When the
6th edition of
Magic: The Gathering came into existence, so did several large
rule changes. The largest of which was known as "the stack".
The
stack is really just a different way of playing
spells and
effects. Whenever something happens you have a choice, you can
respond to it by putting something else on top of the
stack, or you can
pass. When both
players have passed in
succession the
stack starts to
resolve. As it
resolves you deal with the
stack just like it was a
stack of real objects, the first one in is the last one to come out (see:
lifo).
Here's a good example of the
stack in action (
taken from http://www.wizards.com/news/pressrelease.asp?19990115a):
I play
Hammer of Bogardan on your
Fallen Angel. You
respond by
playing The
Hive's ability to create a Wasp token. After
The Hive's ability resolves and your Wasp
comes
into play, you
sacrifice it to your
Fallen Angel. The
Angel, now 5/4, takes 3
damage from the
Hammer and survives.
Although this
rule annoyed many of the long time
players by rewriting some of the
rules they had become accustomed to, it also made the
learning curve of the
game much less steep.