together, anyone have any comments?
http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/zombies-185/
It's based on a flavour I like but have no idea if it's good. I also don't know any of the cards in Scars block so there might be some zombies in there that could be a good fit.

Hey, pretty cool page... Thanks for that...

 

[Morn]

Went out on Friday night so didn't go to the midnight draft and overslept for the sealed today, but planning on going to the a sealed and draft event tomorrow.

I'm still new to the game and put together this as my first target for a Standard deck to put together, anyone have any comments?
http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/zombies-185/
It's based on a flavour I like but have no idea if it's good. I also don't know any of the cards in Scars block so there might be some zombies in there that could be a good fit.

Decent deck, it just won't be legal this Friday.

 

[Fou-Lu]

Went 3-2 at prerelease yesterday, coming in 9th out of 36 people. I would've liked to place higher, but it was my first prerelease and I was ranked much higher than my friends.

I played a WUG deck with lots of spirits and an Angel of Flight Alabaster; I honestly can't remember why I splashed green.

 

[f0rk]

Decent deck, it just won't be legal this Friday.

You mean there are cards rotating out? I think the site link is bugged, people on reddit said that as well but it's all m12 and Innistrad cards.
Text list to check

2x Altar's Reap
1x Army of the Damned
2x Call to the Grave
4x Cemetery Reaper
2x Devouring Swarm
4x Diregraf Ghoul
4x Doom Blade
2x Endless Ranks of the Dead
2x Grave Titan
4x Moan of the Unhallowed
2x Reassembling Skeleton
3x Skinrender
24x Swamp
4x Walking Corpse

 

[Morn]

You mean there are cards rotating out? I think the site link is bugged, people on reddit said that as well but it's all m12 and Innistrad cards.
Text list to check

2x Altar's Reap
1x Army of the Damned
2x Call to the Grave
4x Cemetery Reaper
2x Devouring Swarm
4x Diregraf Ghoul
4x Doom Blade
2x Endless Ranks of the Dead
2x Grave Titan
4x Moan of the Unhallowed
2x Reassembling Skeleton
3x Skinrender
24x Swamp
4x Walking Corpse

The link you posted earlier had 4x Surrakar Spellblade, 4x Echo Mage, 4x Whispersilk Cloak. Those rotate out on Friday.

 

[siddx]

From what I'm reading, you used alot of removal spells? What was your ratio of sorcery:creatures:lands.
a bit nervous about this sealed tourney.

Well kind of, I relied more on being faster than the other guy or setting him up so that he got damage unexpectedly or left himself open thinking he was going to kill me only to have me gain life and then swing back and kill him. My removal was more a long the lines of "surprise, my guy is suddenly bigger" or "surprise they have protection from non humans" or "surprise I just flashed in a deathtoucher to block your 8/8".


I already pulled apart the deck but if I remember correctly, my deck was
14 creatures, 5 instants/sorcery, 2 enchantments, 5 artifacts, 14 basic land, 2 non basic lands (ghost quarter/shimmering grotto)



On a side note, it was unusually hot yesterday, and with 36 magic players, plus the guys who stand around and just take up room, and 10 or so yugioh players, all packed into a relatively small room with no AC or windows that opened...I think I need to take 5 showers in a row to get the stench off me. It's always pretty rank in there, but with that many unwashed nerds it was almost unbearable. It smelled like old cheese pizza left in the sun too long mixed with rotten farts and urine. I played against one girl in the 4th round who was so bad at magic I am convinced the only reason so managed a 2-1-1 record at that point was because most people couldn't concentrate with the overwhelming scent or urine and sweat pouring off of her.

I didn't get out of there till past midnight though, and had a 2 hour drive to get back home.

 

[Boogiepop]

One more rule related bit of minutia... does summoning sickness extend into the opponent's turn? IE, can I activate an ability during my opponent's turn even if I played the creature on my turn?

 

[siddx]

One more rule related bit of minutia... does summoning sickness extend into the opponent's turn? IE, can I activate an ability during my opponent's turn even if I played the creature on my turn?

Yes it does. Your creature needs to see an upkeep under you before it's ready to play. So for instance if you flash in a creature at the end of an opponents turn, it will be ready to use on your turn because it's seen an upkeep under you.

 

[kudos.]

One more rule related bit of minutia... does summoning sickness extend into the opponent's turn? IE, can I activate an ability during my opponent's turn even if I played the creature on my turn?

