Can you play this when....
Asked by WiseHeart65 14 years ago
can you play a card like Aura Finesse or Repel the Darkness , when there is no aura or to target, or no creatures to target?
mistergreen527 says... Accepted answer #2
After doing some more research, I have to correct myself. If a spell doesn't have any valid targets at the time it was cast, the action is actually reversed. The card will remain in your hand and you may take back any costs you paid. A spell will only "fizzle" if it had a valid target at the time it was cast and all of its targets are illegal at the time of resolution.
Rule 715.1:
If a player realizes that he or she cant legally take an action after starting to do so, the entire action is reversed and any payments already made are canceled. No abilities trigger and no effects apply as a result of an undone action. If the action was casting a spell, the spell returns to the zone it came from. The player may also reverse any legal mana abilities activated while making the illegal play, unless mana from them or from any triggered mana abilities they triggered was spent on another mana ability that wasnt reversed. Players may not reverse actions that moved cards to a library, moved cards from a library to any zone other than the stack, or caused a library to be shuffled.
September 13, 2010 12:22 p.m.
Aura Finesse - No, you need a target aura, but you don't need to move the aura away from the creature it targets! After all, there's nothing to stop you from targetting the creature to have the aura atached. But if there's no aura, then as mistergreen527 has quite rightly pointed out... it will bounce if there was no valid target, or fizzle if there was, but was taken away before the spell resolved.
Repel the Darkness is a different matter. The Key word used is 'UP TO'... which means you don't need to target anything!
"I tap 0 creatures, and still draw a card".
Up to means you can tap between no creatures, 1 creature or 2.
I apologies if I'm sounding like I'm being a pr*ck, but trust me, this kind of thing is what people overlook and in many a game can catch them out.
mistergreen527 says... #1
You can cast them. However, without a target, the spell will "fizzle." It will have no effect and you won't get to draw your card.
September 13, 2010 12:01 p.m.