Titan's Strength and removals.
Asked by SamuelLum 10 years ago
Hi all.
If I target Titan's Strength on my creature and my opponent kills my creature in response. Since there is no valid target do I still get to scry? Or does the spell essentially get "countered"?
filledelanuit says... Accepted answer #2
You are correct. When a spell tries to resolve but all of its targets are illegal it is countered by game rules. In magic lingo it "fizzles". You won't get any effect of the spell including the scry.
December 3, 2014 7:40 a.m.
When a spell has more than one target, and upon resolution at least one target is still valid, the spell will try to do as much as it can, but if every target is illegal upon resolution, the whole thing is countered by game rules and nothing happens.
If it said "Target creature gets +3/+1 and target player scries 1" and your creature was killed, you'd still get to scry, but since the scry ability does not target, you get nothing.
December 3, 2014 8:53 a.m.
UpperDeckerTaco says... #4
SamuelLum (make sure you select an answer), but yes, lordoftheshadows is correct by the slang magic term, "fizzles". Since the target has now become illegal, it is what is called "fizzled out" and just doesn't resolve and goes to the graveyard. So essentially, the spell is wasted, unless you really need it in your graveyard for some reason, but I don't see the plus side for Titan's Strength being in the grave.
December 3, 2014 9:55 a.m.
I thought because the spell has 2 separate statements it will ignore the part that cannot happen and resolve the rest of the instructions?
Wouldn't it only prevent the whole resolution if it said - "Target creature gets +3/+1 until end of turn, then Scry 1"?
But since it states - "Target creature gets +3/+1 until end of turn. (<-Period) Scry 1." it should still allow the scry, right?
December 3, 2014 11:42 a.m.
Rhadamanthus says... #6
The grammar and punctuation don't matter. A targeted spell or ability will be countered by the rules if all of its targets somehow become illegal before it starts resolving. The "do as much as possible" situations are for untargeted spells/abilities or a case where only some of the targets become illegal.
December 3, 2014 11:49 a.m.
Can you post the rule's section? I spent some time reading through 608.x and 601.x and I think I'm misinterpreting or missing this.
December 3, 2014 12:03 p.m.
Epochalyptik says... #8
@Enyeto: I'm on my phone, so I can't copy rules easily. Go to 608.2b, which explicitly states that spells and abilities with no remaining legal targets are countered.
@JexInfinite: A spell or ability is only countered if all of its targets are illegal. A spell or ability can still resolve even if it is missing a target, but only as long as it still has at least one legal target.
December 3, 2014 12:27 p.m.
608.2b If the spell or ability specifies targets, it checks whether the targets are still legal. A target thats no longer in the zone it was in when it was targeted is illegal. Other changes to the game state may cause a target to no longer be legal; for example, its characteristics may have changed or an effect may have changed the text of the spell. If the source of an ability has left the zone it was in, its last known information is used during this process. The spell or ability is countered if all its targets, for every instance of the word target, are now illegal. If the spell or ability is not countered, it will resolve normally. However, if any of its targets are illegal, the part of the spell or abilitys effect for which it is an illegal target cant perform any actions on that target, make another object or player perform any actions on that target, or make that target perform any actions. If the spell or ability creates a continuous effect that affects game rules (see rule 613.10), that effect doesnt apply to illegal targets. The effect may still determine information about illegal targets, though, and other parts of the effect for which those targets are not illegal may still affect them.
The italicized statement I interpreted as being countered with Counterspell. The bold statement is the one I believed only ignored the targeting instructions and performed the rest.
Thanks for clearing it up. The underlined statement is the governing factor in the rule section.
JexInfinite says... #1
When a spell has an illegal target, it cannot resolve.
December 3, 2014 6:14 a.m.