Mastering The Sequence

Written By - Thomas NeilsonOctober 8th, 2025

I've been working on more resources and decks, and I've been thinking about the Sequence recently, as a crucial part of playing LRAW which is especially apparent in certain decks like Grimm Midrange, Blastforge Aggro, and Dragon Ramp. If you're a new player learning LRAW, the sequence is an important thing to become familiar with, and playing these three decks can be a great way to learn it very intimately.

But how does the sequence work? I think it can be an intimidating concept with many seeming rules, but it's pretty simple, and it just takes remembering a few key rules to learn how it works!

Card Cost and Effect

Before we get into sequencing, let's first do a real quick crash course on cost and effect.

The Cost of a card is the first part, and it happens immediately when a card is activated. (Bloodbourne) and (Consume) are the simplest of these. If I activate the card Anti-Magic Resistance Force, I have to pay (Bloodbourne 10) and (Consume 10) right when I play the card.

Some cards also have other costs, and those will be symbolized by either a semicolon (;) or the phrase "then if you do". Some older cards may have multiple semicolons or instances of "then if you do", and in those cases you're just paying attention to the first time you see it. For example, for the in-discard effect of Keltorr's Explosive Kit, the cost of the card is to pay (Bloodbourne 8), and to eradicate the card from your discard pile, since that's before the semicolon, but not to add a Blastforge card to your hand.

Effect is then the easier part, and anything that isn't cost is effect and happens when the card resolves. What does resolve mean? Let's break into it.

Activation, Triggers, and Triggered Activation

Now let's talk about what can go on the sequence. Activation, Triggers, and Triggered Activation Effects.

Activation

Activation refers to when a card is simply played from hand, played from face-down on the field, or when a once per turn or similar ability is activated on the field.

Trigger

A Trigger happens when something causes another thing to happen. For example the card Mystic Fire Dragon Clash has a static ability that "triggers" when a Mythical Beast card effect destroys another card. The card Pandora's Box has an activation effect that "triggers" whenever it is eradicated.

Static Triggers:

Static Triggers can be found on Active cards on the field, and are distinguishable by the word "Static:". They can't be negated and aren't treated as an activated card.

Triggered Activation Effect:

Triggered Activation Effects can be seen on cards that have some sort of trigger, such as "If this card is eradicated" or "If this card is discarded" that provide a unique effect. These are treated as a card activation, and as such can be negated.

How To Build A Sequence

A sequence is simply the place that the effects of cards hang out before they fully resolve. Let's take the simplest possible example.

On my turn, I activate the card Angelic Blitz Strike. Right when that happens, I pay (Bloodbourne 7).

My opponent, the Defending player, chooses not to respond with any card. I also choose not to activate another card on the sequence, and it begins to resolve.

The top card (and only card) of the sequence resolves, and I activate the effect of Angelic Blitz Strike to conscript an Angel Warrior.

Now, let's mix it up a bit.

Let's say I have a board full of 1 Attack Angel Warriors, and I activate Citrine Amulet, which when it's on field will (Bestow) +3 Atk to all of my Warriors.

My opponent then responds by activating Crypt Of The Grimm to deal 1 damage to all of my Warriors, paying (Bloodbourne 6) as a cost.

I then activate Beacon Of The Blossoming Leilani in response, paying (Bloodbourne 10) and targeting 1 of my Angel Warriors as cost.

With no further responses by either player, the sequence then starts resolving.

Beacon Of The Blossoming Leilani resolves, and Bestows 5 Holy Counters to the targeted Warrior.

Crypt Of The Grimm resolves, dealing 1 damage to all of my Warriors, killing and eradicating all but the one protected by Beacon Of The Blossoming Leilani.

Citrine Amulet resolves, and my one Warrior is left on field with 4 Holy Counters, and 4 Atk.

Now I mentioned cost in there, with the Bloodbourne cost, and targeting another Warrior. Remember, cost must happen exactly when a card is played. For example, let's take a look at the card Grimm Wish For More Life.

The Cost on Grimm Wish For More Life is to send 2 cards from the top of your deck to the discard pile, as indicated by the cost indicator.

