GENERAL NOTES
Magic the gathering has been around for over 20 years, constantly introducing a new set every few months, each with hundreds of cards and its own mechanics. With all these new cards and new interactions between them, misconceptions and confusion inevitably occur. Hence, for the purpose of making the game play more fun and more clear to players, a document containing answers to the most important, most common, and most confusing questions players might ask, is published with every new set. However, alongside the new mechanics and interactions the new set brings, we can also find old interactions in the shape of new cards, and see that the more things change, the more they stay the same.
This article series is meant to cover those interactions that repeat in nearly every new set. I would still recommend you go over the Card-Specific Notes in each new set’s Release Notes, but knowing these basic and common interactions will make that reading much simpler.
SPECIFIC NOTES
For this first article lets target a big topic – Target
It is he big daddy of common questions. Let’s begin to break things down:
* Just because something is being affected by a spell or ability doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s a target of it. Rather a spell or ability has a target only if it explicitly uses the phrase “target”. The wording “source” for example isn’t a “target”, so if a spell or ability tells you to choose “a source”, you can choose something that has “shroud”, or an opponent’s creature with “hexproof”.
* An “Enchantment — Aura” spell also requires a target.
* You must have all legal targets in order to cast a spell. You can’t just cast it for other effects it might have.
Confirm Suspicions
{3}{U}{U}
Instant
Counter target spell.
Investigate three times. (To investigate, put a colorless Clue artifact token onto the battlefield with “2, Sacrifice this artifact: Draw a card.”)
* You can’t cast Confirm Suspicions without a legal spell to target, just in order to investigate. You could however target a spell that can’t be countered, and while in this case it won’t be countered, you will still get to investigate.
* Likewise, if an ability triggers or you’re somehow forced to cast a spell, and you’re the only player who has a legal target for it, you have to choose it as the target, even if you don’t want to.
Crumbling Ashes
{1}{B}
Enchantment
At the beginning of your upkeep, destroy target creature with a -1/-1 counter on it.
* This ability is mandatory. If you’re the only player who controls a creature with a -1/-1 counter on it as your upkeep begins, you must target one of your own creatures.
* Targets are declared as part of the process of putting the spell or ability on the stack, not as it resolves. Other things, like “a source”, “a creature”, “an opponent”, and so on, are chosen upon resolution.
* If all the targets are illegal when the spell or ability tries to resolve, it will be countered and none of its effects will happen.
Anguished Unmaking
{1}{W}{B}
Instant
Exile target nonland permanent. You lose 3 life.
* If the nonland permanent becomes an illegal target, Anguished Unmaking is countered. You won’t lose 3 life.
* The same target can’t be chosen multiple times for any one instance of the word “target” on a spell or ability.
Dual Shot
{R}
Instant
Dual Shot deals 1 damage to each of up to two target creatures.
* You can’t target the same creature twice to have Dual Shot deal 2 damage to it.
* However, if the spell or ability uses the word “target” in multiple places, the same target can be chosen once for each instance of the word “target”, as long as it’s a legal choice for all instances.
Common Bond
{1}{G}{W}
Instant
Put a +1/+1 counter on target creature.
Put a +1/+1 counter on target creature.
* You may choose the same creature for both targets. You may also choose two different creatures. This is because the word “target” is used more than once.
* One last thing – A spell or ability on the stack can’t target itself (remember that Confirm Suspicions from before?).
I seem to be stuck
Some spells tap a creature and keep it from untapping during its controller’s next untap step. Those spells can target a creature that is already tapped, and track the creature, not its controller, meaning if someone else gains control of that creature, it won’t untap during its new controller’s next untap step.
Rush of Ice
{U}
Sorcery
Tap target creature. It doesn’t untap during its controller’s next untap step.
Awaken 3—{4}{U} (If you cast this spell for {4}{U}, also put three +1/+1 counters on target land you control and it becomes a 0/0 Elemental creature with haste. It’s still a land.)
* Rush of Ice can target a creature that’s already tapped. It still won’t untap during its controller’s next untap step.
* Rush of Ice tracks the creature, but not its controller. If the creature changes controllers before its first controller’s next untap step has come around, then it won’t untap during its new controller’s next untap step.
* After resolution the effect tracks the permanent, and will apply to it even if it stops being a creature. For example, an animated Shambling Vent that was affected by Rush of Ice won’t untap during its controller’s next untap step, even if it’s not a creature at that time.
Shambling Vent
Land
Shambling Vent enters the battlefield tapped.
Tap: Add {W} or {B} to your mana pool.
{1}{W}{B}: Shambling Vent becomes a 2/3 white and black Elemental creature with lifelink until end of turn. It’s still a land.
We’ve got time for one more topic – Exile
Some permanents exile (on some older cards – “remove from the game”) creatures or permanents after they enter the battlefield, and keep them in exile for as long as they remain on the battlefield. Those permanents have a single ability that creates two one-shot effects: one that exiles the permanent when the ability resolves, and another that returns the exiled card to the battlefield immediately after the card that caused the exile leaves the battlefield.
Auras attached to an exiled permanent will be put into their owners’ graveyards, and equipment attached to an exiled creature will become unattached and remain on the battlefield. If the exiled permanent is a token, it ceases to exist right after leaving the battlefield. If the permanent which caused the exile leaves the battlefield, the exiled card returns to the battlefield immediately – Nothing happens between the two events.
* If the exiling permanent leaves the battlefield before its triggered ability resolves, the target permanent won’t be exiled.
Stasis Snare
{1}{W}{W}
Enchantment
Flash (You may cast this spell any time you could cast an instant.)
When Stasis Snare enters the battlefield, exile target creature an opponent controls until Stasis Snare leaves the battlefield. (That creature returns under its owner’s control.)
* If Stasis Snare leaves the battlefield before its triggered ability resolves, the target creature won’t be exiled.
* Auras attached to the exiled creature will be put into their owners’ graveyards. Equipment attached to the exiled creature will become unattached and remain on the battlefield. Any counters on the exiled creature will cease to exist.
* If a creature token is exiled, it ceases to exist. It won’t be returned to the battlefield.
* The exiled card returns to the battlefield immediately after Stasis Snare leaves the battlefield. Nothing happens between the two events, including state-based actions.
* In a multiplayer game, if Stasis Snare’s owner leaves the game, the exiled card will return to the battlefield. Because the one-shot effect that returns the card isn’t an ability that goes on the stack, it won’t cease to exist along with the leaving player’s spells and abilities on the stack.
Other kind of permanents actually have two abilities – one that exiles creatures or permanents when they enter the battlefield, and one that returns them when those permanents leave the battlefield.
Oblivion Ring
{2}{W}
Enchantment
When Oblivion Ring enters the battlefield, exile another target nonland permanent.
When Oblivion Ring leaves the battlefield, return the exiled card to the battlefield under its owner’s control.
* If Oblivion Ring leaves the battlefield before the first ability has resolved, the second ability will trigger and resolve while the first ability is still on the stack. The second ability won’t do anything because there isn’t an “exiled card” yet. Then, when the first ability resolves, it will exile the nonland permanent. Oblivion Ring has already left the battlefield at this point, so the nonland permanent card will have no way to return.
* If the exiled card is an Aura, that card’s owner chooses what it will enchant as it comes back onto the battlefield. An Aura put onto the battlefield this way doesn’t target anything, but the Aura’s enchant ability defines what it can be attached to. If the Aura can’t legally be attached to anything, it remains exiled.
By the way, it doesn’t have to be a permanent that is exiled, for example Spell Queller.
One last reminder – cards are always exiled face up unless the effect that’s exiling them says otherwise.
