Let’s say you’re playing against an aggressive mono-red player. You’ve managed to clear their board, but now they’re just pointing their burn spells at your head. You’re at 3, and they point a Lighting Strike at you. All you’re holding is a Foul-Tongue Invocation and a Dragonlord Silumgar. Can you survive?
The answer is yes. You can cast the Invocation, revealing the Dragonlord, targeting your opponent. The life gain is not linked to the targeted player actually sacrificing a creature: to get the life gain, you just need to reveal or control a Dragon when you cast the Invocation. Even if the targeted player can’t sacrifice a creature, you’ll still gain the 4 life.
In this case, to survive, just cast the Invocation, revealing the Dragonlord. Even if they can’t sacrifice a creature, you’ll still gain 4 life, and live to fight for another turn.
Today’s Rules Tip was written by Nathan Long