Can a spell that can't be countered be targeted by a counterspell

Asked by hyena69 9 years ago

Goblin Flectomancer Isperia, Supreme Judge Abrupt Decay Counterspell

Facing a rules lawyer in the finals of a little tournament in my local gaming group, and knowing our decks and his whining I want to be prepared, so my apologies if I complicate the question :-)

Let's say no other permanents than my Flectomancer and a bunch of lands are in play when I play Isperia. My opponent tries to counter it with a Counterspell, I play Abrupt Decay, targeting my flectomancer, sac the flectomancer to make his Counterspell target my Decay instead.

What I'm hoping will happen is that the Counterspell fizzles since the Abrupt Decay can't be countered, and then the decay fizzles since the flectomancer is gone and Isperia safely enters the battlefied (only to be blown away, or stolen or something when he untaps...)

Thanks :-)

GearNoir says... #1

The simplest answer I can find is this, from Goblin Flectomancer's Gatherer page:

• If the spell has multiple targets, you may either change all the targets or none of them. Each target is treated individually, and must be changed to a different legal target. For example, Seeds of Strength targeting Atog (target #1), the same Atog (target #2), and Scryb Sprites (target #3) can be changed so it targets the same Scryb Sprites (target #1), Eager Cadet (target #2), and Alpha Myr (target #3). If changing one of the targets would be impossible, then you cant change any of the others.

Abrupt Decay would not be considered a legal target because of its ability to not be countered.

November 15, 2016 11:03 p.m.

Neotrup says... Accepted answer #2

GearNoir is 100% wrong. You can attempt to counter spells that can't be countered and attempt to destroy permanents with indestructable. From the gatherer rulings for Blurred Mongoose (another uncountable spell):
10/4/2004: Counterspells can be cast that target it, but when they resolve they simply don't counter it since it can't be countered.

Complicated situation that shouldn't come up as you're 2-for-1ing yourself, but the play works just fine, Abrupt Decay is a fine target. Also, you're fine to target something else with Abrupt Decay, to avoid 2-for-1ing yourself, if there are other targets. In your current scenario Abrupt Decay will be countered for having an illegal target on resolution (as the Goblin Flectomancer is gone), then Counterspell will be countered for having an illegal target as Abrupt Decay already attempted to resolve. If they were using the counter-draw mode of Cryptic Command they would not be able to draw in either situation as Abrupt Decay always leaves the stack first, but in other situations the command can be cast to draw a card by targeting an uncounterable spell underneath it on the stack.

November 15, 2016 11:19 p.m.

GearNoir says... #3

Cool to know, thank you. Sorry for any confusion.

November 15, 2016 11:31 p.m.

hyena69 says... #4

No sweat :-)

November 15, 2016 11:52 p.m.