Spellstutter Sprite trigger and Mutavault

[BVB09]

Hi guys,
I just realised in Magic Online when you play Spellstutter Sprite in response to a spell, the ability won't trigger unless you control at least X Faeries (X being that spell's CMC). This is important because you have to animate Mutavault before SSS resolves, so the ability triggers.
But I have always thought that you could play the SSS and then if the oponent said OK, you could animate Mutavault with the trigger on the stack.
Is this a Magic Online bug or is it actually how the card works?
Thank you

[Julian23]

This is actually how the card works. If you don't control enough Faeries to counter any spell on the stack, the ability will never trigger.

[cdr]

"... target spell with CMC X or less" is a targeting restriction. If there's no valid target for the triggered ability, the ability can't go on the stack at all and disappears. Triggered abilities go on the stack (or not) before anyone gets priority - only once they're on the stack can you respond. It's like playing Sea Drake with one land in play. (It also means if you have a CMC 1 spell on the stack, your opponent has a CMC 2 spell, and your Spellstutter Sprite resolves with X=1, you get to counter your own spell.)

[BVB09]

Thanks a lot guys, I didn't know that was how it actually works.
I'm pretty sure I read you could activate Muta after it resolved in an article or somewhere, wow

[Julian23]

Thanks a lot guys, I didn't know that was how it actually works.
I'm pretty sure I read you could activate Muta after it resolved in an article or somewhere, wow

In the long run it's always more profitable to learn how the rules actually work than to rely on something you wrote somewhere. Hope I don't come across too grumpy but this is the exact kind of situation I had an opponent once freaking out about because I held him true to his mistake.

[Sloshthedark]

It is but it's typical example of what you do not learn until you play it, read about it or lose thanks to it... I don't think I've ever actually read this card or had deeper thought about it in reality...