I was playing a friendly game of two headed dragon with two friends and a random guy at the card shop when I saw a cluster of destruction that I'm still trying to wrap my head around.
Scenario: For relevance, I am playing a modified version of the BW Tokens Modern Event Deck and one of my opponents is playing a Goblin deck, the other a blue/black something or other. Long story short, this was relatively late game, I had 8 1/1 flying spirit tokens out with three +1/+1 enchantments out (Honor of the Pure / Intangible Virtue). Goblin deck managed to get three Goblin Sharpshooters on the field since neither myself or teammate had adequate removal, and he never attacked or blocked with them. We had swung them down to 3 life on our turn and we were at 40-something after gaining life with a Congregate. On their turn, U/B deck activates his Jace, Architect of Thought for -2, and ends up with a Polymorphist's Jest; which he plays. Goblin deck then proceeds to wipe my board of now-1/1 frogs, doing it in a way where he would use the three of them to deal 1 damage to a token and 2 damage to us, untapping and repeating to kill everything on the field and bringing us down a lot. On our turn, I drew a Zealous Persecution, which I immediately played. In response, he continued that same chain of killing things (including his own creatures, which dealt damage to us in addition to activating the untap function of Sharpshooter) before finally dealing the absolute max damage to me and every creature on the board and letting my "instant" resolve, killing the remaining sharpshooters, but leaving us at 4 life. Neither my teammate nor I could make any worthwhile plays in response and passed the turn. On their turn, they swung in with two of their remaining creatures for lethal.
I guess my question is at any point do those actions pause and allow my Zealous Persecution to resolve, or can he essentially infinitely chain that combo as long as he has enough targets remaining? I was trying to read rulings on active and non active players and the order of the stack, but I was having a hard time understanding it (or trying to find a solution that would allow my Zealous Persecution to resolve). It's definitely a one in a million scenario, but can anyone make better sense of this than I?
Based on what's described here, your opponent was correct. There's nothing preventing him from repeatedly activating Goblin Sharpshooter, and it will continue to trigger as creatures die, and all of those activations and triggers will be on the stack above Zealous Persecution. Zealous Persecution [or any other ability/spell] only resolves when nothing is above it on the stack and all players pass priority; by continuing to activate abilities, the opponent is able to keep it from resolving until he's done with what he wants to do.
Edit: Actually, I just noticed a problem earlier in the chain of events. Your frogs are at least 2/2. Polymorphist's Jest sets the base power and toughness to 1; it does not prevent enchantments from boosting that. Honor of the Pure stops affecting them since they're no longer white, but they're still tokens so Intangible Virtue still affects them.
Your creatures would have been 2/2 and not 1/1 due to the Intangible Virtue. So you probably would have ended up taking significantly less damage.
I didn't even think of that.... Of the three, two were Intangible Virtue and only one was Honor of the Pure. Intangible is unaffected by the effects of Polymorphist's Jest because, even though they're now blue, they were still tokens? If that's accurate, I can't believe none of us caught that.... Total rookie mistake on our part! Oh well, game was just for fun and that was still pretty epic regaqrdless. And at least I know he can actually do that now.
The essential play is correct - your opponents can activate each Sharpshooter's ability in response to your Zealous Persecution, pass, and as creatures die their untap ability will trigger.
However, as pointed up already, your creatures are bigger than you think. Your Intangible Virtue is still boosting them, as they are still tokens and Jest changes only the 'base' P/T while Virtue applies 'over' it (they are now nonwhite so Honor of the Pure doesn't apply to them). So they need two Sharpshooters to kill each token, so the damage you actually receive may not be enough to defeat you.
I was trying to read rulings on active and non active players and the order of the stack, but I was having a hard time understanding it (or trying to find a solution that would allow my Zealous Persecution to resolve).
At the beginning of a step or phase, the active player gains priority. That player may pass the priority, or "use" it to cast a spell or activate an ability.
When a player uses priority to cast a spell or activate an ability, that player regains priority.
When a player passes, the next player in turn order gains priority. If all players have passed without casting/activating anything, the top object on the stack (and nothing else) resolves, or if there's nothing on the stack, the current step or phase ends.
After a spell or ability resolves, the active player regains priority (see above).
Triggered abilities trigger automatically whenever they triggering event happens. They go to the stack right before the next time a player gains priority.
So...
Main Phase starts, you gain priority, cast Zealous Persecution, regain priority and passes.
Opponent gains priority and activates one Sharpshooter's ability, regains priority, activates another Sharpshooter, regains, activates, regains, passes.
You regain priority, and passes. As both you and the opponent have passed priority, the top object on the stack resolves - the Sharpshooter deals damage to its target. Let's say nothing dies from it yet.
Then you regain priority again, and passes. Then your opponent gains priority and passes. The top object on the stack (the second Sharpshooter ability) resolves. Let's say this time a creature dies. This triggers the Sharpshooter's untap ability.
You would gain priority now, but first the three abilities go to the stack.
You gain priority and pass. Your opponent passes. An untap ability resolves. Repeat: you gain priority and pass, opponent passes, another untap, you pass, opponent passes, another untap. At this point, after you pass again, opponent keeps priority to active the three Sharpshooter's damage ability again.
