"Target opponent may" and shroud
Asked by honeybunch 6 years ago
In a recent EDH game, I had a Combustible Gearhulk in hand, and my only remaining opponent had a Solitary Confinement on the battlefield. I wound up losing before I got around to playing the Gearhulk, but I'm wondering how Gearhulk's trigger would have worked if I had played it.
How do Gearhulk and other similar "target opponent may" cards work when there are no opponents who can be targeted?
Rhadamanthus says... Accepted answer #1
An ability like that simply doesn't work at all in your situation. If a triggered ability (an ability that starts with "when", "whenever", or "at") has any targets then you choose those targets at the time you put the ability onto the stack. If you can't choose a legal set of targets then the trigger is removed from the stack completely and does nothing.
June 13, 2017 12:40 p.m. Edited.