Playing against Rogues with a Dimir Control deck. They cast Into The Story on their turn. I have the option to counter which I do but I also had the means to use Cling to Dust in my gave. Could I have Cling on the stack to make their Into the Story a dud and saved the counter for other means? I won either way but I wanted to make sure of this for future games. Thanks!
Using card tags is mandatory in the Magic Rulings forum. Please check your private messages to learn how to use them. I've added them for this post.
-MadMage
The cost of Into the Story is determined at the time your opponent casts the spell; thus, if you have seven or more cards in your graveyard at that time, Into the Story costs 3 less to cast this way (C.R. 601.2f). Once this cost is determined, it's locked in and won't change even if you end up having fewer than seven cards in your graveyard after that (C.R. 601.2f). Notably, Into the Story won't be countered just because every graveyard has fewer than seven cards in it.
Note that while a player is casting a spell (such as Into the Story), players don't have priority to cast other spells, including Cling to Dust or spells that would remove cards from the graveyard (C.R. 601.2a-i have no priority window until the spell is cast).
Using card tags is mandatory in the Magic Rulings forum. Please check your private messages to learn how to use them. I've added them for this post.
-MadMage
The cost of Into the Story is determined at the time your opponent casts the spell; thus, if you have seven or more cards in your graveyard at that time, Into the Story costs 3 less to cast this way (C.R. 601.2f). Once this cost is determined, it's locked in and won't change even if you end up having fewer than seven cards in your graveyard after that (C.R. 601.2f). Notably, Into the Story won't be countered just because every graveyard has fewer than seven cards in it.
Note that while a player is casting a spell (such as Into the Story), players don't have priority to cast other spells, including Cling to Dust or spells that would remove cards from the graveyard (C.R. 601.2a-i have no priority window until the spell is cast).
See also this thread and this thread.