Do I have to populate with Druid's Deliverance?
Asked by BroadScholar 11 years ago
Can I cast Druid's Deliverance if I don't control any creature tokens? I guess what I'm really asking is, are cards' effects required to play the card? And if I can play it, does it fizzle if I don't meet the requirements for one of the effects? I know some cards specify "as an additional cost, __" but I wasn't sure if I could just ignore the Populate part of the card.On a semi-related note, If my opponent only has one card in their hand, can I cast Mind Rot , even though my opponent doesn't meet the criteria for the effect?
Technically, populate does not target.
In general, if a spell does not have a target, then you can cast it and its effect will happen regardless of whether that effect actually does anything. If a spell does target, and it has no legal targets when it resolves, then it is countered and does nothing.
July 8, 2013 11:52 a.m.
Absinthman says... Accepted answer #3
Spells can't be cast if no legal target can be chosen for them, and they are countered by game rules (aka "fizzle"), if all targets that have been selected for them become illegal before they resolve. For a spell to be a targeted spell, its text must contain the word "target". If it does not contain this word, it is not a targeted spell, therefore the above does not apply to it. As you can see, Druid's Deliverance
does not target anything (the reminder text of populate doesn have the word "target" in it), so you can cast it even without any tokens.
Effects that make players discard, reveal, draw or look at cards which specify the number of cards will simply make the player do so with as many cards as possible, up to the designated number. So in case of Mind Rot
, the player discards only one card, if it is the last cards in his or her hand. In case of Index
, where you have only two cards remaining in your library, you just look at those two cards and put them back in any order.
July 8, 2013 11:57 a.m.
Rhadamanthus says... #4
The other answers danced around this point, but no one came out and said it: If a resolving effect tries to do something impossible, it does as much as it can (which will sometimes be nothing) and keeps on going.
Like the others have said, a spell or ability with targets can't be played in the first place if there aren't enough legal targets to choose from. In your example, this isn't a problem.
Misanthropist says... #1
Both happen as you described. The combat damage is prevented, and populate goes off with nothing targeted. Your opponent drops the one card instead of two.
July 8, 2013 11:47 a.m.