What happens when oblivion ring targets a mother of runes, and mother of runes is tapped in response to protect it from white?
Asked by evantyde 1 year ago
I am wondering if oblivion ring must choose a new target or fizzle in this situation, also if there is another creature on the field will oblivion ring be forced to choose that as the new target?
Rhadamanthus says... Accepted answer #2
In the way you describe the situation, the triggered ability from Oblivion Ring would simply fizzle and do nothing. There won't be another target chosen.
The ability that triggers when Oblivion Ring enters the battlefield has a target, but Oblivion Ring doesn't have any targets when it's being cast as a spell (contrast this with Auras, which do need to have a valid target for their "Enchant N" ability when being cast). It would be perfectly legal to cast an Oblivion Ring while no nonland permanents are on the board, and then the trigger will just do nothing if a legal target can't be chosen for it.
In your example: Oblivion Ring is cast, it enters the battlefield, the ability triggers and targets Mother of Runes, then Mother of Runes is activated in response to protect itself. When the triggered ability tries to start resolving it will see that it has no legal targets and will fizzle.
However, if Mother of Runes was activated after Oblivion Ring was cast but before it entered the battlefield (and before a target for the trigger is chosen), then Oblivion Ring's controller will have to choose something else to target with the triggered ability after it enters the battlefield.
January 27, 2023 2:28 p.m.
Rhadamanthus says... #3
evantyde: An answer to your question has been up for a while. Since there don't seem to be any follow-ups or corrections to be made, I marked it as the "Accepted answer" so your topic can move out of the list of unanswered questions. In the future you can take care of this yourself using the "Mark as Answer" button on the response that you feel best answers your question.
I try to avoid choosing my own responses when I do this, but in this case it was the only option.
evantyde says... #1
I think I might have figured it out: Oblivion Ring must have a legal target when being played, so by tapping Mother of Runes, that target is no longer legal and can not be chosen. If there were another creature out that creature would have to be chosen instead as a legal target.
January 27, 2023 10:45 a.m.