Four Sneaky Targeting Tricks! Did you Know These? | Magic: The Gathering | Phyrexia: All Will Be One 

Or deathtouch

Or Lifelink

Act of Treason is also an untap effect in red. I can't count the number of 3/4 untapped Vampire Nighthawks I got free damage with using Mark of Mutiny in Zendikar limited.

​​​@@Suspinded Also a one shot haste enabler for one of your own team

I have a Krenko commander deck built around using Act of Treason effects to untap my own Krenko as much as possible. It's pretty fun.

self-targeting with an act of treason effect is the whole reason the Kiki-Jiki / Zealous Conscripts combo works.

This goes as well for copy-spell effects. Kicked Rite of Replication targeting my legendary Zada, Hedron Grinder? Yes please!!

A classic! Nice one

They weren't very good rules lawyers then if they were wrong. :D

My understanding was it used to fizzle if it lost any of the targets but that they changed the rules on it couple years ago

They used to be correct, but the rules on spells with multiple targets changed a while ago.

Or banding

Especially in the case of the Mandate, that means the opponent doesn't get the chance to interact. If I have a 1/1, a 3/3, and a 5/5 in play, and you have a 2/2 and a 4/4, if it didn't target, you wouldn't know if you have to try to protect your 4/4 or not.

@@Natedogg2 Personally, I think that's a preferable fail case to having the whole spell fizzle if your creature gets Unsummoned in response.

Glad you enjoyed it!

Full control mode maybe?

I did the part in your first paragraph when I played a Sun Titan to bring back a Reprobation and put it on my opponent's commander that had Ward 7. He said, "Do you have 7 mana to pay?" to which I replied, "No, I don't have to." The table was flabbergasted as I explained and showed the ruling that you only target with auras if they are CAST, not put onto battlefield, thus, you can disable people's commanders that have both boots and greaves if you resurrect a card like Reprobation (or in your case, Zur). This same reason is why Bruna, Light of Alabaster works well with Greaves, as she "puts onto the battlefield," bypassing the Shroud targetting issue, while also dodging Hexproof work arounds like Shadowspear and Archetype of Endurance.

Thank you for watching!!

Glad it was helpful!! And hope to come back sometime for sure. 😅

That feels really messy imo

@@freddiesimmons1394 it is lol

That was actually the ONE(!) thing I learnt from this video. I would have assumed the spell would continue resolving to the best of its ability. I didn't consider that it no longer had any "targets" per se and would therefore fizzle.

You can do it while half way through a brainstorm. You can do it while looking at the top card of your library, although you won't get any new information as it's the same card. While scrying, the cards stay on top during the whole process so you can't see beneath them until afterwards if you put them all on bottom. You can't look beneath a spell that you are casting from the top of your library until you have already chosen the targets/modes, payed for it, and put it on the stack.

Ah yes, single target, and only if that's still valid when the spell starts resolving, somebody might actually lose life. These Bone Splinters effects always have you pay upfront for something that might not actually happen.

Glad to teach something new!!

They were unsure why you'd play such a bad card

It's not bad. That card has helped me achieve more than one victory with my deck, as well as save me from tight spots. It's also unexpected, so people tend to not play around it. There are piles of worse cards out there to be playing...

I will say it's fun to counter Ziatora's treasure generating ability by making her burn target illegal. And while it doesn't come up often, I countered a player's Jeska's Will by killing the player he was targeting with an instant. No mana generated, no cards passion drawn. XD

It does apply. If you target 3 things, and they sacrifice one in response or give it hexproof, the other two still die. It only fizzles if they are all no longer legal targets.

It depends on which modes you choose. If you choose the two targeted modes it will still happen, if you choose the two modes that don't your fine as well, but if only one target (especially the bounce) people can mess you up. When it was played in Standard and Modern you would often see Pro's picking modes that seem less ideal, but make it harder for their opponent to fizzle the spell.

A card only fizzles if all targets are no longer legal. Recover only has one target, so if that is no longer legal it doesn't do anything. Decimate has 4 targets, so if one of them is no longer legal, the rest are still destroyed. It only fizzles if all 4 are no longer legal.

I'm glad you asked because I've wondered the same thing!

Are you thinking of examples like Marionette Master? In that case, you use the creatures' last known power while it was still on the battlefield.

The difference is that there is still at least one legal target. As long as there is one legal target, the spell will try to resolve. Hope that helps!

@@GoodMorningMagic thank you! I think I understand. So if someone was using the "Counter Target Spell" mode of Cryptic Command to counter something and then chose one of my creatures with the "Return Target Permanent" mode. I Doom Blade my creature in response and the counterspell mode still happens because there's still a legal target?

If it uses the word "target", then you have to choose the target on announcement. Since Blast of Genius say "Choose any *target*", that means you have to choose the target on announcement. Same with modes - modes are always chosen on announcement, not on resolution. The Dominance doesn't use the word 'target', so you choose the creature type as part of the spell resolving.

@@Natedogg2 Thanks a lot. So spells that target and spells that have modes choose both when cast and spells that have none of these only do this at resolution? Or are there exceptions you know of?

@@lukasschmitt3075 Modes and targets are chosen on announcement. Everything else (that I can think of) happens on resolution.

Also remember that etb abilities that target (like oblivion ring or frost lynx) also trigger on resolution. You don't need to declare what you targeted until after your opponent has decided whether to counter it. If course they can still respond to the ability after the spell has resolved.

@@seandun7083 Hi, thanks to you, too. But to be clear: A etb trigger with a target that goes onto the stack has to announce his targets when going onto the stack?!

Hypothesizzle (the spell) has no targets. But if you discard a nonland card when it resolves, a reflexive trigger goes on the stack, and that trigger targets (and can be responded to).

@@Natedogg2 Thanks!

Technically, you're putting a trigger on the stack (they're called "reflexive triggers"), and that trigger is what's doing the targeting. Players get a chance to respond to the trigger like normal (so you can still do things in response to the reflexive trigger).

A spell is fizzled if *all* of its targets are invalid. So if you choose a combo for Cryptic that only has one target (like bounce + draw), and that one target gets removed, it fizzles. If you pick counter + bounce, it'll have two targets, so the targeted spell will still get countered even if the targeted creature gets hexproof or something.

The key is all the targets being invalid. Choosing "Tap all creatures..." and "Draw a card" has no targets, for example. "Counter target spell" and "Return target creature..." will both add the targeting requirement that could make this a risk.

Got it, that makes sense. Thanks!