Narset's Reversal on Hurkyl's Recal vs. Swan Song
Asked by TestSubject 3 years ago
Here's the scenario. I was playing a game of Commander with some friends. Comboing off with Jhoira Storm. I float all my mana and cast Hurkyl's Recall. My opponent casts Swan Song. I cast Narset's Reversal on my Hurkyl's Recall in response.
Does his Swan Song fizzle because the initial target is no longer on the stack, or does it counter my Narset's Reversal instead? At the time we assumed the latter, and I was not able to recast Hurkyl's Recall with my available mana so my combo stopped. I was able to combo win the following turn, but I was curious for future scenarios.
Help is much appreciated.
(Got ninja'd, but that's fine)
Hurkyl's Recall was cast first, then Swan Song, and then Narset's Reversal, thus they will all resolve in the opposite order.
So firstly, when Swan Song was cast, Narset's Reversal had not been cast and was not on the stack, so it cannot be affected by Swan Song. Swan Song's target was Hurkyl's Recall, and that cannot be changed after the fact.
Secondly your Narset's Reversal will resolve before your opponent's Swan Song, meaning you make a copy of Hurkyl's Recall, put it on the stack (above everything else, meaning it will be the next thing to resolve) AND put the card of Hurkyl's Recall back into your hand. Then your Copy of Hurkyl's Recall will resolve. Then Swan Song will resolve, but with its target now gone, it will indeed fizzle.
You probably should have won that game it sounds like.
May 29, 2020 1:53 p.m.
Tylord2894 says... #3
A point of clarification Gattison, Swan Song's target can be changed, although not with cards stated in the question. Something like Misdirection could change the target of Swan Song.
Practically speaking, there is almost no point in this unless you are using it as an effective counterspell. Since Song was second to the bottom, you could not change the target of Song and have it not fizzle. (Redirecting a spell don't change its position in the stack.)
Tylord2894 says... Accepted answer #1
In our scenario, the stack was Hurkyl's Recall, Swan Song, and Narset's Reversal, bottom to top. The stack resolves top to bottom, so Reversal will resolve first. When it does, you copy Recall (choosing your targeted player) then put the original Recall into your hand. The stack is now Song and then the copy of Recall, again bottom to top. Since the copy of Recall is on top, it resolves first, so you bounce your artifacts (assuming you target yourself). Then Song then tries to resolve, but its target is nowhere to be found, and it fizzles.
During all of this, your opponents have chances to respond after each spell resolves, like normal, so they might have more interaction. Barring that, you would have (basically) gotten two Recalls out of this ordeal.
Based on your question, it is important to remember that spell enter and resolve from the top of the stack. Also, the targets of a spell don't change unless another spell changes them. From your question, Song wouldn't have found the copy of Recall because it was looking for the original. It won't search the stack for another spell called "Hurkyl's Recall". It will only look for the exact spell that it was pointed at.
Hope this helps!!
May 29, 2020 1:44 p.m.