countered on resolution

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Hello all,

I was wondering when spells get countered on resolution. I mean, there are
spells that cannot resolve completely, and therefore get countered
completely. Others resolve as much as possible. How can I see what spells
resolve as much as possible, and what spells don't.
Also on the same note, what happens if one of the parts of a spliced spell
gets countered for whatever reason?

Greetz Nico

 

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Archived from groups: rec.games.trading-cards.magic.rules (More info?)

Nico wrote:

> Hello all,
>
> I was wondering when spells get countered on resolution. I mean, there are
> spells that cannot resolve completely, and therefore get countered
> completely. Others resolve as much as possible. How can I see what spells
> resolve as much as possible, and what spells don't.
> Also on the same note, what happens if one of the parts of a spliced spell
> gets countered for whatever reason?
>
> Greetz Nico

The rule is, if a spell has any targets, and *all* targets are invalid
on resolution, the spell is countered on resolution. Otherwise, the
spell does as much of its effect as it can. It can't do anything to
invalid targets and it can't do something that is plain impossible,
but the rest is done.

You can't counter "part" of spliced spell. When you splice, the
text of the spliced card is appended to the main spell; there is
still only one spell. If you counter it, you counter all of it.
If the main spell has one target, and the card you spliced has
one target, the spell now has two targets. If one becomes invalid,
the rest of both parts of the spell still happens. It would take
*both* of them becoming invalid to counter the spliced spell on
resolution. Conversely, if the main spell had no targets and
the spliced card had one, then after splicing, if that one
target becomes invalid, the spliced spell is countered on
resolution and none of either part happens.
--
Christopher Mattern

"Which one you figure tracked us?"
"The ugly one, sir."
"...Could you be more specific?"

 

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Archived from groups: rec.games.trading-cards.magic.rules (More info?)

Oh no! It's Nico!
> Hello all,
>
> I was wondering when spells get countered on resolution.

The only time this happens is if the spell has one or more targets, and
all of the targets are invalid for some reason (no longer there, have
gained Protection from the spell's colors, etc) on resolution. This is
relatively easy to arrange on spells with one target, but on spells with
more than one - there always were some but they're much more common now
with the advent of Splice - it can be a lot trickier to arrange.

> I mean, there are
> spells that cannot resolve completely, and therefore get countered
> completely. Others resolve as much as possible. How can I see what spells
> resolve as much as possible, and what spells don't.

The above about sums it up. If you're not sure whether something is
targeted, there are only two times when it is:
* It is a local enchantment. [1]
* It specifically uses the word "target"[2]. It targets all and only the
things described immediately after each occurrence of the word "target".

And some footnotes for the finer points:

[1] And contrary to popular belief, these target the permanent they're
going to enchant only when they are spells on the stack, not once
they're in play (the do go to the graveyard if the permanent they're
enchanting leaves play, but for different reasons).

[2] IMPORTANT - use the current Oracle text for this, not necessarily
the wording printed on the card. Cards since Urza's Legacy will
generally be pretty good here but many cards from earlier sets will use
the word "target" when by current standards they shouldn't, and quite a
few pre-Mirage ones will fail to use it when by current standards they
should.


> Also on the same note, what happens if one of the parts of a spliced spell
> gets countered for whatever reason?

It depends what you mean by countered. Countering a spell is all or
nothing, but I suspect you're including things that are not, strictly
speaking, countering anything.

The answer to your question is that it works like any other spell. If
whatever prevented part of the spell from working happened to make the
only target (or all the targets) invalid, then the spell (the whole
thing including any and all splices) is countered, if not, as much of it
resolves as possible.

For example, say you play Reach Through Mists and Splice on a Glacial
Ray, targeting one of your opponent's creatures. Normally Reach through
Mists has no target, but in this case it does - the Spliced-on Glacial
Ray's target. If that creature leaves play, gains protection from blue
(NOT red), or gains "This creature can't be the target of spells or
abilities, nyah nyah" before the Reach Through Mists resolves, the whole
thing is countered and you don't get to draw a card.

 

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Archived from groups: rec.games.trading-cards.magic.rules (More info?)

On Wed, 24 Nov 2004 16:55:07 +0100, Nico <nn@nn.nn> wrote:
>I was wondering when spells get countered on resolution.

Only if a) they have one or more targets and b) all their targets have become
illegal by resolution time.

>I mean, there are
>spells that cannot resolve completely,

Yes.

>and therefore get countered completely.

Er: no. "Cannot resolve completely" is not the identifier used, at all.

>Others resolve as much as possible. How can I see what spells
>resolve as much as possible, and what spells don't.

Simple: look for the word "target" in Oracle text, for Instants or Sorceries.
(Local enchantment spells are the only spells that are targetted but don't say
so.) Creature, artifact, and global enchantment spells aren't targetted, so
never get countered on resolution.

>Also on the same note, what happens if one of the parts of a spliced spell
>gets countered for whatever reason?

You can't "counter part of a spell". Either the spell gets countered, entirely,
by some spell or ability; the spell gets countered by the rules because it
has one or more targets and ALL of them are illegal on resolution; or the
spell resolves.

Dave "or, of course, it gets removed from the game by Ertai's Meddling or
Time Stop" DeLaney
--
\/David DeLaney posting from dbd@vic.com "It's not the pot that grows the flower
It's not the clock that slows the hour The definition's plain for anyone to see
Love is all it takes to make a family" - R&P. VISUALIZE HAPPYNET VRbeable<BLINK>
http://www.vic.com/~dbd/ - net.legends FAQ & Magic / I WUV you in all CAPS! --K.