Interacting with Fuse cards?
Asked by JewJitsu 12 years ago
At FNM last week, my opponent had a Thragtusk on the field and was casting Flesh and Blood (fused) onto him. In response, I cast Away to remove his target for the spell; he tried to tell me that because I had played Away "in response to the Flesh half, not to the Blood half" that he could still target Thraggy with Blood and deal 5 damage to me. This doesn't make sense to me because I was under the impression that when Fuse cards are cast for their combined cost, they are effectively a single spell with the properties of both. So who was wrong here? Should he have named his target in the graveyard as well as his target on the battlefield before trying to resolve the spell? Or should I have waited for Flesh to resolve before removing the target for Blood?
ShimmerVoid says... #2
Quoted from Gatherer:
"You can choose the same object as the target of each half of a fused split spell, if appropriate."
I don't think you can target the Thragtusk that is on the battlefield for both halve of the spell as it's an illegal target for the Flesh part and creatures entering another zone (in this case the graveyard) is considered a fresh copy and any effects from when it's on the battlefield ceases to exist, so even if you can target both halves on Thragtusk, the spell stops working once its target goes to a different zone.
Not sure if I worded that correctly though, but that's how I think it works. Like how you can't target Havengul Lich with its own ability when it's on the battlefield, then reanimate it post-combat when it's in your graveyard.
May 14, 2013 12:23 p.m.
Fused spells are one spell, you cannot "respond to one half" of a spell. That wouldn't even make sense anyway, since you would have sent Thragtusk to his hand even before Flesh / Blood resolved.
May 14, 2013 12:27 p.m.
Woops, he would have had to sacrifice it, I was reading the wrong half of Far / Away
May 14, 2013 12:28 p.m.
Flesh / Blood is a single card on the stack. The left half resolves first, then right half.
You resolve to the casting of the spell after targets are named. Far / Away will resolve first leaving no legal target for Flesh / Blood .
May 14, 2013 12:30 p.m.
He was completely wrong, if I understand what you meant.
Fuse cards (when fused) are cast as a single spell, and you read the left half as if it was on top of the right half (it'll be the first part of the spell to resolve). However, since both halves are actually a SINGLE spell, nothing can interrupt the resolution of that spell once it starts resolving; that is a core rule of MTG. Assuming he's targeting some creature in his graveyard as the exile target and then targeting Thragtusk with the counters and the damage parts of the spell, this is what will happen:
He casts Flesh / Blood , choosing his targets (all targets for any spell/ability must be chosen before said spell/ability even goes on the stack; once it's on the stack, its targets are already locked in). In response, you cast Far / Away , using only Away to make him sacrifice a creature. Assuming he has no more creatures in play, Away will resolve and he will sacrifice Thragtusk . Flesh / Blood has only one legal target left, the creature card in the graveyard, so the spell itself will not "fizzle". The creature card gets exiled. Its remaining targets (Thragtusk ) are no longer legal, therefore the other parts of the spell will do nothing.
May 14, 2013 1:41 p.m.
That's what I was hoping for, that makes the most sense. Thanks!
slagathor3 says... #1
When you cast a fuse card, the first half resolves before the second does. So "Flesh" happens first, and then blood
May 14, 2013 12:21 p.m.