Hi! I am playing around with White Stax and I had the following scenario come up:

I have Tabernacle At Pendrell Vale out and a Smokestack with a counter. It's my opponent's turn. If they have a creature they cannot pay for with Tabernacle, I want them to sacrifice to Smokestack after they pay for the church, so that they wouldn't get a freebie permanent to sacrifice.

My thinking is that with active player, nonactive player rules, the Smokestack trigger comes last on the pile of mandatory effects.

If I control the Tabernacle's trigger, then I will make them pay for it first and then sacrifice, which I know I can do from playing lots of Stax with Tangle Wire and Stax on the board at the same time.

However, does the opponent control the Tabernacle trigger? It gives each creature that ability and doesn't levy it on its own, so I would assume that since it's your creature, you have control as the active player.

Is there any way that my opponent could sacrifice to the Smokestack before they pay for Tabernacle?

Also, if the Tabernacle effect is controlled by them as active player, can they ever choose to pay for Tabernacle before sacrificing? This is mostly irrelevant because they can float mana to pay for the effect, but I'm curious!