Force of Will and Misdirection

[raharu]

IF you want to Misdirect a Force of Will to make it useless, can you re-aim the Fow at itself? Is it possible to aim the Fow at Misdirection, and then when FoW resolves it's target isn't on the stack so it fizzles i.e. is useless?

[diffy]

Short answer: Yes.

Not-so short answer:



Q: I play Lightning Bolt. My opponent casts Counterspell. May I cast Misdirection to re-direct his Counterspell to itself?

A: No. A spell may never target itself (Comprehensive Rules, Glossary, "Target"). You could, however, have the Counterspell target the Misdirection, effectively giving you the same result (not having the Lightning Bolt countered). Note that on Misdirection, you choose the new target for the original spell on Misdirection's resolution (you choose which spell to target on Misdirection's announcement).


Seriously, this (http://starcitygames.com/pages/judgefinder.php?keywords=starcitygames&Submit2=Ask+The+Judge%21) function has a lot of questions answered already, you just have to interpret some of the questions to fit your own question, but I rarely find that something hasn't been covered yet.

Explanation of what happens:

You cast something.
Your opponent FoWs it.
You play Misdirection.
Misdirection goes onto the stack.
You chose the targets for Misdirection switching FoWs target to Misdirection which is a legal target at the time (it is on the stack because it hasn't resolved yet).
Misdirection resolves.
FoW resolves and fizzles because its target is gone.

[raharu]

Thank you.

[quicksilver]

If spells could target themselves Arcane Denial would be rediculous, two mana, draw 3 cards with an alternate ability of being able to counter a spell.

[emidln]

If spells could target themselves Arcane Denial would be rediculous, two mana, draw 3 cards with an alternate ability of being able to counter a spell.

I played like this for the first two or three years that I played magic. Arcane Denial was tits. Too bad I started playing with people who read the rulebook.

[freakish777]

If spells could target themselves Arcane Denial would be rediculous, two mana, draw 3 cards with an alternate ability of being able to counter a spell.

Except it would also be countered, and countered spells don't resolve, so you would draw no cards! Spells can't target themselves due to this paradox.

[bigbear102]

All I know about this is back in the day I beat my buddies Megrim deck by casting my counterspells targeting nothing and having them fizzle so I didn't have to discard them (He played stuff like Dauthi Mindripper and Disrupting Scepter, so I couldn't just counter his discard).

We both agreed that Dismiss-type counters did not draw me a card though, cuz we knew not having a legal target countered the spell, we just didn't know that a target was required to cast it... oops. And that was a sanctioned tournament match back in the 1.5 days.

[Willoe]

Can you actually do that? Play a spell that requires a target then not choosing any target or is this an illegal move? I am confused about this because I've never used it, but it might come handy someday.

[Jander78]

Can you actually do that? Play a spell that requires a target then not choosing any target or is this an illegal move? I am confused about this because I've never used it, but it might come handy someday.
No. If a spell targets you can not announce the spell without legal targets.

[midnightAce]

I'm pretty sure that play is legal. Choosing 0 for LftL target, and just to play the Loam to get it in the yard seems perfectly legal to me.


Q: My friend (who is also a level 2 judge) says that to activate Conjurer's Bauble's ability you have to have a card in the graveyard. He says that you need to have a target because it checks for one. I say he is wrong because you have the ability to target zero objects. So if you say "I want to place zero cards on the bottom of my library," it has to check for 0 targets. There have been many times in draft were I would play it on turn one and wish I could use it to draw the card.

A: You are correct in this case. Conjurer's Bauble says that you may put "up to" one target card from your graveyard on the bottom of your library, and this may be either zero or one. You can still draw a card even if you choose to have no targets for the ability.

The above is quoted from Saturday school on a similar situation, in both instances, I believe the "up to x" clause covers 0 as a possible target number.