Targeting and Shroud

Asked by PTsmitty 8 years ago

I was playing a friend yesterday in EDH and was wondering if the enchantment ability he was activating could be activated or not. On my end I had Mizzix of the Izmagnus equipped with Lightning Greaves. My opponent had out Attrition and was trying to sacrifice a creature for the experience counter in his Meren Deck. Basically, he was paying the activation cost of his enchantment for the experience counter, but obviously I do not have a valid target for the second part of the enchantment's ability. My understanding is that he can pay the mana and creature cost of Attrition, but since there is no valid target his affect would just fizzle. After the creature sacrifice, all he had out was Meren of Clan Nel Toth so he did not have a valid target either. I just wanted to make sure we executed things correctly based on the board state.

Epochalyptik says... Accepted answer #1

You can't activate an ability or cast a spell without naming sufficient legal targets for it. If you can't name legal targets for each instance of the word target, then you can't activate the ability at all. Your opponent can't sacrifice the creature.

February 7, 2016 9:37 a.m.

PTsmitty says... #2

Just a follow up thought. Had my creature had indestructible instead of shroud that would have worked then correct? The destroy target creature would have been put on the stack, but it would basically fizzle out because destroying the creature would not work.

February 7, 2016 12:03 p.m.

Epochalyptik says... #3

Well, it wouldn't fizzle. Fizzling is an archaic term for a spell or ability being countered by game rules as a result of all of its targets being illegal.

If a destroy effect attempts to resolve on an indestructible permanent, the effect still resolves. It just doesn't do anything.

February 7, 2016 12:12 p.m.

PTsmitty says... #4

Ok, thank you for the quick responses.

February 7, 2016 12:32 p.m.

hyperlocke says... #5

Note that if he controls a non-black creature, he can target that creature with Attrition's ability and then sacrifice it to pay for the ability, as chosing targets happens before paying the cost.

February 7, 2016 1:33 p.m.

PTsmitty says... #6

So that would be a fizzling affect then, correct? The creature he is targeting no longer exists due to it being sacrificed for the casting cost. Did I interpret the scenario correctly?

February 7, 2016 2:01 p.m.

Epochalyptik says... #7

Yes.

February 7, 2016 2:09 p.m.

This discussion has been closed