Can you play spells during upkeep

What this means for your strategy In your specific strategy, though, this isn't quite enough. It can't do that, because things happen in this order: Cryptoplasm's triggered ability is placed on the stack. As part of this process, you choose your targets for that ability, which means choosing the creature Cryptoplasm will copy. At this point, Sudden Spoiling can't yet be cast, and Archetype of Endurance still has hexproof, so it cannot be legally chosen as a target.

You receive priority and can cast instants. This is the earliest time you can cast Sudden Spoiling, but at this point it's too late to make Archetype of Endurance a legal target for your Cryptoplasm - a target's already been chosen. Eventually, your Cryptoplasm's triggered ability resolves, and it becomes a copy of the creature you chose in step 1.

Clever thinking, but the order of events prevents this strategy from working. Improve this answer. While a slightly different situation than described, the question asker might like to know that a clone can become a copy of the Archetype, since it doesn't target the creature it becomes a copy of.

Featured on Meta. Now live: A fully responsive profile. Related Hot Network Questions. Question feed. Accept all cookies Customize settings. Opie has a deep-seated hatred of bears from a previous forest hike, and decides that the bears must die.

Therefore, now that the bears are in play, he places a Shock onto the table, targeting the bears. Ben decides he wants the bears to live, so he casts Giant Growth , also targeting the bears. The Giant Growth goes on the stack, on top of the Shock.

Next on the stack is the Shock. This means they will live to maul opponents another day. Three major things do not use the stack. First of all, mana abilities do not use the stack, so as soon as you use the ability like tapping a land , you get the mana. There is no opportunity for an opponent to respond to this by tapping your land or destroying it, or anything silly like that - you just get the mana and they get to sit there and be polite until you decide what to do with it.

Next, "static abilities" constant effects, which we'll get to in more detail in a later article also do not use the stack. For example, take the card Glorious Anthem. Last but not least, playing land does not use the stack. Land cards are not spells, so you just get to put them into play.

To clarify, saying something "does not stack" simply means that there is no chance to respond to that action before it occurs. Each turn is constructed of five phases, and each phase consists of discrete steps that happen regardless of whether or not you do something during them.

Phases also signal the length of time you can float mana before you take mana burn. You can float mana from step to step through a phase, but if the phase ends and you still have mana in your pool, you burn for whatever amount of mana you have not used. Today we're primarily going to focus on phases 1, 2, 4, and 5 with the knowledge that we'll be hitting the Combat Phase in more detail in the next two articles. Untap Step - During your untap step, you untap all your tapped permanents. You are not allowed to do anything else during this step.

Upkeep Step - This happens directly after untap and is the first time players may take action during a turn. Abilities that trigger at the beginning of upkeep go on the stack, and then players can play instants and abilities. Draw step: The first thing you do during your draw step is draw a card.

Once that is done, both players may play spells and abilities. There are no spiffy steps in this one, just one giant phase where lots of stuff usually happens. Assuming it is your turn, you can play any type of spell or ability during this phase.

By contrast, since it's your turn, opponents can only play instants or abilities at this time not creatures, sorceries, etc. Main phases are also the only time that you can play lands. During the early turns, you will normally want to play your lands during your first main phase so that you have more mana up to bluff or cast combat tricks. While you will generally want to cast combat-oriented sorceries or enchantments during your first main phase like Blanchwood Armor , for the most part you will want to wait to cast other spells and creatures until after combat occurs.

This leaves your opponent uncertain as to what you might play or do during and after combat and gives you more options and information with which to make your decisions. So, as a general rule of thumb, you often won't cast any spells before you attack unless it would help you out in that attack.

The combat phase is perhaps the trickiest of all of them. It is comprised of five steps and typically has more action than a Michael Bay movie with better dialogue to boot. Declare Attackers The player whose turn it is decides which creatures are attacking. Once all attackers are declared, both players get a chance to play instants and abilities.

Declare Blockers Step The player getting attacked decides which untapped creatures of his own will be declared as blockers. Unless it explicitly says so on a card like Valor Made Real , creatures may only block a single attacking creature at a time, but multiple creatures can be assigned to block the same attacking creature.

Using multiple creatures to block an attacking creature is often referred to as "gang blocking". Combat Damage Step This is when creatures deal damage in combat. This is also one of those times where you will use the stack. Combat damage goes on the stack, so you get a chance to play clever abilities before damage actually resolves.

The most common kinds of "tricks" which is what we often call instant spells and abilities used during this step are instant damage effects like Anaba Shaman and Shock , or instant damage prevention effects like Master Healer and Mending Hands.

There's quite a bit more to the combat damage step, but we're going to spend a lot of time discussing this entire phase in more detail in the coming weeks, so we'll come back to it. Right now, consider rereading the "Combat Damage Step" section of the basic rulebook your homework. End of Combat Step Players can play spells or abilities during this step, but there's usually no reason to do so.

This is just like the first main phase, except post-combat. You can play the exact same things here that you could play during the first main phase, including playing a land, provided you did not play a land during your first main phase. Remember, you only get to play one land a turn unless some card says otherwise.

Strategically, this is when you should probably cast most of your creatures, sorceries, and enchantments. It's the last chance you will have to do so before you have to pass the turn to your opponent. There are two things you will want to pay particular attention to regarding the wording of cards that reference "end of turn". They both refer to things that happen during the End Phase, but one happens during the end step and the other occurs during cleanup.

Edit source History Talk 0. This phase is the first phase of the turn. Beginning Phase The beginning phase consists of three steps, in this order: untap, upkeep, and draw. This step is the first step of the beginning phase. Untap Step First, all phased-in permanents with phasing that the active player controls phase out, and all phased-out permanents that the active player controlled when they phased out phase in.

This all happens simultaneously. See rule Third, the active player determines which permanents they control will untap. Then they untap them all simultaneously. No player receives priority during the untap step, so no spells can be cast or resolve and no abilities can be activated or resolve.

Any ability that triggers during this step will be held until the next time a player would receive priority, which is usually during the upkeep step. This step is the second step of the beginning phase. Upkeep Step The upkeep step has no turn-based actions. Once it begins, the active player gets priority.