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If Lavinia, Azorius Renegade is on the field, and Kaalia of the Vast attacks me, when Kalia's effect puts a creature onto the battlefield from the hand, is it countered by Lavinia's second effect? What happen in case of Mayael the Anima and Golos, Tireless Pilgrim?

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Lavinia affects Golos's activated ability, but not Kaalia's ability or Mayael's.

Both Kaalia and Mayael put creatures onto the battlefield directly. They do not have you cast anything, so Lavinia's ability is never relevant.

Golos's activated ability, on the other hand, allows you to play cards without paying their mana costs. Rule 701.13b defines what exactly that means:

To play a card means to play that card as a land or to cast that card as a spell, whichever is appropriate.

So, if you exile any nonland cards, you can cast them without paying their mana costs. This exactly what Lavinia is looking for, so her last ability will counter any spells cast this way.

Of course, if you exile lands with Golos, you can still play them as lands. In this case you are not casting anything so Lavinia's ability doesn't do anything.


Note that when casting spells without paying their mana costs, players can still pay any additional costs that may apply, and if they pay mana to do so Lavinia's ability will not counter the spell because some mana was spent on it.

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    I think you should clarify that it affects Golos' second ability. Golos' ETB trigger is not affected. Commented Nov 10, 2019 at 21:28
  • OK, I added a mention of that but I think it's pretty clear that Golos's first ability is not relevant here.
    – murgatroid99
    Commented Nov 10, 2019 at 21:55
  • @murgatroid99 never assume always be explicit, when dealing with new players that distinction may not be made.
    – Andrew
    Commented Nov 12, 2019 at 2:54
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    It's important to make some assumptions, so that an answer can focus on the core issue of the question. I could spend all day going into detail about targeting, hexproof, the stack, and activating and resolving abilities, but I think I can safely assume that the reader understands most of that, and I think that including it would ultimately detract from the answer.
    – murgatroid99
    Commented Nov 12, 2019 at 3:28
  • Also maybe worth explicitly noting that you can still play land cards via Golos's activated ability.
    – Dan Staley
    Commented Nov 12, 2019 at 18:52

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