Re: Standstill & countering spells

War_Pig5, worshipped by llamas the world over, wrote...
> Standstill is in play. I play a spell. Can my opponent wait until
> Standstill's ability resolves (and draw the cards), then counter my spell
> (perhaps with a card just drawn)? It seems as though the answer is yes,
> since players get priority when Standstill's ability resolves, and the spell
> that triggered Standstill's ability is still on the stack at that time. This
> seems perfectly logical and legal except for the fact that it also seems
> degenerate on a near-Ancestral-Recall scale.

What seems degenerate about it?

Standstill
{1}{U}
Enchantment
When a player plays a spell, sacrifice Standstill. If you do, each of 
that player's opponents draws three cards.

And yes, you're correct, it's legal.  Playing the spell triggers 
Standstill, which stacks on top of it and therefore resolves first, 
after which the opponent can counter the original spell.

> I recently happened upon David DeLaney's notes on vic.com. Are they a good
> place to look for stuff like this? Speaking of whom - I haven't seen him
> post here since 10/28/2003. Should I be suspecting a problem with my own
> news connection, or is he just AWOL again?

I see many, many posts by him since then, including one about six hours 
before your post.

> 
> -War_Pig5
> 
> OT stuff:

(And thus ignored...)