"Summoning sickness is an informal term for the rule that a creature cannot attack or use activated abilities either with the tap or untap symbol if it has not been continuously controlled by a player since the beginning of that player's most recent turn."

Nope. You have to wait until you control it a full turn.

 

[kudos.]

Yes it does. Your creature needs to see an upkeep under you before it's ready to play. So for instance if you flash in a creature at the end of an opponents turn, it will be ready to use on your turn because it's seen an upkeep under you.

While this is true, he was asking if he played a creature, such as grim lavamancer, during his turn, then pass the turn, if he can use it during his opponent's turn. Which you can't, as you said, because you haven't seen your upkeep since it has came under your control. I think that's what Mank is asking...

 

[ultron87]

Did a pre-release today. Went 1-3 with a fairly unstellar pool. 3 of my rares were dual-lands.

Built a GW deck with some spirits and a few other humans things from white and various werewolves and combat tricks from green.

The werewolves work better than I expected. Once they managed to get flipped it was very rare that they got flipped back.

My MVPs were Angel of Flight Alabaster and Village Bell-Ringer. The Ringer let me bring a couple losing games back by flashing him in to tap a bunch of stuff in a row with the two Avacynian Priests I had in order to get a kill shot in.

 

[TerminalDogma]

Went to a sealed pre-release today. Did pretty good, came in 4th. Went 3-1-1. Played W/U fliers. I didn't even pull any good bombs, best thing I had was a Sturmgeist, and I only had one match where he was anything bigger then 3/3. Big helpers were Thraben Sentry (I pulled 3) combo'd with a Butchers Cleaver. Overall pretty fun. In the packs I won I pulled a foil Essence of the Wild. I also got that mythic red spell that gives all spells in your graveyard flashback for a turn.

 

[Takuan]

Won 8 packs in two pre-release tournaments yesterday and another 4 today. I'm glad I seem to be improving, but I'm kind of pissed about what I opened. I figured I could deal with shitty pulls provided I had a decent enough pool to win with, but when your prize packs are all garbage... fffuuuuuuuuu.

In 30 packs, I had 3 dual lands, 1 Mirror-Mad Phantasm, and 1 Grimoire. The rest was $1-$2 territory bullshit. COME ON! Also, in 330 commons, I have 0 Shimmering Grottos. Just found that funny.

I'm buying a box or two next week, and I'd better open me some awesome stuff. My head will explode if I don't at least open a 'walker (I wound up trading a friend for his Garruk, and I don't really feel that was the greatest trade for me, but whatever). Common sense tells me to wait for Garruk to drop to Karn levels before picking up another 3, but damn it, I'm finna open sum boxes, nah mean? Fuck if I know what I'll do with him, but what can I say; I'm a fan!

 

[kirblar]

This set isn't great value-wise, due to it being part of an overall attempt to scale back the power creep. The problem is that many cards in Scars block were made to fight Jace, TMS, and thus are kinda over the line for where this set's at. In a year it'll look a lot better.

 

[Wichu]

I went to my first prerelease yesterday (I promised my younger brother I'd go). Opened Liliana in the first pack, followed by Mikaeus and Snapcaster Mage. I guess I got pretty lucky.

Anyway, I traded Liliana for a Sword of Feast and Famine and a bunch of other rares such as Green Sun's Zenith and Lux Cannon, after my brother said it was a fair swap. He was wrong

Spoiler

He did give me a Darksteel Forge for just going, so I can't be angry with him

Anyway, I also traded Mikaeus and Gavony Township for a Tezzeret the Seeker, and am trying to trade Snapcaster Mage for some more cards so I can construct my first decks (going for green and artifact EDH decks). I'm actually going to use Sword of Feast and Famine, unlike Liliana (not planning a black deck).

 

[Takuan]

I went to my first prerelease yesterday (I promised my younger brother I'd go). Opened Liliana in the first pack, followed by Mikaeus and Snapcaster Mage. I guess I got pretty lucky.

Anyway, I traded Liliana for a Sword of Feast and Famine and a bunch of other rares such as Green Sun's Zenith and Lux Cannon, after my brother said it was a fair swap. He was wrong

Spoiler

He did give me a Darksteel Forge for just going, so I can't be angry with him

Anyway, I also traded Mikaeus and Gavony Township for a Tezzeret the Seeker, and am trying to trade Snapcaster Mage for some more cards so I can construct my first decks (going for green and artifact EDH decks). I'm actually going to use Sword of Feast and Famine, unlike Liliana (not planning a black deck).

