Spellstutter sprite

[Waikiki]

This is the situation


My opponent cast spell snare to counter my 2drop.
I cast spellstutter sprite to counter the snare.

The sprite is my only faerie.

My opponent responds by killing the sprite before the ability resolves.

The local judge says the snare is countered anyways altho there are 0 faeries there when the trigger resolves.




Later vs another opponent a situation alsmost the same appears and now the sprite does not counter.

What is right?

[yggdrasil]

The judge was rightwrong. The number of fairies is part of the targeting restriction, so it is checked again when the ability tries to resolve. When the restriction is not met, the ability is countered.



a situation alsmost the same
If it is not the same, and you are not going to tell us what is different, then we cannot really say anything about the new situation. Chances are you missed a little detail.

[Waikiki]

actually the same

He plays nactal -> I sprite it, then oponent cast bolt on faerie.


I would like to get some official ruling on this.

[cdr]

Like yggdrasil said, the number of faeries is checked when the ability resolves. At that point there are zero faeries, so a 1cc spell won't be countered.

[Tinefol]

* 10/1/2007: The value of X needs to be determined both when the ability triggers (so you can choose a target) and again when the ability resolves (to check if that target is still legal). If the number of Faeries you control has decreased enough in that time to make the target illegal, Spellstutter Sprite's ability will be countered (and the targeted spell will resolve as normal).

[thefreakaccident]

I have had a lot of situations where you can get a sneaky counter on someone who isn't paying attention to your lands (trigger still on stack, activate mutavault).

[cdr]

I have had a lot of situations where you can get a sneaky counter on someone who isn't paying attention to your lands (trigger still on stack, activate mutavault).

Bad idea. You choose the target when Spellstutter Sprite's ability goes on the stack - if you haven't activated Mutavault at that point, good luck targeting what you want to counter.

[yggdrasil]

He probably meant to activate mutavault to up the fairy count again after the opponent reduced it with a Bolt like in the situations above. And that works fine.

[Waikiki]

Ok thnx for clearing that up!

[johanessen]

Bad idea. You choose the target when Spellstutter Sprite's ability goes on the stack - if you haven't activated Mutavault at that point, good luck targeting what you want to counter.


Opponent plays Goose
I play Sprite
Opponent Bolts the Sprite with the counter ab. on stack
Activate Muta

Goose gets countered, right?

[quicksilver]

Opponent plays Goose
I play Sprite
Opponent Bolts the Sprite with the counter ab. on stack
Activate Muta

Goose gets countered, right?

Yes. In that situation there is one faerie in play when it goes on the stack and one in play when it resolves. It does not check at any point in between those two steps, so you can go down to zero and back up to one and the spell will not notice.

[thefreakaccident]

Bad idea. You choose the target when Spellstutter Sprite's ability goes on the stack - if you haven't activated Mutavault at that point, good luck targeting what you want to counter.

Most of the time it is when they think they're being smart by removing the sprite... maybe i shoulda clarified...

[johanessen]

Most of the time it is when they think they're being smart by removing the sprite... maybe i shoulda clarified...

He means at the time you choose target spell it has to be a valid target.



The value of X needs to be determined both when the ability triggers (so you can choose a target) and again when the ability resolves (to check if that target is still legal). If the number of Faeries you control has decreased enough in that time to make the target illegal, Spellstutter Sprite's ability will be countered (and the targeted spell will resolve as normal).

[Koby]

Spellstutter Sprite has two checks to make:

1) When it comes into play, it looks for a spell with CC = # of faeries in play. If the # of fae >= spell's CC, the trigger occurs.
2) When the trigger resolves, if the # of fae >= the spell's CC, the spell is countered.

Example:
On the battlefield: Blitterblossom, Faerie Rogue token, 2 island 1 swamp.

Your opponent casts a Knight of the Reliquary. You cast Spellstutter Sprite to try to counter his creature. Your opponent responds with a Lightning Bolt on the Fae token, leaving you with only 1 Faerie permanent on the battlefield. SSS enters the battlefield but no trigger occurs. In this scenario, Knight of the Reliquary will not be targeted by SSS.

Same scenario, but different timing:
SSS comes into play, and its ability triggers. In response your opponent Bolts the SSS, leaving you with only 2 Fae permanents on the battlefield. The SSS trigger fails its second check and does nothing to the Knight of Reliquary.

[thefreakaccident]

He means at the time you choose target spell it has to be a valid target.

I know... that's why i said i should have clarified.