Oona, Queen of the Fae: When do I choose its color?
Asked by koolking 3 years ago
Gatherer says, "You target the opponent when you activate Oona’s ability. You don’t choose the color until the ability resolves."
Does that mean I get to see the cards before choosing the color rather than guessing beforehand?
TIA, kk
Sorry about not not linking Oona, Queen of the Fae. Couldn't remember how.
Anyway, instead of Gatherer saying, ""You target the opponent when you activate Oona’s ability. You don’t choose the color until the ability resolves." Shouldn't it say, "You target the opponent when you activate Oona’s ability and choose the color before the ability resolves."?
June 28, 2020 6:45 p.m.
Tylord2894 says... #3
Saying that you "choose the color before the ability resolves" would mean there is a moment before you start to resolve a spell/ability where those decisions are made. Let's take an effect like Duress. If I have to choose a noncreature, nonland creature before I saw my opponent's hand, then Duress would be a completely unplayable (and confusing) card. The point of an effect like Duress is that you get to use the knowledge that you gain from looking at someone's hand when you choose a card.
Oona's ability requires that you make a similar choose to that of Duress but at a different time. In both cases though, you make your decision during the resolution of the spell/ability.
June 28, 2020 7:19 p.m.
So the key part of the question here is "on resolution of the ability, is there an opportunity to see the exiled cards before picking a colour?" The short answer is "no".
The long answer is that the resolution has multiple steps and it must be followed as described on the card:
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first you choose a colour
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then the targetted opponent exiles the top X cards of their library
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then, for each card exiled this way which is of the chosen colour, create a 1/1 blue/black faerie rogue with flying
While the card doesn't say "then", it should be implied here. I would assume that he only reason they left this off the card was due to the length of text in the ability (you can see how close to the edge of the card it already gets).
June 28, 2020 7:34 p.m.
Rhadamanthus says... #5
The Gatherer ruling is just there to give a reminder on what kinds of decisions need to be made when you activate the ability and what decisions wait until the ability starts resolving. Targets, modes ("choose one..."), payment of optional costs, and a couple other things need to be chosen when you first cast a spell or activate an ability. Any other decisions the spell/ability asks you to make are handled when it starts resolving.
As others have pointed out, you follow the instructions in the order they're written on the card, so in this example that means choosing a color is the very first thing you do as Oona's ability starts resolving.
Tylord2894 says... Accepted answer #1
For future reference, you can link a card's image by surrounding the card's name with two brackets, "[". This works sitewide.
To your question, when resolving any effect, you follow the instructions in order. The first thing Oona's ability tells you to do as part of it's resolution is to pick a color. So, you must pick a color before you see any cards.
On an activated ability, everything after the colon, ":", is the effect. This details the instructions you need to follow as the ability resolves. If an ability instructs you to target something, divide some amount (such as damage), or select modes (like Izzet Charm), you make those decisions when you activate it. Any effect that asks that you "pick" or "choose" something will wait until the effect is resolving for your decision.
Hope this helps!!
June 28, 2020 10:50 a.m.