Can Harsh Mentor still shock the opponents planeswalkers?

Asked by Thebiggalactus 5 years ago

With the planeswalker redirection rule change, does Harsh Mentor still have the ability to shock planeswalkers? If not is it the same for every card that used to be able to do it?

FancyTuesday says... #1

Y̶e̶s̶,̶ ̶H̶a̶r̶s̶h̶ ̶M̶e̶n̶t̶o̶r̶ ̶c̶a̶n̶ ̶s̶t̶i̶l̶l̶ ̶s̶h̶o̶c̶k̶ ̶P̶l̶a̶n̶e̶s̶w̶a̶l̶k̶e̶r̶s̶.̶ The change is that you no longer target the player and redirect damage to a Planeswalker, you now target Planeswalkers directly and they're going to change the language of targeted damage spells and abilities to reflect that. The errata is retroactive and is as follows:

• Spells that used the language "target creature or player" will be changed to "any target", which will be shorthand for "target creature, player, or Planeswalker"
• Spells that used the language "target player/opponent" will be changed to "target player/opponent or planeswalker"
• Spells that deal damage to players but DO NOT specify a target will not be changed, and will not affect Plansewalkers. Ex: Hurricane, Earthquake

H̶a̶r̶s̶h̶ ̶M̶e̶n̶t̶o̶r̶ ̶s̶a̶y̶s̶ ̶"̶t̶a̶r̶g̶e̶t̶ ̶c̶r̶e̶a̶t̶u̶r̶e̶ ̶o̶r̶ ̶p̶l̶a̶y̶e̶r̶"̶,̶ ̶m̶e̶a̶n̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶O̶r̶a̶c̶l̶e̶ ̶t̶e̶x̶t̶ ̶w̶i̶l̶l̶ ̶b̶e̶ ̶"̶a̶n̶y̶ ̶t̶a̶r̶g̶e̶t̶"̶,̶ ̶a̶l̶l̶o̶w̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶i̶t̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶h̶i̶t̶ ̶P̶l̶a̶n̶e̶s̶w̶a̶l̶k̶e̶r̶s̶.̶

EDIT: That's wrong. Harsh Mentor doesn't target, he falls into the 3rd category and cannot hit Planeswalkers.

May 22, 2018 2:35 a.m. Edited.

ClockworkSwordfish says... Accepted answer #2

Since damage cannot be redirected anymore, and Harsh Mentor damaged the player responsible for activating the ability, he will never be able to point it at a planeswalker - since, after all, it's not the planeswalker activating the artifact, it's the controller doing so.

May 22, 2018 2:47 a.m.