As such, let's say I activate the card Grimm Wish For More Life.

As soon as I do, I send the top 2 cards of my deck to the discard pile. Let's say the two cards I sent were Grimm Reanimation and Prysm, Soul Collector Of The Grimm.

Grimm Reanimation has a Triggered Activation Effect when it is sent from the deck to the discard pile, which lets you reanimate one of your Grimm Warriors. In this situation, let's say I choose to activate it. To do so, I pay (Bloodbourne 4), and target the Prysm, Soul Collector Of The Grimm.

My opponent has no response to either of these cards being activated, and I have no further cards to activate.

The sequence starts resolving with Grimm Reanimation as the top card, reviving Prysm, Soul Collector Of The Grimm to my side of the field.

Grimm Wish For More Life then resolves, and I draw 1 card, and reduce the DCM of my Warlord by 3.

The important thing to note is that once you've finished building a sequence, nothing else can be activated onto that sequence, and the abilities on the sequence are locked in.

The Second Sequence

Now LRAW doesn't just have one sequence: and this is where triggered abilities come into play.

As I mentioned, things that trigger off of the cost of cards while building the First Sequence are simply put onto the top of the First Sequence. That being said, many things can trigger off of the effect of cards once they resolve.

Once the First Sequence completes and resolves, the Second Sequence simply becomes the new First Sequence, and players can start building onto it again.

Let's say I'm playing Black Magic and I activate the card Black Magic Hellfire. For cost I pay (Bloodbourne 10), (Consume 10), and I target 5 cards on the field and 5 Black Magic Unified cards in my discard pile, including one copy of Black Magic Soul Army.

In response, my opponent activates the card Majik Void Hollow. Once this card has resolved, no player will be able to activate Unified cards.

I then respond with Black Magic Dark Order, paying (Bloodbourne 9).

At this point, no player has any more responses, and the sequence starts resolving.

My Black Magic Dark Order resolves, and I choose to use it to eradicate 1 Black Magic Tome - Greed from my hand. Black Magic Tome - Greed has a Triggered Activation Effect with no cost.

Since the sequence is already resolving, I place that Triggered Activation Effect onto the Second Sequence.

My opponent's copy of Majik Void Hollow resolves, destroying 1 card, drawing 1 card, and locking Unified cards down from activating for the remainder of the turn.

My Black Magic Hellfire now resolves, and I eradicate the targeted cards on the field, and my 5 Black Magic cards in my discard pile. Now, one of those cards is the Black Magic Soul Army I mentioned earlier. Normally I would be able to activate the Triggered Activation Effect of Soul Army onto the Second Sequence, but in this situation since Majik Void Hollow has resolved, I won't be able to activate it. The Black Magic Tome - Greed is all good, since it's already been activated onto the sequence before the resolution of Majik Void Hollow.

As such, with nothing left on the First Sequence it's replaced by the Second Sequence, which currently only contains the Effect of my Black Magic Tome - Greed.

In this situation, my opponent activates another card, Gone But Never Forgotten, paying the cost of (Bloodbourne 7).

With no more responses, the sequence begins to resolve.

My opponent revives the Warrior Dante, The Mysterious Physician, and gives it the Keyword Abilities (Wisdom) and (Shockwave), in addition to his normal (Recover) Keyword.

Since the sequence is resolving, those Keywords are placed onto the Second Sequence

That being said, one of these keyword abilities has a Cost: (Shockwave). As such, my opponent must choose a Warrior to target with the (Shockwave) Ability immediately.

Once my opponent has chosen their target, the sequence continues to resolve.

My Black Magic Tome - Greed resolves, and I eradicate the top 2 cards of my deck, and draw 2 cards.

This sequence is empty again, so it's once again replaced by the Second Sequence.

The First Sequence now has just Dante's 3 Keyword Abilities.

With no further responses from either player, (Recover 6) resolves first,

Then (Wisdom) resolves,

Then (Shockwave) resolves, destroying the Warrior that was targeted when it was first put on the sequence.

With this the sequence is empty, and there is no Second Sequence to replace it.

