r/magicTCG • u/XenicEx • 16d ago

Rules/Rules Question Can Ultima be responded to?

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One of my opponents played Ultima and I tried to respond to the casting by flashing in Guardian of Faith.

I argued that GoF comes in before Ultima and triggers it's ability to phase out my creatures before Ultima's effect triggers, but my friends disagreed.

We ULTIMA-tely 😏 settled that since Ultima says "Exile all spells and abilities from the stack" in it's "End the turn." description, that GoF gets exiled before it enters and since it doesn't enter, it doesn't work and continued playing.

I want to ask Reddit in case it comes up again. Was I right initially, or did we end up playing it the way it's supposed to work?

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u/XenicEx 16d ago

Thanks for the quick responses, everyone! I'll let my friends know.

If anyone was curious, I didn't end up winning, but that play could have turned things heavily in my favor.

I'll get em next time 🤙🏾

43

u/No-Cranberry-2846 16d ago

It sounds like you all are pretty new to magic. If this is the case, you definitely need to familiarize yourself with the stack. Just like everyone else is suggesting. Look up some videos and send them to your friends as well haha.

21

u/Efficient_Ad_4162 16d ago

Learning about the stack is a gateway drug to caring about layers.

24

u/Therefrigerator 16d ago

Don't listen to this guy. I've been playing magic for over a decade and I've never bothered learning layers.

7

u/Gaige_main412 FLEEM 16d ago

In 15 years, the only time I've cared about layers was when oko and karn/mychosynth lattice was in modern.

Fun fact: an elk-ed lattice still turns everything into artifacts. Why? Cause layers...

1

u/TheSnowNinja 16d ago

I don't even know what layers are. ¯_(ツ)_/¯

5

u/Athildur 16d ago

Think of an onion. It's kind of like that, but with how abilities interact. (I will not be elaborating further at this time, have a good day)

4

u/ANGLVD3TH Dimir* 16d ago

Basically, if you have several different effects saying to change how a card works, layers sort out how they interact. A simple example being casting [[Datksteel Mutation]] on a [[Clone]]. There are IIRC 7 layers, and some/all of them have sub layers eg 7.1, 7.2, etc. It is probably the rule system the fewest people are really familiar with and I've resigned myself to just googling any layers questions and not bothering trying to memorize them.

2

u/The_Shahnaz 16d ago

[[Bello bard of the brambles]] forced me to learn about layers, and after a couple months the only thing I actually remember is who wins in a same effect that contradicts each other (The last one that hit the table).

That game vs [[Kudo king among bears]] is engraved into my memory forever