Board & Card Games Stack Exchange is a question and answer site for people who like playing board games, designing board games or modifying the rules of existing board games. It only takes a minute to sign up.
Sign up to join this community
Say, I have Cancel, which is an Instant, on my hand. It can counter any spells.
The opponent has had a creature, for example Ajani's Pridemate, on the battlefield for several turns attacking and blocking.
Can I use my Cancel onto Ajani's Pridemate and send it to the graveyard (or to its owner's hand)?
(as Gendolkari says)
Once your opponent's Ajani's Pridemate makes it onto the battlefield, there is nothing Cancel can do to stop it's reign of attacking and blocking terror. Here are the step by step actions that were taken, including the only time your Cancel can hope to stem the tide of destruction caused by Ajani's cat friend.
At this point, if you do nothing, the creature spell will resolve, it will make it onto the battlefield, and your Cancel will not be able to do anything about it. This is your first and last chance to prevent the otherwise inevitable cat invasion.
After your opponent passes priority, with the spell on the stack, you gain priority, and have the opportunity to cast any and all instants, or cards with flash, or activate any abilities of creatures you control for which you can pay the costs. This includes your Cancel.
I recognise the above is a long-winded and thorough answer to your question, and the majority of it is overkill for the interaction that you are asking about. However, it should give you some insight into the complexity of the game. We should be clear, there are games where every one of these steps is absolutely critical to the victory of a player, and doing things at the exact right time can make the difference between winning and losing.
The only time your Cancel can target the Ajani's Pridemate is the moment when they pay mana to cast it from their hand. At this point, before it officially enters the battlefield (even though it may be physically "on" the battlefield i.e. the table), you always have an opportunity to say "No, because I cast Cancel". After that moment, it would be too late.
No. A "spell" is something that is in the process of being cast, while it is on the stack. A card in your hand, or on the battlefield, or anywhere but the stack, is not a "spell", so Cancel cannot target it.
I think you need to understand what we call "stack".
When, during your turn, you want to cast a spell, you start by paying the mana cost and then you annouce you are casting (i.e) Ajani's Pridemate. This doesn't go to the battlefield yet, you put it on "the stack". You then pass priority to your opponent, if your opponent wants to respond to that spell, they can do so with any instant, ability or anything that can be cast at instant speed. In this case the opponent can cast cancel. After that they pass priority back to you, you can then cancel their cancel. If you do the stack looks like this:
Your [Cancel] > Their [Cancel] > your [ajani's pridemate]
it resolves from top to bottom, you cancel their cancel. So then their cancel is no longer in the stack so the only thing left is:
your [ajani's pridemate].
Before it resolves you pass priority again to your opponent, if they have no plays to make or wish to let your creature resolve, they pass priority and the creature resolves. It then becomes a permanent, no longer a spell. A spell is only a spell while it is on the stack.
Note you don't have to only cast 1 spell at a time before passing priority, you can announce "holding priority" and put several spells on the stack. However you can only put 1 sorcery spell (the first one) on the stack (like a creature without flash). While things are on the stack you can't cast anything that would be cast at sorcery speed (unless a card in play or previously cast ("quicken" for example) modifies this rule).
Once the creature is in play you will need to destroy it, exile it or return it to its owner's hand to remove it from the battlefield.
A creature is a spell when is on the stack when the creature spell resolved it became a permanent so is no longer a valid target for spells like cancel, counter spell E.T.C.
