Inside the Chain

A card or ability begins as a pending Chain item. Its controller, the player who controls that card or ability, must complete the play steps: make the required choices, determine and pay its cost, and check legality. It then becomes finalized. Pending items are finalized oldest first, in addition order. Finalization itself does not pass priority.

An item already on the Chain can therefore be waiting for choices and payment rather than waiting for everyone to pass. Do not respond in the middle of another player choosing and paying for that item. The appropriate priority step follows required tasks and finalization. Triggered abilities have choices and legality too; a trigger without enough legal choices can leave the Chain without ever being countered.

The rules organize progress as Handle Outstanding Tasks, then Finalize, Execute, Pass and Resolve. At the table, use it as a reminder: finish the effect or required check in progress, prepare pending items, then give players their legal response opportunities. A task can add another pending trigger without making that trigger resolve during the task.

If finalization or resolution creates more required work, complete the current step and handle that work before continuing. Cleanup never interrupts a resolving Chain item. A pending trigger created halfway through a spell waits while the spell finishes, then its required choices and payment are processed. This keeps a multi-instruction effect together while still giving a separately created ability its later response window.

A finalized unit or gear resolves immediately and enters the board. An ability that Adds resources also resolves immediately. A normal spell or other ability waits for the appropriate consecutive priority passes; the newest finalized waiting item then resolves. After each resolution, handle required tasks and any new pending items before the next response cycle.

For an abstract sequence, a spell produces two reflexive triggers, each creating a separate draw ability from an instruction within that spell. Both are added pending in the specified order while the spell continues. After its instructions finish, those abilities finalize oldest first. Players can respond to the finalized waiting abilities. The last one added normally resolves first, then the game processes any resulting work before returning to the older one.

Suppose an abstract resolving spell says to play a unit from your hand, then draw 1. Follow the play instruction by moving the eligible unit to the existing Chain as a pending item. Do not finish that unit’s remaining play steps yet: the original spell is still resolving. Complete the draw and the rest of that spell, then handle outstanding tasks and finalize the unit. It resolves immediately when finalized; an ability that triggers when it is played becomes a separate pending ability.

The permission to play the card comes from the resolving effect. Follow its specified changes, such as ignoring a cost or fixing a destination, but keep all other relevant steps. If there is no eligible card to play, continue the original effect as instructed. The existence of this limited play permission does not let you add unrelated cards while any spell is resolving.

An ability that triggers when you play a card waits until that card completes play by resolving. A countered spell never reaches that event, so it does not cause a play trigger. Non-triggered checks of whether you have played a card instead check finalization. A spell can therefore count for Legion even if it is later countered.

Example: you finalize a spell, then an opponent counters it with a legal Reaction. Your “when you play a spell” ability does not trigger from it. But another card’s Legion condition can count that finalized spell on the same turn. If the spell resolved with no effect because all targets became illegal, that is different from countering: it still completed resolution and can cause play triggers. Always identify which kind of check the text is making.