During the top 4 of last night's tournament I learned something new about Spellskite that makes this deck even more stupid than I had previously imagined. I was playing against a Twin deck and I had a Loxodon Peacekeeper in play. My opponent cast a Spellskite, then cast a Grim Lavamancer, and stupidity ensued.
Now, before I go into the stupidity, I should preface this by saying that I already knew that Spellskite can target spells and abilities with its ability for which it itself is not a legal target. I had, in fact, used this loophole to great effect in my previous match against Fish. My opponent was at 14 and had flooded the board with easily enough merfolk and elementals to smash my face next turn. I myself had a Boros Reckoner, a Spellskite and a relatively small Death's Shadow in play. I attacked with the Reckoner, which my opponent blocked with one of his Master of Waves tokens. I shot him for 2, bringing him down to 12. Then I cast Thoughtseize and declared that I would target it multiple times with my Spellskite to bring my life down to 3. Naturally this sparked a heated nerd argument, as not only my opponent but all the other players at the table piped up to tell me that I couldn't do that. I, however, had done my homework and I told them to look at the rulings on Spellskite. Sure enough, Thoughtseize was a legal target, I just couldn't redirect it to Spellskite. I dropped my life to 3, Thoughtseize resolved, bringing me down to 1, and I cast Fling to throw my now 12/12 Death's Shadow at my opponent's face for lethal.
Now, back to the top four: The Twin player had a Grim Lavamancer on the stack. Having seen what I had done with Thoughtseize before, he declared the creature as his Spellskite target. This sparked another nerd argument as we debated for a good 5 minutes at least whether or not Spellskite Could attempt to redirect a spell that didn't even target anything at all. This time I was not on the winning side. After taking to the internet to settle the debate, it turned out that Spellskite can target ANY spell or ability, not just those that have targets to begin with. My opponent took control of my Loxodon Peacekeeper. I lost the match.
You know what? I'm not even mad. My deck just became way better. I can't count how many times I've had a Spellskite in play and needed to lose life but didn't have anything that I could use to target. Now I know that all I have to do is tap my City of Brass and I can target the triggered ability. I can cast a Death's Shadow even if If my life total is too high, and target it to bring my total down before it resolves. If I'm playing a green deck or something that can't throw direct damage at my face, I can even cast a Near-Death Experience, target it, go down to 1, and say "go".
The rules, my friends. They are good to know and good to abuse.
