If a spell or ability has no valid targets, does it fizzle?
Asked by Yesterday 4 years ago
I was under the impression when I was first learning Magic that once a spell failed in having 100% of its targets as it tried to resolve, it would be countered by the game (back when being countered by the game was a thing). So a Decimate I cast that targeted four legal permanents including a Commander's Sphere would fizzle if the controller of the Commander Sphere sacrificed it in response.
I later came to understand that as long as a spell has at least one legitimate target, it will try to resolve to its fullest ability. So if you cast Illusionist's Stratagem targeting two of your creatures and one gets removed in response, you would still blink the remaining creature and draw a card.
But was I still wrong? So if I cast Cleanfall w/ Blessed Breath , and the only target of the spell becomes illegal in some way, the rest of the spell will still resolve as normal?
Now, as I was typing out this next part, I realised I've been misreading Fblthp since his spoiler. For this next part of the question, just to help me understand the ruling, please pretend Fblthp's second ability triggers from being targeted by anything:
When I first saw the creatureless deck techs for Fblthp, the Lost that revolve around Proteus Staff , I thought somebody must have made an error because the staff's ability would fizzle when Fblthp gets shuffled away. But is it true that the Staff's ability will not only continue to resolve, but will also use the last known information of the creature to determine the missing permanent's controller when it was last on the battlefield?
You were not wrong, if you cast Cleanfall , splice Blessed Breath on it and targeted creature is no longer legal target as you are trying to resolve spell, that spell won't resolve as that creature was its only target. If fblthp's second ability worked that way, proteus staff's ability wouldn't resolve indeed, but as it is, it only triggers from spells targeting so Proteus Staff won't trigger it.
April 29, 2019 10:10 a.m.
dragonstryke58 says... Accepted answer #3
Ah right...I forgot to touch upon the items before...
From Rules:
608.2b If the spell or ability specifies targets, it checks whether the targets are still legal. A target that's no longer in the zone it was in when it was targeted is illegal. Other changes to the game state may cause a target to no longer be legal; for example, its characteristics may have changed or an effect may have changed the text of the spell. If the source of an ability has left the zone it was in, its last known information is used during this process. If all its targets, for every instance of the word "target," are now illegal, the spell or ability doesn't resolve. It's removed from the stack and, if it's a spell, put into its owner's graveyard. Otherwise, the spell or ability will resolve normally. Illegal targets, if any, won't be affected by parts of a resolving spell's effect for which they're illegal. Other parts of the effect for which those targets are not illegal may still affect them. If the spell or ability creates any continuous effects that affect game rules (see rule 613.10), those effects don't apply to illegal targets. If part of the effect requires information about an illegal target, it fails to determine any such information. Any part of the effect that requires that information won't happen.
So actually a Decimate that targeted four legal targets, but then a target became illegal (in stated case: the Commander's Sphere was sacrificed) would still resolve with illegal targets being unaffected.
Illusionist's Stratagem as you stated, would still resolve if only one of your creatures got removed due to not all of its targets being illegal.
And as Colgate mentioned, if you cast Cleanfall splicing Blessed Breath , it will not resolve if its only target was removed.
tl:dr - If all of a spell or ability's targets are illegal, it will not resolve.
April 29, 2019 2:18 p.m.
dragonstryke58 says... #4
Also, I was wrong in my first post. As Colgate pointed out, Proteus Staff will resolve since only spells will trigger Fblthp, the Lost 's second ability.
dragonstryke58 says... #1
From the Gatherer:
If the spell that targets Fblthp has no other targets, it won’t resolve (because it no longer has a legal target after Fblthp has gotten totally lost in your library).
With that in mind, your original line of thinking was correct that Proteus Staff 's ability would not resolve since Fblthp, the Lost would not longer be on the battlefield.
April 29, 2019 6:01 a.m.