I'm Mike, from The Mana Pool.

I first learned to play around the release of Ice Age (1995-ish) and was strongly involved with playing casually and at local events until early 2020, when I had to back off for obvious reasons. I got back into playing a little bit in 2022 with a few prereleases and casual meet-ups here and there and I still enjoy keeping up with Magic news and new sets.

As a general rule, my deckbuilding is influenced far more than it should be by what I think would be "interesting/fun/funny" instead of what's probably the better choice of cards. The friend who first taught me how to play had a very strong philosophy of "Not every card is good, but pretty much any card can be made good" and the casual groups I spent the most time playing with over the years were always keen on figuring out how to make effective game plans from odd ideas. It was all immensely fun and it's still a big influence on my approach to the game.

I also tend to design and build strictly from my existing collection. If there's a good card for a deck that I don't have in a list, there's a good chance I don't own any, but please suggest it anyway so that maybe I'll remember to go out and find it.

I was a DCI-certified Rules Advisor under older versions of the Magic Judge program and I still keep up with new mechanics and rules changes. I'm the "rules guy" of my casual play group and I like to hang out in the Rules Q&A area here on Tapped Out. If you notice a mistake in one of my responses, don't be shy about pointing it out because above all else, I want whatever question I'm responding to to be answered correctly!

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You can only choose 2 targets. An effect that allows you to choose new targets for a spell/ability or a copy of a spell/ability allows you to change (or leave alone) the targets that were already chosen. If only two targets were chosen for the original Crackle with Power in your example then there's no third target to do anything with.

115.7. Some effects allow a player to change the target(s) of a spell or ability, and other effects allow a player to choose new targets for a spell or ability.
...
115.7d If an effect allows a player to “choose new targets” for a spell or ability, the player may leave any number of the targets unchanged, even if those targets would be illegal. If the player chooses to change some or all of the targets, the new targets must be legal and must not cause any unchanged targets to become illegal.
115.7e When changing targets or choosing new targets for a spell or ability, only the final set of targets is evaluated to determine whether the change is legal.

The reason you can't choose only one target is because a target of a spell can only be chosen multiple times as a target if there are multiple instances of the word "target" in the spell's rules text.

115.3. The same target can’t be chosen multiple times for any one instance of the word “target” on a spell or ability. If the spell or ability uses the word “target” in multiple places, the same object or player can be chosen once for each instance of the word “target” (as long as it fits the targeting criteria). This rule applies both when choosing targets for a spell or ability and when changing targets or choosing new targets for a spell or ability (see rule 115.7).

May 22, 2025 1:38 p.m.

Said on What happens if …...

#2

@Polaris: When an object changes zones, the game treats it as a new game object with no connection to the previous object minus some exceptions needed to make certain kinds of effects work properly. Colossal Grave-Reaver's effect, itself, doesn't fall into one of the exceptions. If something exiles a milled creature after the Reaver's ability triggers, it can't be chosen to be returned to the battlefield because it's not one of the cards that went from the library to the graveyard anymore.

May 13, 2025 8:54 a.m. Edited.

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MTG Decks

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Commander / EDH Rhadamanthus

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Scion of the Ur-Dragon

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SCORE: 72 | 131 COMMENTS | 168664 VIEWS | IN 74 FOLDERS

Muldrotha, the Gravetide

Commander / EDH Rhadamanthus

94 VIEWS | IN 1 FOLDER

Jor Kadeen, the Prevailer

Commander / EDH Rhadamanthus

SCORE: 4 | 7 COMMENTS | 1711 VIEWS | IN 1 FOLDER

Fumiko the Lowblood

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SCORE: 64 | 47 COMMENTS | 25368 VIEWS | IN 20 FOLDERS

5-Color

Casual Rhadamanthus

SCORE: 12 | 30 COMMENTS | 40831 VIEWS | IN 6 FOLDERS

Finished Decks 106
Prototype Decks 7
Drafts 2
Playing since Ice Age
Points 482
Avg. deck rating 10.63
T/O Rank 22
Helper Rank 64
Cards suggested / good suggestions 58 / 46
Venues Lucky's Card Shop, The Toy Factory
Cards Added/Fixed 9
Joined 14 years