Ravenous Rotbelly removal in response to ETB
Asked by Chaospyke 3 years ago
My Ravenous Rotbelly enters the battle. I announce which creatures I'm going to sac. My opponent wants to destroy my two creatures before they are sacced but after I've announced them.
What are some rulings/rules showing him that my creatures can't be targeted/ there is no point in which he'd have priority to target my creatures.
Thank you in advance.
Gidgetimer says... Accepted answer #2
Because Ravenous Rotbelly doesn't target, the affected creatures are chosen during the resolution of the ability. No player receives priority while a spell or ability is resolving, so your opponents will not be able to take any actions between the zombies being chosen, being sacrificed, and the opponents sacrificing creatures. If they need an explanation of who gets priority when it is in CR117, but I am not going to quote the whole thing here.
115.10. Spells and abilities can affect objects and players they don’t target. In general, those objects and players aren’t chosen until the spell or ability resolves. See rule 608, “Resolving Spells and Abilities.”
115.10a Just because an object or player is being affected by a spell or ability doesn’t make that object or player a target of that spell or ability. Unless that object or player is identified by the word “target” in the text of that spell or ability, or the rule for that keyword ability, it’s not a target.
November 21, 2021 8:53 p.m.
Sorry: To be clear, your opponent can go ahead and destroy creatures in response to the ETB trigger. They can't do it once the trigger starts responding. If you announced sacrifices without checking to see if they have a response, you haven't actually sacrificed creatures yet; you just gave them some free information about what you plan to do, which they can now act on while they have priority.
Polaris says... #1
Your opponent can go ahead and destroy creatures before you sacrifice, because there's a round of priority before the ETB trigger resolves. However, you do not have to announce which creatures you're sacrificing until the trigger resolves.
There are a few ways this could have happened. One is that you played Ravenous Rotbelly and immediately announced sacrifices. This would be your bad for not waiting to see if the opponent has a response.
If the opponent has indicated they will not respond and then tries to respond once you announce your sacrifices, that's their bad. Your ability is currently resolving and they can't respond until after you sac your creatures.
With that said, even if this does happen like this (you announce sacrifices without checking if the opponent was going to respond to the trigger, then your opponent says "hold on, I had a response") you can still sacrifice different creatures, because until the trigger starts resolving you're just saying you want to sacrifice creatures, not actually doing it.
November 21, 2021 8:51 p.m.