Repeat as long as they get to kill creatures and untap the Shooters. Your Zealous Persecution can only resolve after there is nothing else on the stack, as it is on the bottom and any other spell or ability played while it is there will go on top of it.
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Scenario: For relevance, I am playing a modified version of the BW Tokens Modern Event Deck and one of my opponents is playing a Goblin deck, the other a blue/black something or other. Long story short, this was relatively late game, I had 8 1/1 flying spirit tokens out with three +1/+1 enchantments out (Honor of the Pure / Intangible Virtue). Goblin deck managed to get three Goblin Sharpshooters on the field since neither myself or teammate had adequate removal, and he never attacked or blocked with them. We had swung them down to 3 life on our turn and we were at 40-something after gaining life with a Congregate. On their turn, U/B deck activates his Jace, Architect of Thought for -2, and ends up with a Polymorphist's Jest; which he plays. Goblin deck then proceeds to wipe my board of now-1/1 frogs, doing it in a way where he would use the three of them to deal 1 damage to a token and 2 damage to us, untapping and repeating to kill everything on the field and bringing us down a lot. On our turn, I drew a Zealous Persecution, which I immediately played. In response, he continued that same chain of killing things (including his own creatures, which dealt damage to us in addition to activating the untap function of Sharpshooter) before finally dealing the absolute max damage to me and every creature on the board and letting my "instant" resolve, killing the remaining sharpshooters, but leaving us at 4 life. Neither my teammate nor I could make any worthwhile plays in response and passed the turn. On their turn, they swung in with two of their remaining creatures for lethal.
I guess my question is at any point do those actions pause and allow my Zealous Persecution to resolve, or can he essentially infinitely chain that combo as long as he has enough targets remaining? I was trying to read rulings on active and non active players and the order of the stack, but I was having a hard time understanding it (or trying to find a solution that would allow my Zealous Persecution to resolve). It's definitely a one in a million scenario, but can anyone make better sense of this than I?
UR ....... WUBR ........... WB ............. RGW ........ UBR ....... WUB .... BGU
Spells / Blink & Combo / Token Grind / Dino Tribal / Draw Cards / Zombies / Reanimate
Edit: Actually, I just noticed a problem earlier in the chain of events. Your frogs are at least 2/2. Polymorphist's Jest sets the base power and toughness to 1; it does not prevent enchantments from boosting that. Honor of the Pure stops affecting them since they're no longer white, but they're still tokens so Intangible Virtue still affects them.
I didn't even think of that.... Of the three, two were Intangible Virtue and only one was Honor of the Pure. Intangible is unaffected by the effects of Polymorphist's Jest because, even though they're now blue, they were still tokens? If that's accurate, I can't believe none of us caught that.... Total rookie mistake on our part! Oh well, game was just for fun and that was still pretty epic regaqrdless. And at least I know he can actually do that now.
UR ....... WUBR ........... WB ............. RGW ........ UBR ....... WUB .... BGU
Spells / Blink & Combo / Token Grind / Dino Tribal / Draw Cards / Zombies / Reanimate
However, as pointed up already, your creatures are bigger than you think. Your Intangible Virtue is still boosting them, as they are still tokens and Jest changes only the 'base' P/T while Virtue applies 'over' it (they are now nonwhite so Honor of the Pure doesn't apply to them). So they need two Sharpshooters to kill each token, so the damage you actually receive may not be enough to defeat you.
At the beginning of a step or phase, the active player gains priority. That player may pass the priority, or "use" it to cast a spell or activate an ability.
When a player uses priority to cast a spell or activate an ability, that player regains priority.
When a player passes, the next player in turn order gains priority. If all players have passed without casting/activating anything, the top object on the stack (and nothing else) resolves, or if there's nothing on the stack, the current step or phase ends.
After a spell or ability resolves, the active player regains priority (see above).
Triggered abilities trigger automatically whenever they triggering event happens. They go to the stack right before the next time a player gains priority.
So...
Main Phase starts, you gain priority, cast Zealous Persecution, regain priority and passes.
Opponent gains priority and activates one Sharpshooter's ability, regains priority, activates another Sharpshooter, regains, activates, regains, passes.
The stack: (top) Sharpshooter3 damage ability - Sharpshooter2 damage ability - Sharpshooter1 damage ability - Zealous Persecution (bottom)
You regain priority, and passes. As both you and the opponent have passed priority, the top object on the stack resolves - the Sharpshooter deals damage to its target. Let's say nothing dies from it yet.
Then you regain priority again, and passes. Then your opponent gains priority and passes. The top object on the stack (the second Sharpshooter ability) resolves. Let's say this time a creature dies. This triggers the Sharpshooter's untap ability.
You would gain priority now, but first the three abilities go to the stack.
The stack: (top) Sharpshooter3 untap ability - Sharpshooter2 untap ability - Sharpshooter1 untap ability - Sharpshooter1 damage ability - Zealous Persecution (bottom)
You gain priority and pass. Your opponent passes. An untap ability resolves. Repeat: you gain priority and pass, opponent passes, another untap, you pass, opponent passes, another untap. At this point, after you pass again, opponent keeps priority to active the three Sharpshooter's damage ability again.
Repeat as long as they get to kill creatures and untap the Shooters. Your Zealous Persecution can only resolve after there is nothing else on the stack, as it is on the bottom and any other spell or ability played while it is there will go on top of it.