Lethal Damage and the Stack
Asked by HorridBEAST 8 years ago
Say I had 3 Draconic Roar and a dragon in my hand, and my opponent has 1 creature on the field with 4 toughness. I want to deal 9 damage to my opponent so I put all 3 Draconic Roars on the stack, all targeting the one creature and all revealing the same dragon. The first 2 Roars will assign lethal damage to the creature, so does the creature leave the battlefield and go to the graveyard before or after the 3rd Roar resolves?
The main question here is will the 3rd Draconic Roar deal the 3 damage to my opponent or will it fizzle because the target is gone?
A spell that requires you to target any objects needs to have at least one target if the spell resolves. Draconic Roar has only one target (which is the creature).
Additionally, after a spell is put on the stack, as well as after an object on the stack resolves, the active player gains priority. At this point, state-based actions are checked and creatures with lethal damage marked on them are put into their owner's graveyard.
If you combine those, you have your answer - the second Draconic Roar resolves, deals lethal damage to your opponent's creature, which will cause the creature to be put into the graveyard. The last Roar will fizzle (being countered by the game rules for not having any legal targets), and you won't get to deal the last 3 damage to your opponent.
June 26, 2015 11:20 a.m.
Colten_Lee says... #3
Draconic Roar targets only the creature, not its controller. If that creature becomes an illegal target before Draconic Roar resolves, the spell is countered and none of its effects will occur. No damage is dealt.
Rulings on Draconic Roar from Gatherer
June 26, 2015 11:21 a.m.
HorridBEAST says... #6
The gather states that if there is no legal target then Draconic Roar is countered. My question is after receiving lethal damage is the creature still present in order to be a target (dealing 3 more damage to an already dead creature) or is it sent to the gravyard after the 2nd Roar resolves leaving the 3rd without a target?
June 26, 2015 12:09 p.m.
Epochalyptik says... #7
State-based actions destroy the creature after the second Draconic Roar resolves. It isn't on the battlefield by the time players begin passing priority over the final Draconic Roar; it's an illegal target, so the spell will fizzle and none of its effects will occur.
Tomahawk-Bang says... #1
At the time you cast the three Draconic Roars you have a legal target for all of them. Thus I think the creature will be put into the graveyard after the second Draconic Roar has resolved, but the third Draconic Roar will still resolve with as much parts of the spell as it can. That means it won't be able to deal 3 damage to the creature, but it will still deal the three damage to your opponent.
June 26, 2015 11:11 a.m.