Judge Ruling

billjoar · Joined: 30 Nov 2007 Posts: 26

okay so im at the prerelease, currently in a match. My opponent casts a profane command for 5 or something, with me at 5 life. he chooses to make me lose five life and for my creature to get -x/-x. I didnt actually control a creature so i told my opponent that the spell fizzled because he didnt choose a legal target. He called a judge and the judge ruled in favor of my opponent saying that only 50% of a spell has to work for a spell not to fizzle. So my question is: why can't a player play a card like decimate if all the targets aren't there but a player can play a profane command if all the targets arent there?

dickburns88 · Joined: 03 Oct 2007 Posts: 37

the judge is half right if you destroy 1 of the tagets the spell doesnot fizzle but u do have to have 2 legal targets. im sure he had a creature in his graveyard anywhat to target

Craze · Joined: 30 Jan 2005 Posts: 5384 Location: Indiana, U

SteveMan · Joined: 13 Apr 2007 Posts: 11

There's something unclear in your description...

Did you not control a creature when he casted Profane Command? Or did you have a creature then responded by sacrifcing you creature or something. If there are no creatures in play / graveyard, your opponent would not have been able to cast Profane Command because every choice requires one target.

If you did have a creature and responded to Profane Command by sacrificing it or something, the spell will still resolve because it still has a legal target. Many people confuse this ruling with Cryptic Command. Say you target a permanent to bounce and you choose to draw a card. If that permanent is no longer a legal target upon resolution, the entire spell becomes countered because it has zero legal targets.

Get my drift?

Hardtrack · Joined: 10 Aug 2005 Posts: 310

If that judge let him play the spell without the required targets, he's an idiot. You have to have all the targets to be able to play a spell. If you try to play it without all the targets the playing is reversed and everyone pretends nothing was played.

If he had all the targets when he played it, but one of the targets became illegal (and at least one other target was still legal) the spell resolves and tries to do as much as possible to the targets that are still there.

supernova87 · Joined: 23 Dec 2007 Posts: 1

well if the judge didnt let him play the spell most likely it would be placed back in the players hand anyway and the mana untapped then ur opponent would read the card and see that the fear mode of profane command can be played without haveing cretures in play and still deal the 5 damage to u.

billjoar · Joined: 30 Nov 2007 Posts: 26

yeah, there had been no creature in play when he had cast the profane command.

SteveMan · Joined: 13 Apr 2007 Posts: 11

If there wasn't a legal target for a the second choice of Profane Command, that means he could not have legally announced the spell.

NahHolmes · Joined: 13 Jan 2005 Posts: 588

He could still play Profane Command by choosing you lose X life and up to X creatures get fear until EOT. Then he could choose "up to X' to be zero. GG.

billjoar · Joined: 30 Nov 2007 Posts: 26

how is that GG you tard? were not talking about what could have happened, were talking about what did.

NahHolmes · Joined: 13 Jan 2005 Posts: 588

YTheAlien · Joined: 22 Mar 2007 Posts: 59

billjoar · Joined: 30 Nov 2007 Posts: 26

yes you answered my question...

this is what you said then:

a player can't play a card like decimate if all the targets aren't there but a player can play a profane command if all the targets arent there because your opponent could still play Profane Command by choosing you lose X life and up to X creatures get fear until EOT.

Me saying if all the target aren't there, its implying that he chose something that must target and that there wasnt anything for it to target, which puts the porfane command in the context of the situation.

youre not answering the question, youre telling me what could happen after the spell returns to the player's hand, tard.

And yes, i know what profane command does, I wasn't really looking for an answer here, i know that the profane command just gets replayed i was just hoping for some people to flame the stupid judge who said that only 50% of a spell has to have a legal target at the time it was played for it to resolve.

NahHolmes · Joined: 13 Jan 2005 Posts: 588

You're just pissed because you thought he couldn't have killed you otherwise so you came here to complain, but then you read my post and realized he would have won anyways. I mean you said the spell fizzled so obviously you don't know how Command works.

dt · Joined: 13 Nov 2007 Posts: 45