Priority & the Stack

Who can act, when, and why the last thing added resolves first.

The rules are CR 117 ("Timing and Priority") and CR 405 ("Stack"). Mana abilities are 605, and APNAP is 101.4.

Priority decides who may act. The player with priority may cast spells, activate abilities, and take special actions. Everything else the game does is automatic.

The stack resolves one object at a time

Spells and most abilities go on the stack, each new one on top of everything already there. When all players pass in succession, the top object resolves — and only that one. Then the active player gets priority again, and everyone gets a fresh window before the next thing resolves.

Internalising that single fact fixes most stack confusion. It is what lets you counter a spell after seeing its trigger resolve, or remove a creature between two other resolutions. The stack is not a queue that empties; it is a pile you take one item off at a time, with a full round of responses between each.

Because the last thing added is the first thing to resolve, a spell cast in response always resolves before the spell it responds to. That's the whole mechanism behind countermagic.

Who gets priority, and when

• The active player gets priority at the start of most steps and phases, after turn-based actions and after "at the beginning of" triggers are on the stack.
• The active player gets priority after any spell or ability resolves — regardless of who controlled it. This surprises people: resolving your own instant on an opponent's turn hands the initiative straight back to them.
• If you cast a spell, activate an ability, or take a special action, you get priority again immediately. That's how you cast two spells back to back without giving anyone a window in between.
• If you pass, the next player in turn order gets priority.

A step or phase in which players receive priority ends when both things are true: the stack is empty and all players pass in succession. Merely emptying the stack ends nothing — which is why there is always a window after the last spell resolves.

Before anyone gets priority

Every single time a player would receive priority, the game does this first:

1. Perform all applicable state-based actions, simultaneously, as one event — and repeat until a check finds nothing to do.
2. Put all waiting triggered abilities on the stack.
3. Repeat 1 and 2 until neither does anything.
4. Now the player receives priority.

The repetition matters: one creature dying can drop another's toughness to 0, and that second death is caught by the next iteration — all before anybody can act.

Simultaneous triggers, and why being active is a disadvantage

When several objects go on the stack at once, the active player's go on lowest, then each other player's in turn order (APNAP — active player, non-active player). Since the stack resolves top-down, the objects placed last resolve first.

So in a simultaneous trigger race, the non-active player's trigger resolves before the active player's. Being the active player is a disadvantage here. This catches almost everyone out at least once.

When several of your own abilities trigger at the same time, you order them however you like. This is real skill: the trigger you put on last resolves first.

What doesn't use the stack

None of these can be responded to, targeted, or countered:

• Mana abilities. They resolve immediately on activation. You can kill the creature in response to the spell they're paying for, but the mana is already in their pool. You may also activate mana abilities while paying a cost, even without priority.
• Playing a land. Not a spell, not an ability. No window at all.
• Static abilities. They generate their effects continuously and were never on the stack.
• Turn-based actions (the draw step's draw, untapping, combat damage) and state-based actions.
• Special actions, and conceding, which a player may do at literally any time.

An ability that adds mana but requires a target is not a mana ability. It goes on the stack like anything else, and can be countered. A spell is never a mana ability, no matter how much mana it makes.

27 questions in this track, checked against the 2026-06-19 Comprehensive Rules.

Rules covered: 101.4, 104.3a, 113.7a, 115.6, 116.1, 116.2, 116.2a, 116.2b, 116.2f, 116.3, 117.1, 117.1a, 117.3b, 117.3c, 117.3d, 117.4, 117.5, 117.7, 304.1, 305.1, 307.1, 405.2, 405.3, 405.5, 405.6b, 405.6c, 405.6e, 405.6g, 500.2, 505.6b, 601.2b, 601.2c, 601.2g, 603.3, 605.1a, 605.1b, 605.3a, 605.3b, 605.4a, 605.5a, 605.5b, 608.1, 608.2, 608.2b, 608.2m, 704.3, 707.10.