Welder / Staff of Domination : what´s faster?

[undertaker229]

Sorry, but I ve been playing a lot of years, and today I find im doing such a Noob question:

Me: - Welder in play, memory jar in graveyard, mox in play.
He: - Staff of Domination, Infinite Mana, Lots and Lots of elves, insect tokens, alluren, etc. BUT with 3 cards on graveyard.

His long turn.
In response to a final Tendrils of Agony he casts, I tap welder, to get the Jar, and Deck him. He says that in response, with SoD he taps the welder, so I dont get the Jar.

I was pretty dizzy already, so I told him I lost. can any explain me the rules there? Thanks!

[bleakill]

Since you are tapping welder as a cost (in this case, a cost of activated ability), there is no way he can 'respond' by tapping welder before the activation. I'm pretty sure that's how it is, correct me if I'm wrong.

[Scoops666]

You are 100% Correct. Here's how it works:

-You announce putting Welders ability on the Stack.
-CHoose all targets for the ability.
-Pay all costs for the ability (Tapping the Welder)
-THEN your opponent recieves priority again. Since the Welder is already tapped, and the ability is on the Stack, he can't counter it or prevent it by tapping the Welder.

In short, he can't respond to you paying costs for abilities and spells.

[Apollyon]

He casts Tendrils, passes priority (I'm assuming, since he didn't announce that he was using the Staff to tap Welder).

You get priority and announce Welder's ability, targetting Jar and your Mox. You tap Welder as a cost. He gets priority to use Staff of Domination to tap it. He can tap Welder. However, Welder's ability is already on the stack and Welder is already tapped, so tapping Welder does nothing.

In general, once you play a spell or ability by paying the costs and announcing what you need to, the only way that it can be countered is by a spell or ability that counters it or by the lack of all targets. Note that Welder is an exception because it requires both to be in the same zone upon resolution as they were upon announcement.

[undertaker229]

Thanks for all the info... Im happy with myself, as I know now that actually I won the game by luring the opponent in playing his whole deck. Just didnt know the words and the rules crearly enough to explain him, but now I do. Thanks!!!