Help -Dark Depths, what should I be aware of?

[Carnac]

I am planning on going to a legacy tournament for the first time since more than 10 years. My win condition will be the Dark Depths - Hexmage combo.

But since I last played magic over 10 years ago, rules has changed alot, and it really shocked me, to find out, that a Wasteland in response to sacrificing my Dark Depths will prevent the Marit Lage to succeed. And does this mean that a Fissure in response to sac´ing my Dark Depths will prevent Marit Lage to occur too?
And does anyone know anything else I should be aware of, before I resolve my Dark Depths? Like maybe Stifle...? Or something else?
What happens if someone bounce my Dark Depths in response to me removing the counters with Hexmage, and in response to me sac´ing it?
Also, can someone tell me what will be the hardest deck for a Dark Depths / Hexmage deck to encounter? And what should I put in my sideboard to deal with it?
And what do other people do when they encounter a Dark Depths/ Hexmage deck -I mean, how do they usually get rid of Marit Lage?
Any help will be highly appreciated.

I know this issue should maybe be placed in a deck construction forum, but since the rules about Wasteland is the one that concerns me most, Ive chosen to place it here in Rules Forum.

[theLastGnu]

Relevant Oracle text:
"When Dark Depths has no ice counters on it, sacrifice it. If you do, put a legendary 20/20 black Avatar creature token with flying and "This creature is indestructible" named Marit Lage onto the battlefield."

Anything that destroys the land (e.g. Wasteland, Fissure, etc.) will prevent you from sacrificing it. that will cause the "if" clause of the second sentence to remain unfulfilled and you won't put a token onto the battlefield.

Countering the Depths' ability (e.g. Stifle, Trickbind) will do practically nothing, as it will trigger again as soon as there are no ice counters on it (immediately.)

Stifling the hexmage's ability, however, will in fact stop the combo, as I'm sure you know.

EDIT: Just to clarify, nobody has priority to destroy the land in response to it being sacrificed, as the sacrifice is part of the resolution of the triggered ability. Even if they could, it wouldn't be a legal target after being sacrificed.

[silvernail]

I could be wrong but " When Dark Depths has no ice counters on it, sacrifice it " isn't that a game state based check and thus cannot be responded to because it doesn't use the stack ?

[Yare]

I could be wrong but " When Dark Depths has no ice counters on it, sacrifice it " isn't that a game state based check and thus cannot be responded to because it doesn't use the stack ?

It is a "state trigger" as opposed to a "state based action." State based actions are things like "a player that is at 0 life or less loses" or "a creature with 0 toughness dies" or the legend rule. A state trigger is a triggered ability that looks for a particular game state. State triggers can be responded to.

603.8. Some triggered abilities trigger when a game state (such as a player controlling no permanents of a particular card type) is true, rather than triggering when an event occurs. These abilities trigger as soon as the game state matches the condition. They’ll go onto the stack at the next available opportunity. These are called state triggers. (Note that state triggers aren’t the same as state-based actions.) A state-triggered ability doesn’t trigger again until the ability has resolved, has been countered, or has otherwise left the stack. Then, if the object with the ability is still in the same zone and the game state still matches its trigger condition, the ability will trigger again.
Example: A permanent’s ability reads, “Whenever you have no cards in hand, draw a card.” If its controller plays the last card from his or her hand, the ability will trigger once and won’t trigger again until it has resolved. If its controller casts a spell that reads “Discard your hand, then draw that many cards,” the ability will trigger during the spell’s resolution because the player’s hand was momentarily empty.

[Delha]

I could be wrong but " When Dark Depths has no ice counters on it, sacrifice it " isn't that a game state based check and thus cannot be responded to because it doesn't use the stack ?

It's a state based trigger, meaning that when the condition is met, it adds a "sacrifice trigger" to the stack*, which can then be responded to. You can Stifle this trigger to remove it from the stack, but then state based effects are checked again, and a new copy of the trigger is added. This is why theLastGnu said it does practically nothing. It's like stealing a penny from someone with an infinite number of pennies in his pocket. You can take it away, but he's just going to pull out another one, so you're not making much of a difference.


*This happens so long as there is not a copy of this trigger already on the stack. If not for this clause, any time a state based trigger's conditions were met, it would add an infinite number of triggers to the stack and nobody would get priority again.

[silvernail]

I see - I've always responded to the Hexmage ability anyway, good to know one can respond at another point too.