Protection and your own targeted spells
Asked by somsoc 8 years ago
Hopefully someone can explain this interaction for me:
I was just playing a green-white mirror match on MTGO and made a block with my Knight of the White Orchid on my opponents Managorger Hydra. My opponent cast Dromoka's Command choosing fight, targeting his Hydra and my Knight, and sac an enchantment for me since I had one in play.
In response I cast Valorous Stance to destroy his Hydra.
In response to this he cast Feat of Resistance on his Hydra choosing white.
Here's what I expected to happen:My Valorous Stance fizzles due to protection from white, and his Dromoka's Command also fizzles because his creature has protection from white, and it's a white green spell.
However, his command didn't fizzle, it went through and I got completely blown out.
I was losing the game anyway so it's no big deal but as far as I understood, if your creature has protection from a colour of a spell you're targeting it with, the spell won't resolve. I know I've used Feat myself on my creatures and it prevented me from targeting them with those coloured spells.
Is this somehow different because Dromoka's command was already on the stack and targeted? Or something else? I don't get it.
Thanks.
Okay, interesting, thanks for the answer :) I didn't know that ALL targets had to be illegal for a spell to fizzle. So, in this case, the spells resolves and then it's countered by the game because the fight needs two targets?
January 15, 2016 9:59 a.m.
Raging_Squiggle says... #3
No, it simply resolves and nothing happens except that you sac an enchantment. It's not countered on resolution or fizzled. In order for Dromoka's Command to be countered on resolution, your creature would have to also be an illegal target and you would have to give yourself hexproof or something, thus making all targets for the Command illegal.
January 15, 2016 10:11 a.m.
Epochalyptik says... #4
The spell either resolves or is countered; it's impossible for both to happen.
In this case, the Command will resolve and you will sacrifice an enchantment. The fight mode will attempt to resolve, but it won't do anything because it can't make an illegal target do anything. The fight won't occur. The spell is them finished resolving.
January 15, 2016 10:18 a.m.
Rhadamanthus says... #5
If you're saying that the resolving Dromoka's Command still caused the creatures to fight in addition to making you sacrifice an enchantment, then that's a bug and you need to report it.
January 15, 2016 12:44 p.m.
I checked the game log. I don't think it was a bug but my confusion was caused by nothing being mentioned about Dromoka's Command when it tried to resolve, just 'somsoc sacrifices Stasis Snare', nothing about the other mode not happening. So just a case of the log not being verbose enough really.
Thanks for all the info.
BlueScope says... Accepted answer #1
It's not quite as simple as "if your creature has protection from a colour of a spell you're targeting it with, the spell won't resolve". Only if all targets of a spell are illegal by the time it tries to resolve, the spell will be countered by the game rules. In that case, the spell does as much as it can.
In your case, that means that Feat of Resistance resolves, gives the Hydra a counter and protection from white. Valorous Stance fizzles because it's white, then Dromoka's Command resolves because there's a single valid target left - the creature the Hydra is meant to fight. Because of that, you have to sacrifice an enchantment, but since the Hydra has become an illegal target (because of the protection), no fighting will happen.
In the end, the Hydra probably killed the Knight in the combat damage step.
Note that to cast Dromoka's Command in the first place, you have to choose two legal modes - in that regard, there is a difference regarding Dromoka's spell being already on the stack. However, legal targets are determined both while casting or activating an ability, as well as on resolution - never only once.
January 15, 2016 9:05 a.m.