cemetery reaper's wording has me confused.
Asked by Ohthenoises 13 years ago
[[cemetery reaper] states "2B, tap: Exile a creature from a graveyard. Put a 2/2 black zombie creature token onto the battlefield"
The two part wording makes me think that these two parts of the ability are separate events and as such my question is this: Do I have to exile a creature to use this ability?
Ohthenoises says... #4
ook what the hell? Anyway sorry for the triple post.
April 1, 2012 10:30 p.m.
hunter9000 says... Accepted answer #5
They are separate events in a way, but you can't choose to only one of them. They're both part of the resolution of the ability. When you can activate it, you must choose a target card in a graveyard to exile. Then when it resolves, it gets exiled, unless it's no longer in the graveyard at that point. Say you returned it to your hand or the battlefield.
Since the second part of the ability isn't dependent on the first part actually happening, even if that were to happen, you would still get the creature token. But you can't activate it unless you choose a target card.
April 1, 2012 10:53 p.m.
KorApprentice says... #6
Yes, you must choose targets for an ability that requires targets to be able to put it on the stack. However, if the creature is for some reason not exiled, you will still get the 2/2 token. You just need to be able to target a creature in a graveyard to use it, it doesn't have to exile that creature.
April 1, 2012 10:54 p.m.
Ohthenoises says... #7
ok .. just wondering if it was one of those grey areas where one part is ignored (i.e. Unbreathing Horde and the removal of counters)
April 1, 2012 10:57 p.m.
hunter9000 says... #8
It's not that part of the ability is ignored, in either case. The ability still tries to do the action, but because it's impossible, nothing happens. It tries to exile the card, but it's gone so it can't.
April 1, 2012 11 p.m.
benzzer853 says... #9
If the card would somehow be removed fromThe graveyard during resolution it resolves as normalremoving the creature is not part of the cost
April 1, 2012 11:07 p.m.
Ohthenoises says... #10
not what I meant by ignoring part of the ability I was just wondering if you could activate his ability without a creature in the graveyard and still get a token because the first part is impossible.
April 1, 2012 11:09 p.m.
KorApprentice says... #11
You have to be able to choose targets to even be able to activate the ability.
April 1, 2012 11:10 p.m.
GoblinsInc says... #12
If the creature card in the graveyard that is targetted by cemetary reaper's ability is not there when the ability goes to resolve, the entire ability will be countered. You will not get a 2/2 token.
April 1, 2012 11:20 p.m.
Rhadamanthus says... #13
The language in the accepted answer about the ability still resolving if the targeted card isn't in the graveyard anymore is misleading. If a spell or ability has targets, but all of those targets are missing or otherwise illegal at the time it would resolve, then it gets countered by the rules (and no part of the spell/ability happens). The only way Cemetery Reaper's ability could resolve normally without the targeted card getting exiled is if there were some effect replacing exile with movement to another zone, or some effect stopping the card from moving to a zone other than the graveyard (no effects like these currently exist in the game).
April 1, 2012 11:24 p.m.
KorApprentice says... #14
Ah, well then my mistake as well. From the Gatherer on Cemetery Reaper:
10/1/2009 - The creature card in a graveyard is exiled as part of the activated ability's effect, not as a cost. If that card has left the graveyard by the time the ability would resolve, the ability is countered and you don't get a Zombie token.
April 2, 2012 12:18 a.m.
hunter9000 says... #15
Rhadamanthus is right. I didn't think about the card being the only target of the ability. Whoops.
Ohthenoises says... #1
Cemetery Reaper
April 1, 2012 10:30 p.m.