MTG Ask a Judge thread

Hi everyone, your regular judge is still dead? so I'm filling in. I'm an L1 from Australia.

If you have any questions about Unstable, I'll do my best to help, but no promises I get it right, that shits wack.

Ask away.

Thats weird, I edited my image to be upside down. Dunno why Veeky Forums righted it. Lets try this

Populating an Eternal Witness token with say, Wake the Reflections allows you to grab Wake the Reflections, correct? What about Cackling Counterpart?

Does the ability not trigger during resolution (ie. Have to have targets already before the spell finishes resolving?)?

If I steal Ramos, Dragon Engine after my opponent's used his ability can I activate it myself?

Basically wondering if the ability is linked to the card as it travels across the board I guess.

Well, targets are chosen when the ability is placed on the stack right? I don't think abilities get added to the stack until whatever's resolving is finished resolving, and part of resolving a card is putting an instant or sorcery on the stack into the graveyard. Chances seem good?

Can I play instants during the opponents untap step?

Nobody gets priority during the untap step. Spells or abilities that trigger are delayed until the upkeep.

As someone new to mtg, the priority and stack topic is a bit confusing.

A cards shop kicked me out of an FNM for wearing a MAGA Trump hat. I even offered to take it out, but they were just like "No, no. I can't have you here wearing that, you have to go", etc.

Can they really do that?

Priority is like a spotlight. Only people in the spotlight can cast spells or activate abilities, and the turn only progresses to the next phase when everybody passes the spot light while the stack is empty. Whenever anything on the stack resolves the spotlight gets passed back to the active player (who's turn it is).

The spotlight moves through the table in turn order. Stuff only resolve off the stack when everybody passes on it, and it all resolves one by one.

I know I'm not that great at explaining but hopefully that analogy helps clear something up and isn't just a confusing mess.