You have to activate mana costs before you start paying abilities. No way to make it work.
Do you mean, you have to activate mana abilities before you start paying costs? If so, that's not actually true. You may activate mana abilities in the middle of paying a cost. That said, I'm not sure if that applies to non-mana costs such as sacrificing a permanent. But, as long as it does, it should work. Mana abilities are weird like that.
It certainly feels with a weird interaction, but after double-checking the comprehensive rules I think this can work.
First, Corrupted Grafstone's ability counts as a mana ability. this means that it can be activated during the process of paying the costs of a spell or ability (rule 605.3a).
And second, Rule 601.2h says you can pay the "total cost" of activating an ability - which includes additional costs such as sacrificing permanents - in any order.
So in this case you can announce you are activating Vessel of Volatility's ability. It goes on the stack, and you determine the total cost (1R and sacrifice the Vessel of Volatility). You then begin paying the costs by choosing to sacrifice the Vessel first, and then to the 1R you tap the two lands; by this point in the process the Vessel is already in your graveyard so you can choose it with the Grafstone's Mana ability.
It certainly feels with a weird interaction, but after double-checking the comprehensive rules I think this can work.
First, Corrupted Grafstone's ability counts as a mana ability. this means that it can be activated during the process of paying the costs of a spell or ability (rule 605.3a).
And second, Rule 601.2h says you can pay the "total cost" of activating an ability - which includes additional costs such as sacrificing permanents - in any order.
So in this case you can announce you are activating Vessel of Volatility's ability. It goes on the stack, and you determine the total cost (1R and sacrifice the Vessel of Volatility). You then begin paying the costs by choosing to sacrifice the Vessel first, and then to the 1R you tap the two lands; by this point in the process the Vessel is already in your graveyard so you can choose it with the Grafstone's Mana ability.
No, because you conflate two steps into one:
601.2g If the total cost includes a mana payment, the player then has a chance to activate mana abilities (see rule 605, “Mana Abilities”). Mana abilities must be activated before costs are paid.
601.2h The player pays the total cost in any order. Partial payments are not allowed. Unpayable costs can’t be paid.
Example: You cast Altar’s Reap, which costs {1}{B} and has an additional cost of sacrificing a creature. You sacrifice Thunderscape Familiar, whose effect makes your black spells cost {1} less to cast. Because a spell’s total cost is “locked in” before payments are actually made, you pay {B}, not {1}{B}, even though you’re sacrificing the Familiar.
You can pay the costs in any order, yes, BUT you must use mana you already have in your mana pool. All necessary mana abilities must be activated BEFORE you start to pay.
Ah, that makes sense, I stand corrected. Like I said it felt weird, like there was something that was going to prevent it, and somehow I glossed over that step. It doesn't help that most analogous situations involve modifying the casting cost (like affinity), which would usually work the as one would want.
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1 Forest
1 Corrupted Grafstone
1 Vessel of Volatility
No cards in the graveyard
Since you can pay costs in any order, can I sacrifice the Vessel to its own ability and tap the Forest and Grafstone to pay 1R?
Do you mean, you have to activate mana abilities before you start paying costs? If so, that's not actually true. You may activate mana abilities in the middle of paying a cost. That said, I'm not sure if that applies to non-mana costs such as sacrificing a permanent. But, as long as it does, it should work. Mana abilities are weird like that.
So in this case you can announce you are activating Vessel of Volatility's ability. It goes on the stack, and you determine the total cost (1R and sacrifice the Vessel of Volatility). You then begin paying the costs by choosing to sacrifice the Vessel first, and then to the 1R you tap the two lands; by this point in the process the Vessel is already in your graveyard so you can choose it with the Grafstone's Mana ability.
No, because you conflate two steps into one:
You can pay the costs in any order, yes, BUT you must use mana you already have in your mana pool. All necessary mana abilities must be activated BEFORE you start to pay.