Trade Snapcaster as soon as you can. There's no way in hell he keeps his $25 asking price - but make damned sure you get $25 in cards for him, because everyone's trying to get a playset right now. Just for your reference, StarCityGames is thrown around often for assessing trades, but 9 times out of 10 their prices are the highest (see: Garruk Relentless, $40 on StarShitty, $25-$30 just about everywhere else). In some cases it is OK, but in others they can be wildly off, causing trade imbalance. Use ChannelFireball.com for a good idea of the low end of prices. I've found their prices to be the closest to true market value (i.e. eBay). Also, don't underestimate the value of foil commons. A foil Forbidden Alchemy, for example, is worth $6 due to its playability in many formats.

On a side note, have any of you come across older players who bring along 3-4 large binders packed with traders to events? Have any of you had good experiences with these types? I never bother dealing with them because they're ALWAYS looking to trade up; they'll come up with a multitude of reasons as to why your card isn't really worth what it's worth, and why theirs is valued higher despite being vulnerable to the same factors as your trade offering. I've noticed that they're older players, too, and they have no issues preying off kids who don't know any better. Something really scummy about that.

 

[ultron87]

How was everyone handling the doublesided cards at your events?

Most of the people at my event had the checklist cards in a sleeve and the doublesideds off to the side covered by something. The doublesideds then didn't have a sleeve at all. I'd imagine people can just get transparent sleeves for them down the road. It just seems like it makes it them easiest to manipulate.

A couple guys had the actual doublesided cards in the sleeves in their deck, but taking them out and flipping them seemed cumbersome as hell.

 

[The Technomancer]

How was everyone handling the doublesided cards at your events?

Most of the people at my event had the checklist cards in a sleeve and the doublesideds off to the side covered by something. The doublesideds then didn't have a sleeve at all. I'd imagine people can just get transparent sleeves for them down the road. It just seems like it makes it them easiest to manipulate.

A couple guys had the actual doublesided cards in the sleeves in their deck, but taking them out and flipping them seemed cumbersome as hell.

I had transparent sleeves, so I used the proxy cards and kept the double faced cards closed up in one of my deckboxes.

 

[Takuan]

I just took them out of the sleeve. It really wasn't that big a deal. The only issue was that sometimes I'd forget to flip them back after the game.

 

[Keru_Shiri]

I just took them out of the sleeve. It really wasn't that big a deal. The only issue was that sometimes I'd forget to flip them back after the game.

This, pretty much. My turn came around, so I flipped them over and put them back into the sleeve. Not sure what some people's problem was.

 

[OneEightZero]

"Summoning sickness is an informal term for the rule that a creature cannot attack or use activated abilities either with the tap or untap symbol if it has not been continuously controlled by a player since the beginning of that player's most recent turn."

Nope. You have to wait until you control it a full turn.

I always hate how they word that, makes it sound more confusing than it has to be.

 

[y2dvd]

Yeah flip cards weren't a big deal at all asides from not remember what the card did if you used a checklist. I was looking to the side often if I had a double-sided card at hand and it made things a little obvious lol.

I went 1-2 and left afterwards. Got a Lilliana, G/B dual land, and the rest are not even worth mentioning.

I went U/B zombie/control but the U control was pretty bad in this set. It might just be the cards I had though. Should've gone B/R zombie/vamps maybe. I pretty much got owned by humans. The tappers ability to pay any cost is so good. It totally prevented me from getting damage through. They seem to synergize well also.

Oh well, I suck lol. Will attend more FNM to try and level up.

 

[mattoz85]

Didn't really enjoy the prerelease. I opened the mythic white angel with almost no other white playables. When I stacked my cards by color, my green and red were at least twice as high as every other color, so I went RG werewolves. I thought I had an aggressive deck. 17 creatures, 5 transform werewolves, 4 or 5 other wolves, 3 ambush vipers, 2 moonmist. Except I got my ass kicked every single round by fliers.

If you can't deal with fliers in this format, you lose. Plain and simple. It didn't matter that I had 5 guys attacking on the ground. My opponents had 3/3 and bigger fliers that stopped everything. Really frustrating how there's no way to deal with them in RG outside of one green creature with reach (which I didn't have). I thought 3 ambush vipers would be awesome, but no one attacked on the ground, so it just ended up being a 2/1 with flash.

In my 6 packs, I opened a total of $7 worth of cards, got nothing in prize packs, and lost to people who I normally beat in every other kind of tournament because they played fliers. I've slowly been losing interest in the game over the past few months, and if this is the way the new set's going to play out in limited, I might just take a break altogether.

