Does Temur Sabertooth still bounce?

Asked by Lhunthane 1 year ago

If Temur Sabertooth is removed in response to the activation of its own ability, does the ability still allows a player to return a creature they control to its owner's hand upon resolution? Even if Temur Sabertooth is no longer on the battlefield, there is no reason this becomes an illegal action if I'm correct.

Example:

1) Activate Temur Sabertooth while controlling Lagrella, the Magpie.

2) Enemy destroys Temur Sabertooth with Hero's Downfall while ability is on the stack.

3) Hero's Downfall resolves sending Temur Sabertooth to graveyard.

4) Temur Sabertooth's ability resolves, allowing the abilities controller to choose to return Lagrella, the Magpie's controller to it's owners hand.

Thanks for your time!

plakjekaas says... Accepted answer #1

Yes, that would work. Abilities like that typically would fizzle when the target is made illegal, but the ability of Temur Sabertooth doesn't target anything. When the ability is on the stack, and isn't countered by a Stifle-like effect, it will resolve and do as much as is still possible on the boardstate at the time of resolving. You still may return a creature to hand, even though there's no more sabertooth to gain indestructible from it.

If you have the mana though, you could of course activate the Sabertooth again with the Hero's Downfall on the stack, to make it indestructible before the Downfall resolves ;)

January 16, 2023 4:04 a.m.