Can I return Reassembling Skeleton to the battlefield in respone to a Surgical Extraction?
Asked by SwiftDeath 13 years ago
I have a black sac deck and this same situation has occured multiple times and everytime I'm told that when the extraction resolves my creature will be exiled. I know this isn't true because all the requirements aren't being meet so the extraction will fizzle I just want to know the exact ruling on this. Also regarding if it's different between different cards like Nether Traitor and having Pawn of Ulamog on the field and one eldrazi spawn also already on the field before the effect resolves and my opponent trying to exile nether traitor using Relic of Progenitus , and yes I have black mana open. both situations I have a Viscera Seer as the sac engine.
black kamikaze for reference.
If you return the specific Skeleton that Surgical Extraction is targeting, then Extraction will fizzle because it's target has become invalid (it has stopped being a "card in a graveyard" and become a creature). You should be able to do the same thing with Nether Traitor by saccing the spawn on the field, since again the Extraction will fizzle after it's target disappears.
June 17, 2011 1:59 a.m.
SwiftDeath says... #3
Thank you for the clarification but I really want to get some oracle rulings.
June 17, 2011 2:07 a.m.
Epochalyptik says... Accepted answer #4
Surgical Extraction does not currently have any oracle rulings.
MTG Comprehensive Rulebook passage on illegal targets:
608.2b If the spell or ability specifies targets, it checks whether the targets are still legal. A target thats no longer in the zone it was in when it was targeted is illegal. Other changes to the game state may cause a target to no longer be legal; for example, its characteristics may have changed or an effect may have changed the text of the spell. If the source of an ability has left the zone it was in, its last known information is used during this process. The spell or ability is countered if all its targets, for every instance of the word target, are now illegal. If the spell or ability is not countered, it will resolve normally. However, if any of its targets are illegal, the part of the spellor abilitys effect for which it is an illegal target cant perform any actions on that target or make that target perform any actions. The effect may still determine information about illegal targets, though, and other parts of the effect for which those targets are not illegal may still affect them.
Since Surgical Extraction and Relic of Progenitus specify that their targets must be cards in graveyards, changing the zone of the target card will make it an illegal target and thus counter the spell/ability that was targeting it.
June 17, 2011 2:29 a.m.
SwiftDeath says... #5
this is a perfect ruling thank you hopefully my friends won't question me every time I play my deck anymore.
Justarsaus says... #1
you can return the Reassembling Skeleton to the field while the Surgical Extraction is on the stack and your creature will not go anywhere becuase the condtion of Surgical Extraction is not being met
June 17, 2011 1:43 a.m.