Can Spellskite be used to fizzle counterspells?
Asked by Hodou 13 years ago
If an opponent tries to cast Cancel on a spell I cast, and I have a Spellskite out, can I use Spellskite's ability to change the target of their Cancel to Spellskite and force it to fail?
The short answer is no.
the long answer is a little complicated. You can activate spellskite's ability, targeting cancel. When spellskite's ability resolves, Cancel will see that spellskite is not a legal target (since Cancel says 'counter target spell,' and at that point spellskite's ability will fizzle, and cancel will remain on the stack with its original target.
Here's the full text from WotC's New Phyrexia FAQ:
You can activate Spellskite's ability even if Spellskite wouldn't be a legal target for the spell or ability. However, the target of that spell or ability will remain unchanged.
If changing one target of a spell or ability to Spellskite would make other targets of that spell or ability illegal, the targets remain unchanged.
If the spell or ability has multiple instances of the word "target," you choose which target you're changing to Spellskite when Spellskite's ability resolves.
By activating Spellskite's ability multiple times, you can change each target of a spell or ability with multiple instances of the word "target" to Spellskite, one at a time.
The target of the spell or ability won't change unless Spellskite fulfills all the targeting criteria, even if multiple instances of the word "target" are used. For example, you can't change both targets of Arc Trail to Spellskite.
If a spell or ability has multiple targets but doesn't use the word "target" multiple times, such as Fulgent Distraction, you can only successfully change one of the targets to Spellskite.
If a spell or ability has a variable number of targets, you can't change the number of targets.
If Spellskite leaves the battlefield before its ability resolves, the targets remain unchanged.
July 15, 2011 5:21 a.m.
xxxxxxCronoxxxxxx says... #3
you could make a spell target spellskite then after spellskites ability resolves but before the spell resolves you can do something to the kite to make it a ilegal target, then the spell would fizzle
but the kite has to be a legal target when its ability trys to resolve
Siegfried says... Accepted answer #1
No. When you change the target of a spell, the new target has to be legal. A permanent of any kind is not a valid target for something that says "target spell", so you won't be able to redirect Cancel.
July 15, 2011 5:19 a.m.