Wednesday, May 22, 2013

Optional abilities and targeting

Assume that you control a Phantasmal Bear and no other creatures, and then you cast Restoration Angel.


The question is: Do you have to sacrifice the Bear?

A good majority of players, even experienced ones, will say that no, because Angel's ability says "may." However, this is incorrect, and it's one of the most unintuitive aspects of the game (one which probably causes protest and disappointments from beginners.)

What's happening here is that when Restoration Angel enters the battlefield, its triggered ability will trigger regardless of whether you want to eventually use it or not. The optionality brought by the word "may" is only in effect when the ability resolves. (In other words, whenever a spell or ability says that you "may" do something, it means effectively "when this effect resolves, you may" do that thing.)

When an ability triggers, if it's a targeting ability, its controller must give it a legal target, if one exists. This is not optional. If there's only one legal target, that will be chosen for the ability. (The special case is when there are no legal targets. In that case the ability just "fizzles" and doesn't even enter the stack.)

Thus, if Phantasmal Bear is the only creature you control when you cast Restoration Angel, you have no choice but to target the former with the Angel's ability, regardless of what you would choose when said ability would resolve. As said, the choice is made only on resolution, not when the ability triggers.

And since Phantasmal Bear is being targeted by an ability, you have to sacrifice it. (The Bear's ability is also a triggered one, because it starts with "when", but it goes to the stack after the Angel's ability, and therefore resolves first. Thus the Bear is sacrificed before the Angel's ability has the chance to do its thing. And once the latter resolves, the Bear has become an illegal target because it's not on the battlefield anymore, and therefore the ability does nothing.)

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