Jitte + Stifle

[paK0]

Just had a game that make me wonder:

I'm getting attacked and remove 3 counters of Jitte for 6 Life. He then Stifles, claiming I get 0 Life. I think i still get 4 Life since he should only be able to stifle 1 activation. Who was right?

[cdr]

Each activation is obviously seperate, as you thought.

In situations where you say something like "remove three counters", your opponent gets to choose which activation he's responding to/countering. Not usually important, but can be if your opponent has something like Trickbind.

[Valtrix]

Exactly. The wording does not say "Remove X counters," but just "Remove a counter." Thus it's impossible to activate any one ability on Jitte that has a cost of "Remove 3 counters." This is a situation where we usually just decide to save time by saying it all at the same time, and it's (usually) assumed that we're announcing each activation sperately and then resolving them seperately as well.

[workingdude]

I've always been confused by trickbind.

If I've activated the jitte for 3 instances (whichever), is it possible for a trickbind to counter all three of those instances? Or are they already played and the trickbind will only prevent future instances?

[cdr]

Neither.

If you say you're activating an ability three times (a common shortcut), by the current Shortcuts policy you're assumed to be passing priority between each activation to allow each to resolve.

This means, though, that if your opponent wants to respond, the game has to be backed up to the activation he wants to respond to - he can choose.

With Trickbind, he can choose to back up to the first activation, countering that activation and preventing you from activating the ability any more that turn. The other two activations never happened at all - no counters were removed, etc.

This means if you know your opponent has Trickbind, you may want to specifically say you're retaining priority before you activate it three times - this way all three activations will be on the stack before your opponent gets to respond. He can counter one, but the other two will still resolve.

[Tacosnape]

Activated Abilities are always in the form of "Cost: Effect".

The Cost on activating Jitte is "Remove a Counter:".

The Effect is whichever thing you choose to happen after the colon.

Countering an Activated Ability essentially makes it work like "Cost: Nothing Happens."

Because the cost is "Remove a counter," not "Remove X Counters," you activate Jitte once for every time you pay the cost. Since you removed three counters, you activated Jitte three times, causing three separate activations.

Stifle and Trickbind both counter one activated or triggered ability. Therefore he can only counter one of these.

Also notice that the Jitte getting the counters in the first place is a Triggered ability (Triggered abilities start with When, Whenever, or At), and that if Stifle or Trickbind is played on this trigger, the Jitte will get zero counters instead of two.