Does Thalia, Heretic Cathar's ability work like I think it does with Dismiss into Dream?

Asked by CRUELShadow14 8 years ago

Dismiss into Dream's card text reads "Each creature your opponents control is an Illusion in addition to it's other types and has 'When this creature becomes the target of a spell or ability, sacrifice it.'" and Thalia reads "Creatures and nonbasic lands your opponents control enter the battlefield tapped." Is it just me, or is that a GREAT combo (at least among friends, disregarding legality), especially if you play

Dismiss => Ixidron ("As Ixidron enters the battlefield, turn all other nontoken creatures face down (They're 2/2 creatures)" which will basically boardwipe with Dismiss) => Thalia.

I just want to make sure that I'm understanding the rules correctly for this combo, as I'm new to Magic.

Raging_Squiggle says... #1

This isn't a combo.

Only reason this doesn't work is because Thalia's ability does not "target" anything. Same with Ixidron, it doesn't target, it affects everything.

July 30, 2016 4:14 p.m.

Epochalyptik says... Accepted answer #2

Link all cards in your question.
Dismiss into Dream
Thalia, Heretic Cathar
Ixidron

A spell or ability only targets something if it uses the word "target" in its text. If "target" isn't in the text, the effect doesn't target anything.

July 30, 2016 4:43 p.m.

CRUELShadow14 says... #3

Oh really? Jeez, I got the Ixidron/Dismiss combo from someone online who usually is pretty solid with the rule, that sucks. And how do you link a card?

July 31, 2016 11:40 a.m.

CRUELShadow14 says... #4

Wait, but the rules for Dismiss doesn't say target, it says when it becomes a target, ie when it is affected by a spell or ability, right? Because otherwise this will hurt my English major head >.<

July 31, 2016 11:43 a.m.

Epochalyptik says... #5

As I explained, a spell or ability only targets if it uses the word "target." Thalia, Heretic Cathar doesn't say "target." It's not more complicated than that.

The rules and abilities are very precisely worded. "Becomes a target" means "is targeted by a spell or ability." If the spell or ability doesn't target anything, it logically can't cause something to become a target.

July 31, 2016 1:49 p.m.

Rhadamanthus says... #6

The rules of the game and the standard templating for abilities and effects are designed such that there's no subtext to be read into them. We're just dealing with the "text" level of meaning here. A spell or ability only targets if it specifically says so (admittedly, sometimes the word "target" is packed into the full rules text for a keyword ability, e.g. "Enchant NN" for auras or "Equip" for equipment). Thalia, Heretic Cathar and Ixidron don't target anything, and so don't interact with Dismiss into Dream.

July 31, 2016 2:05 p.m.