<p>Yes, Heroic does trigger in that situation, and he does gain the 2 life. This is because Heroic triggers when you <em>cast</em> the spell, before it resolves and has any effects. Basically, it plays out like this:</p>

<ol>
<li>Your opponent casts Turn to Frog targeting his Setessan Battle Priest. The Priest's Heroic ability triggers. Now there are two objects on the stack: the Heroic ability is on top of the Turn to Frog spell.</li>
<li>The Heroic ability resolves, and your opponent gains 2 life.</li>
<li>Turn to Frog resolves and the Priest loses all of its abilities.</li>
</ol>

<p>The rulings on Setessan Battle Priest's Gatherer page also mention this:</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>Heroic abilities will resolve before the spell that caused them to trigger.</p>
</blockquote>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-05-17T21:28:35.610Z
2015-05-18T16:39:07.830Z
2015-05-18T16:39:07.830Z
murgatroid99
<p>So me and a buddy of mine got into a argument: he had <a class="mtg-autocard" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer" href="https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Setessan%20Battle%20Priest">Setessan Battle Priest</a> out which has heroic</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Whenever you cast a spell that targets Setessan Battle Priest, you gain 2 life</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Then he played <a class="mtg-autocard" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer" href="https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Turn%20to%20Frog">Turn to Frog</a>, which takes all abilities away and makes it a 1/1 Blue Frog until end of turn. He said he gained two life because Heroic triggers from the spell. I said that it took away the ability so it doesn't activate. Who was right?</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-05-18T14:32:36.863Z
At the bottom of the page you linked for Setessan Battle Priest, it states `"Heroic abilities will resolve before the spell that caused them to trigger."`
FreeAsInBeer
<magic-the-gathering><mtg-heroic>
Will Heroic trigger if a spell would cause the creature to lose all abilities?
Zach
# Will Heroic trigger if a spell would cause the creature to lose all abilities?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2015-05-17)

So me and a buddy of mine got into a argument: he had [Setessan Battle Priest](https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Setessan%20Battle%20Priest) out which has heroic

> Whenever you cast a spell that targets Setessan Battle Priest, you gain 2 life

Then he played [Turn to Frog](https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Turn%20to%20Frog), which takes all abilities away and makes it a 1/1 Blue Frog until end of turn. He said he gained two life because Heroic triggers from the spell. I said that it took away the ability so it doesn't activate. Who was right?

**Tags:** magic-the-gathering, mtg-heroic

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: At the bottom of the page you linked for Setessan Battle Priest, it states `"Heroic abilities will resolve before the spell that caused them to trigger."`  

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## 1 answers

### Answer by username_2 on 2015-05-17. Score: 12

Yes, Heroic does trigger in that situation, and he does gain the 2 life. This is because Heroic triggers when you *cast* the spell, before it resolves and has any effects. Basically, it plays out like this:

1. Your opponent casts Turn to Frog targeting his Setessan Battle Priest. The Priest's Heroic ability triggers. Now there are two objects on the stack: the Heroic ability is on top of the Turn to Frog spell.
2. The Heroic ability resolves, and your opponent gains 2 life.
3. Turn to Frog resolves and the Priest loses all of its abilities.

The rulings on Setessan Battle Priest's Gatherer page also mention this:

> Heroic abilities will resolve before the spell that caused them to trigger.


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