Bearer of the Heavens + Ride down

Asked by Californication 5 years ago

So this i an odd question but here goes. I was wondering if i can assign a blocker to nothing. this is what caused the question. I an EDH game i had one possible out and that was blocking with Bearer of the Heavens and then killing it with Ride Down. However, i was only attacked with flyers, so i was wondering if i could assign bearer as a blocker, and have him block nothing. I cant find in the rules where it says that a blocker must have a target to be declared a blocker. It only says that it has to be able to block the designated target. Well if i say i'm designated him as a blocker however he's not going to block anything, would i still be able to target him with Ride Down.

Rhadamanthus says... Accepted answer #1

No, that doesn't work. You have to choose a creature. The following is from the "Declare Blockers Step" section of the Comprehensive Rules, with emphasis added around the part that's most important to your question:

509.1a The defending player chooses which creatures that they control, if any, will block. The chosen creatures must be untapped. For each of the chosen creatures, the defending player chooses one creature for it to block that's attacking that player or a planeswalker he or she controls.

October 6, 2018 10:44 a.m.