Ability activation of "Advocates"
Asked by SurpriZe 6 years ago
With these particular cards: Spurnmage Advocate, Shieldmage Advocate, Nullmage Advocate, and Forcemage Advocate, do I have to have the second type of target in order to be able to activate the abilities?
For example, with Spurnmage Advocate, can I activate the ability if I only target two cards in an opponent's graveyard, while there are no attacking creatures? Or, can I activate Nullmage Advocate if there are no enchantments or artifacts on the battlefield?
The confusion stems from the fact, that if we look into the official rulings, for example, of Spurnmage Advocate, it only says:
"10/4/2004 You cant activate this ability unless a single opponent has at least two cards in their graveyard to target.", but it doesn't mention having to target an attacking creature.
However, Pulsemage Advocate is an exception, because in its rulings, we can see:
"10/4/2004 You cant activate this ability unless a single opponent has at least three cards in his or her graveyard to target and you have a creature card in your graveyard to target.", which is the only card of this type that actually has the mention of the second part of the ability in the rulings.
Each time a spell or ability asks for a target, you must be able to choose a target. If you cannot, then you cannot cast the spell, activate the ability, or, in the case of a triggered ability, it is removed from the stack before any player receives priority.
October 8, 2017 3:35 a.m.
Then why does the ruling for Spurnmage Advocate only mention the two cards in the graveyard but not an attacking creature as the part of the ability that's essential for its resolution? In the ruling for Pulsemage Advocate the ruling actually mentions both targeted requirements.
October 8, 2017 7:06 a.m.
Because the rulings were likely written by two different people, and the person who wrote the ruling for Spurnmage Advocate assumed you wouldn't want to activate the ability without an attacking creature to target. The rulings are only guidelines to show you what the rules are, because reading a growing 226 page document can be tedious. This Forum, and Judges, exist so that when the rulings are unclear (like now) or absent, you can get an answer from people who have familiarized themselves with that massive document. Even though the rulings on Gatherer are different for the two cards, the rules governing them are the same, so how they play is the same. Both jmabry413 and myself are telling you that you need the full targets for the ability to activate it, and I went into more detail about the rules as to why.
jmabry413 says... #1
You must have enough targets to activate an ability. Unless it says "up to X targets", you have to be able to target everything the spell or ability calls for. However, only one target needs to be still legal on resolution to resolve as much of the spell or ability as possible.
October 8, 2017 2:29 a.m.