 

[f0rk]

Yeah flip cards weren't a big deal at all asides from not remember what the card did if you used a checklist. I was looking to the side often if I had a double-sided card at hand and it made things a little obvious lol.

I went 1-2 and left afterwards. Got a Lilliana, G/B dual land, and the rest are not even worth mentioning.

I went U/B zombie/control but the U control was pretty bad in this set. It might just be the cards I had though. Should've gone B/R zombie/vamps maybe. I pretty much got owned by humans. The tappers ability to pay any cost is so good. It totally prevented me from getting damage through. They seem to synergize well also.

Oh well, I suck lol. Will attend more FNM to try and level up.

What U control did you have? I had 3 Claustrophobia in my draft and it pretty much won me two games and made the two loses much closer. Silent Departure is really good in the format as it resets flip cards and the token growth vampires with flashback. They get the best use out of self mill mechanic as well with the Murder of Crows and Looter that can swing for 5/1 that all help get the U Zombies out.

 

[Takuan]

Didn't really enjoy the prerelease. I opened the mythic white angel with almost no other white playables. When I stacked my cards by color, my green and red were at least twice as high as every other color, so I went RG werewolves. I thought I had an aggressive deck. 17 creatures, 5 transform werewolves, 4 or 5 other wolves, 3 ambush vipers, 2 moonmist. Except I got my ass kicked every single round by fliers.

If you can't deal with fliers in this format, you lose. Plain and simple. It didn't matter that I had 5 guys attacking on the ground. My opponents had 3/3 and bigger fliers that stopped everything. Really frustrating how there's no way to deal with them in RG outside of one green creature with reach (which I didn't have). I thought 3 ambush vipers would be awesome, but no one attacked on the ground, so it just ended up being a 2/1 with flash.

In my 6 packs, I opened a total of $7 worth of cards, got nothing in prize packs, and lost to people who I normally beat in every other kind of tournament because they played fliers. I've slowly been losing interest in the game over the past few months, and if this is the way the new set's going to play out in limited, I might just take a break altogether.

Yeah, unfortunately there's always the chance of a really bad pool in limited. If your best cards were RG and you didn't open any of the morbid spider, Spidery Grasp, or the 4/5 artifact that shoots for 4 upon ETB, you really got shafted; I would've been pissed if that was my pre-release experience, too. I had a lot of fun with the set's mechanics (I Brimstone Volley'd a guy for 10 for the win off a Morbid trigger, too awesome), but you're absolutely right about fliers.

 

[ultron87]

I think my favorite moment of the pre-release was having a guy attack me with Trepanation Blade to mill 8 cards off my deck. This put exactly the card with flashback that I needed into my graveyard to win the game on the next turn before I died.

That seems like not that great of a card in Limited what with all the graveyard shenanigans.

 

[The Technomancer]

I think my favorite moment of the pre-release was having a guy attack me with Trepanation Blade to mill 8 cards off my deck. This put exactly the card with flashback that I needed into my graveyard to win the game on the next turn before I died.

That seems like not that great of a card in Limited what with all the graveyard shenanigans.

Yeah, my friend and I won one of our matches because they Brain Weevle'd a Nightbird's Clutches into my graveyard, and you could tell that having the threat of that looming over them pushed them into an aggressive strategy that left them open and eeked us out a victory. If they had held back a bit they might have won since the game went down to 6 life for us and 8 for them and we had a Curse of the Pierced Heart on us.

Very psychological match that one, and it came down to a lot of really fast mental math at the end.

 

[alternade]

Sucks that people don't like this set that much. I personally love it and am thinking up new deck ideas. I think I'm finally hitting my stride when it comes to playing. Making the right moves, knowing the rules, understanding card interactions. It takes awhile its been about 5-6 months for me. I came in around the height of cawblade mania and that discouraged the crap out of me. Wish I knew someone from gaf to play with though.

 

[Wichu]

Trade Snapcaster as soon as you can. There's no way in hell he keeps his $25 asking price - but make damned sure you get $25 in cards for him, because everyone's trying to get a playset right now. Just for your reference, StarCityGames is thrown around often for assessing trades, but 9 times out of 10 their prices are the highest (see: Garruk Relentless, $40 on StarShitty, $25-$30 just about everywhere else). In some cases it is OK, but in others they can be wildly off, causing trade imbalance. Use ChannelFireball.com for a good idea of the low end of prices. I've found their prices to be the closest to true market value (i.e. eBay). Also, don't underestimate the value of foil commons. A foil Forbidden Alchemy, for example, is worth $6 due to its playability in many formats.