Warriors And Keywords

Now you may be wondering about Dante's Keyword Abilities, why did his (Recover 6) happen before (Wisdom) and (Shockwave)?

Let's quickly go through how Warriors and Keyword abilities work on the Sequence.

Once per turn, you can conscript a Warrior. You can only do this while the sequence is empty, and unlike with Unified cards, the actual conscription of a Warrior can't be universally responded to.

If your opponent has a card which directly negates the conscription of a Warrior, like Michael's Proclamation, they can activate that card in response to your Conscription. If so, that opens a sequence for any other cards to be activated on top.

Otherwise, you can't just respond to the conscription. Now, many Warriors have Keyword Abilities which trigger when that Warrior enters play, and players will be able to respond to these starting a Sequence.

Now let's talk about Keywords. Keywords are put on the sequence together, but they're each a separate ability. It's also important to note that when a Warrior is given additional Keywords, such as with Gone But Never Forgotten giving a Warrior (Wisdom) and (Shockwave), those Warriors happen after the Keyword Abilities that Warrior already has.

One of the most common metaphors I've seen for the stack in Magic The Gathering is a stack of pancakes. When you put a new pancake on the stack you put it on top, and when you start eating them, you eat from the top to the bottom.

For Keywords, think of them like multiple Pancakes already stacked together. In this case we've got 3 already stacked, so we just put the stack of 3 on top of the existing sequence in the same order.

So let's look back at the Dante we revived with Gone But Never Forgotten. Dante has (Recover 6), and he gained (Wisdom) and (Shockwave).

(Recover 6) will resolve first, since it is the first listed Keyword, and (Shockwave) will be placed on the sequence last, since it is the last listed Keyword.

Active and Defending

So, by this point you've got all the basics you need for how to order the things going on the sequence, one after the other. But what if things don't happen at different times? How do you deal with things happening at the same time?

If you have multiple things with Triggered Activation Effects being triggered by the same event, it's pretty easy. When you decide what effects are activating, you also decide what order they happen in.

Let's say you use the card Open The Primordial Pits, eradicating the bottom 10 cards of your deck. Among the 10 cards you eradicate, you hit 2 with Triggered Activation Effects: Pandora's Box, and Primordial Badlands.

In this case, lets say I want to put Pandora's Box on the sequence first, and the Primordial Badlands on top. Then, when the sequence resolves, Primordial Badlands will resolve first, and then Pandora's Box second.

Easy Peasy.

But that's only if you have multiple effects happening at the same time, what if multiple players put effects onto the sequence at the same time?

Let's say I activate the Once Per Turn Ability to let each player Conscript 1 Bounty Warrior from their hand.

When the ability resolves, I put Fearless Archer, Sunrise into play, and my opponent puts Dante, The Mysterious Physician into play.

Both of these Warriors have a Keyword Ability, plus the (Plunder) Keyword Ability that Plunder Party gives them, so what happens first?

In this case we use Active Player vs Defending Player.

The Active Player is the player whose turn it currently is, while the other player is the Defending Player. When both of these players have abilities triggering at the same time, the Active Player gets to put their abilities on the Sequence first, and the Defending Player puts their abilities on the sequence on top.

In this scenario then, I put my Warrior's Keyword Abilities on the sequence first (Snapshot) and (Plunder). Then, my opponent put their Warrior's Keyword Abilities on the sequence. (Recover 6) and (Plunder).

So for the resolution of the sequence:

My Opponent will resolve their (Recover 6)
My Opponent will resolve their (Plunder)
I will resolve my (Snapshot)
I resolve my (Plunder)

Practice Makes Perfect!

Now, the best way to learn something is to practice it, and with card games, you can often practice things by just playing through a turn with a deck without worrying about your opponent. Some of the best decks for testing this are Blastforge Aggro, Grimm Midrange, Primordial Midrange, Black Magic Combo, and Dragon Ramp. Shuffling up even a simple version of one of these decks can be a great way to force yourself to learn how the sequence works in a no pressure situation.

It can also be great to just learn by playing against other players, and getting help from more experienced players and especially judges!

And last but not least, you can always hop in the Questions And Answers channel in the LRAW Discord Serve to get help about any ruling question you may have!

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