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If I had Doubling Season in play, then I cast any planeswalker, would my opponent be able to destroy it with Hero's Downfall or exile it with Anguished Unmaking before I am able to activate any of its loyalty abilities?

I know the way priority typically works: you can activate the ability first, but since doubling season is a trigger, I am curious if my opponent could cast an instant while it is on the stack or if the planeswalker would be doubled as it entered, and then my opponent could not respond before I am able to activate it.

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    But doubling season is not a trigger, it's a replacement effect - triggers are written as when or whenever X do Y, replacements are If x, y instead
    – Andrew
    Feb 3, 2020 at 23:49
  • Reopened; the questions are related but not duplicates. Reading through the other question would not only have not answered this person's question; it would have given this person the wrong answer since they thought it was a triggered ability.
    – GendoIkari
    Feb 4, 2020 at 14:48
  • It's true, Gendolkari is right. In addition, @cody linkous is also a new contributor, and it is fair to answer his question, although in many ways it is really similar to what many had referred to as a duplicate,including me. The point is that this question contains, however, some important mistakes: such as the wrong reference to the "trigger" ... but now I've changed my mind:I think it is right to reopen it and answer it.
    – ManoFromBerlin
    Feb 14, 2020 at 17:00

1 Answer 1

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You can activate the ability immediately, before any opponent has a chance to respond, because Doubling Season's ability is not a triggered ability.

Doubling Season's relevant ability says this:

If an effect would put one or more counters on a permanent you control, it puts twice that many of those counters on that permanent instead.

This is a replacement effect, as indicated by the word "instead". It modifies events as they happen. In this particular situation, it modifies the event of the Planeswalker entering the battlefield by making it enter with twice as many loyalty counters as usual. The rest works the same as always: it enters the battlefield and then you have priority first, with nothing on the stack, so you can immediately activate one of it's abilities.

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    As additional note: The OP mentioned anguished unmaking. The opponent can respond to the cast: OP casts a PW, passes priority and then an opponent casts anguished unmaking targeting doubling season to exile the season before the planeswalker can enter the battlefield with the doubled amount of loyality counters.
    – Eggi
    Feb 3, 2020 at 8:35
  • Note that if the Doubling Season was worded differently, like "Whenever a planeswalker enters the battlefield, double the number of loyalty counters on it", then you would be able to kill it before a player could activate one of the planeswalker's abilities. (Because in this case, it is a triggered ability, so players get priority before the trigger resolves.)
    – Aetherfox
    Feb 3, 2020 at 16:51
  • Re "The rest works the same way", See Destroying a Planewalker before its ability is used for details.
    – ikegami
    Feb 3, 2020 at 17:22

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