Yup, my (other) brother wants to trade $20-$25 worth for it. As I don't normally go to any sort of events (so I'll likely never meet anyone else who wants it), I may as well. I don't think I have any usable foils - I got foil Civilized Scholar, Tribute to Hunger, and Memory's Journey.

 

[Kyuur]

Going to my first ever MTG event this weekend (Innistrad Launch)! Hopefully it'll be fun, and maybe I'll win a few matches. I've only ever played with my girlfriend before so it should be good.

 

[Takuan]

Sucks that people don't like this set that much. I personally love it and am thinking up new deck ideas. I think I'm finally hitting my stride when it comes to playing. Making the right moves, knowing the rules, understanding card interactions. It takes awhile its been about 5-6 months for me. I came in around the height of cawblade mania and that discouraged the crap out of me. Wish I knew someone from gaf to play with though.

GB Heartless Summoning is really looking like a MEAN, fun deck.

 

[Boogiepop]

Actually, looks like I have one more rule question. When you counter a card that requires a cost plus tapping by tapping it before it can execute, what happens to the mana being used to play it in the first place? Does it stay in the mana pool or disappear?

 

[An-Det]

Actually, looks like I have one more rule question. When you counter a card that requires a cost plus tapping by tapping it before it can execute, what happens to the mana being used to play it in the first place? Does it stay in the mana pool or disappear?

Can you give an example? The mana you used to pay for it is used even if it is countered.

 

[The Technomancer]

Actually, looks like I have one more rule question. When you counter a card that requires a cost plus tapping by tapping it before it can execute, what happens to the mana being used to play it in the first place? Does it stay in the mana pool or disappear?

Actually you can't tap it down in response to them tapping it to activate an ability. You can't respond to costs being payed, so you would have to tap it down before they decide to activate it.

 

[Boogiepop]

Actually you can't tap it down in response to them tapping it to activate an ability. You can't respond to costs being payed, so you would have to tap it down before they decide to activate it.

You can't?
In the case that actually brought this up, I knew my friend was going to be playing his Brittle Effigy (http://gatherer.wizards.com/pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=205002).
I had my Aurok Transfixer down (http://gatherer.wizards.com/pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=45963).
So in this case, are you saying it would pretty much come down to who announces their intent to tap first, and neither could "counter" the others decision? (If anything throws off my example in anyway, I'm still pretty much asking about any cards that can tap vs cards that need to tap for an ability.)

 

[ultron87]

Actually you can't tap it down in response to them tapping it to activate an ability. You can't respond to costs being payed, so you would have to tap it down before they decide to activate it.

And of course then they'd just be able to tap it to use the ability in response to you tapping it.

 

[siddx]

You can't?
In the case that actually brought this up, I knew my friend was going to be playing his Brittle Effigy (http://gatherer.wizards.com/pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=205002).
I had my Aurok Transfixer down (http://gatherer.wizards.com/pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=45963).
So in this case, are you saying it would pretty much come down to who announces their intent to tap first, and neither could "counter" the others decision? (If anything throws off my example in anyway, I'm still pretty much asking about any cards that can tap vs cards that need to tap for an ability.)

He always has the priority to respond to your attempt to tap his brittle effigy by activating it. So even if you tried to tap it before he declared his intent to activate it, he could still use it if he had the mana available. The only way to stop it would be an ability or spell that counters an activated ability.

 

[Haly]

You can't respond to actions performed as a cost, because to put the ability on the stack in the first place, a player needs to fulfill the cost, such as tapping, sacrificing or discarding.

 

[alternade]

GB Heartless Summoning is really looking like a MEAN, fun deck.

Free 4/5 myr superion? Thank you! Just need a contingency plan and you have ruthless deck with possible turn 3 or 4 titans.

Edit: if I have heartless summonings out with my 4/5 Myr superion and my opponent tries to dismember it can I destroy my heartless in response and will superion live?

 

[ultron87]

Edit: if I have heartless summonings out with my 4/5 Myr superion and my opponent tries to dismember it can I destroy my heartless in response and will superion live?

Yep. As long as the spell that is destroying the Heartless resolves before the Dismember your Myr will survive, since it's toughness will never go to 0. If the Myr had taken any damage during the turn it would die, however.

 

[Wichu]

Just bought a bunch of rares off my brother for £27, including expensive ones I wasn't originally planning on using. This is the reason I was reluctant to start spending money on cards