Angel of Serenity has a somewhat unique ability, in that sometimes you target things that you wouldn’t mind being exiled forever at the same time that you target something you’d rather get back in your hand. So what happens if the Angel enters and you choose targets, but the Angel is Murdered before the ability resolves?

The Angel’s ETB ability has a “may” in it. That means you choose whether or not you want to exile the targets at the time the ability resolves. So your Angel enters, and you choose to target your opponent’s Olivia Voldaren and Thragtusk on the battlefield, plus the Thragtusk in your graveyard. In response, the opponent casts Ultimate Price on your Angel, which causes the Angel to die and the LTB ability to trigger (while the ETB triggered ability is still on the bottom of the stack). The LTB ability will resolve, but it won’t do anything because nothing was exiled by the ETB ability yet. Now when the ETB ability goes to resolve, you have to choose whether or not to use the “may” ability. If you do, you’ll exile all three targets permanently, since the object they would be linked to is no longer there.

Unfortunately, you can’t choose to partially resolve the ability by only exiling two of your original 3 targets. It has to be all or nothing. To get rid of your opponent’s Olivia and Thragtusk, you’ll have to give up the chance of ever seeing your dead Thragtusk again.

Today’s Rules Tip written by
Josh Stansfield, as suggested by reader Pal-Kristian Engstad