I was looking through some old cards and came across Soul Echo. The relevant Oracle text:
At the beginning of your upkeep, sacrifice Soul Echo if there are no echo counters on it. Otherwise, target opponent may choose that for each 1 damage that would be dealt to you until your next upkeep, you remove an echo counter from Soul Echo instead.
Question #1. What happens if my (only) opponent has an Ivory Mask in play?
Question #2. What happens if that same opponent has a Mask in play and Soul Echo has no more echo counters on it? Is the triggered ability contingent on having a valid target?
As odd as it may sound the answer to both question 1 and question 2 is that the ability will never be put onto the stack and will never be sacrificed for having 0 or less counters.
Whenever a spell or ability is put onto the stack if it requires a target then a target must be chosen for it. If there is no legal target at the time a triggered ability would trigger then the ability is simply never put onto the stack at all.
As odd as it may sound the answer to both question 1 and question 2 is that the ability will never be put onto the stack and will never be sacrificed for having 0 or less counters.
Whenever a spell or ability is put onto the stack if it requires a target then a target must be chosen for it. If there is no legal target at the time a triggered ability would trigger then the ability is simply never put onto the stack at all.
This was what I suspected, but I needed confirmation. Thanks.
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At the beginning of your upkeep, sacrifice Soul Echo if there are no echo counters on it. Otherwise, target opponent may choose that for each 1 damage that would be dealt to you until your next upkeep, you remove an echo counter from Soul Echo instead.
Question #1. What happens if my (only) opponent has an Ivory Mask in play?
Question #2. What happens if that same opponent has a Mask in play and Soul Echo has no more echo counters on it? Is the triggered ability contingent on having a valid target?
Whenever a spell or ability is put onto the stack if it requires a target then a target must be chosen for it. If there is no legal target at the time a triggered ability would trigger then the ability is simply never put onto the stack at all.
This was what I suspected, but I needed confirmation. Thanks.