Sacrifice: Has it a target or is it global
nobodyFTW
better...
Therefore i will give you an example:
I have one Bile Urchin:
1/1 with sacrifice bile urchin: target player loses 1 life
and two Vampire Aristocrat:
2/2 with sacrifice a creature: vampire aristocrat get +2/+2 until end
of turn
My opponent forces me to sacrifice a creature (i.e. gatekeeper of
malakkir with kicker)
and therefore i sacrifice my bile urchin
In this situation: which of the abilities will take effect?
Does you have to specify a target for which you sacrifice a creature
or is it just global and every abilities which has the cost to
sacrifice something, will take effect?
Haran Pilpel
> I have one Bile Urchin:
Bile Urchin {B}
Creature - Spirit
Sacrifice Bile Urchin: Target player loses 1 life.
1/1
> and two Vampire Aristocrat:
Vampire Aristocrat {2}{B}
Creature - Vampire Rogue
Sacrifice a creature: Vampire Aristocrat gets +2/+2 until end of turn.
2/2
> My opponent forces me to sacrifice a creature (i.e. gatekeeper of
> malakkir with kicker)
Gatekeeper of Malakir {B}{B}
Creature - Vampire Warrior
Kicker {B}
When Gatekeeper of Malakir enters the battlefield, if it was kicked,
target player sacrifices a creature.
2/2
> and therefore i sacrifice my bile urchin
>
> In this situation: which of the abilities will take effect?
Bile Urchin and Vampire Aristocrat have activated abilities which have
costs. (A cost is anything to the left of the colon.) In order to
activate an ability, you have to pay the cost for the purpose of playing
that ability. In order to work the other way, it would probably be
phrased as a triggered ability instead, like so:
When Bile Urchin is sacrificed, target player loses 1 life.
> Does you have to specify a target for which you sacrifice a creature
> or is it just global and every abilities which has the cost to
> sacrifice something, will take effect?
"Target" is a bad choice of word (because the word "target" has a
specific meaning in Magic); but yes, you have to announce that you're
activating an ability and then pay its cost, and then that cost is
paid only for that ability. This applies to sacrifices as well as
other costs. For example, if a Llanowar Elves is tapped using Twiddle,
you don't get any mana; if you have three Pestilence cards on the
battlefield, you can't pay {B} and get to do 3 damage to every
creature and player.
So the answer to your original question is that none of the abilities
activate; the Bile Urchin will be sacrificed, and anything that
triggers off sacrifices will happen. For example, if you have Dragon's
Appeasement on the battlefield, you'll get to draw a card.
Haran
David DeLaney
>Sorry for the strange title, but i don't know how to describe it
>better...
If it doesn't say "sacrifice target Blah" (and NOTHING says that) then it's
not a targetted sacrifice. "Sacrifice" means "put it into your graveyard from
your side of the battlefield, unpreventably"; there's nothing targetted about
it.
>Therefore i will give you an example:
>
>I have one Bile Urchin:
>1/1 with sacrifice bile urchin: target player loses 1 life
Bile Urchin B Creature - Spirit
(1/1) Sacrifice Bile Urchin: Target player loses 1 life.
It's _ALWAYS_ better to copy and paste from Oracle than to try to retype the
whole text yourself, just so you know. (Oracle is the card wording database
that gatherer.wizards.com draws from.)
This targets a player. It does not target the Bile Urchin. It does not target
the life point either.
>and two Vampire Aristocrat:
>2/2 with sacrifice a creature: vampire aristocrat get +2/+2 until end
>of turn
Vampire Aristocrat 2B Creature - Vampire Rogue
(2/2) Sacrifice a creature: Vampire Aristocrat gets +2/+2 until end of turn.
This does not target anything at all; the word "target" does not appear in
it anywhere, and it is not an Aura spell being cast.
>My opponent forces me to sacrifice a creature (i.e. gatekeeper of
>malakkir with kicker)
>and therefore i sacrifice my bile urchin
>
>In this situation: which of the abilities will take effect?
None of them. You have not declared you are using either ability, and have
not put either ability on the stack. Neither ability is a TRIGGERED ability -
neither one starts off "Whenever you sacrifice a creature, ~ gets...".
These are ACTIVATED abilities; they have to be specifically used in order to
"go off". They NEVER "go off" by themselves, or 'when something that looks like
their cost takes place', or anything like that.
If your opponent is forcing you to sacrifice a creature, then you choose and
sacrifice one _for that reason_. Since you're sacrificing it for that reason,
you can't "sacrifice it at the same time for another reason" or anything like
that, so you can't say "I -also- pay the cost of this activated ability with
this sacrifice", any more than you could say "My opponent has cast Mana Short
on me, which empties my mana pool, so AS it is being emptied I _also_ use
that mana to do Blah".
You can certainly RESPOND to opponent's spell with one or the other ability,
if you like - or even with both. But if you do, YOU are paying the cost of
the ability on announcement, the ability goes on the stack on top of opponent's
spell, and the ability resolves before opponent's spell ever gets a chance
to resolve. So, later when that spell resolves, you have to sacrifice a
creature -from among those you control at that time-, which won't include any
you sacrificed earlier to pay the cost of their own ability.
>Does you have to specify a target for which you sacrifice a creature
>or is it just global and every abilities which has the cost to
>sacrifice something, will take effect?
Sacrifices aren't targetted. If your opponent has a spell on the stack that,
when it resolves, tells you to sacrifice a creature? The only way you get out
of that is by not _controlling_ any creatures at the time that spell resolves.
And any sacrificing you do _because that spell tells you to_ is not a
sacrifice that can pay the cost of an activated ability or another spell.
Dave
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It's not the clock that slows the hour The definition's plain for anyone to see
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Zoe Stephenson
> Sorry for the strange title, but i don't know how to describe it
> better...
> Therefore i will give you an example:
> I have one Bile Urchin:
> 1/1 with sacrifice bile urchin: target player loses 1 life
> and two Vampire Aristocrat:
> 2/2 with sacrifice a creature: vampire aristocrat get +2/+2 until end
> of turn
> My opponent forces me to sacrifice a creature (i.e. gatekeeper of
> malakkir with kicker)
> and therefore i sacrifice my bile urchin
> In this situation: which of the abilities will take effect?
None.
> Does you have to specify a target for which you sacrifice a creature
> or is it just global and every abilities which has the cost to
> sacrifice something, will take effect?
Neither.
You seem to be confused about activated abilities and resolving effects.
The ability on Bile Urchin is an activated ability. It can be
recognised because it has a cost, a colon and an effect. All activated
abilities follow this template, and the template is only used for
activated abilities.
When a player has priority to do things (like cast spells, play lands
and so on), that player can choose to activate an activated ability.
It goes on the stack and the game goes through the setup procedure for
an activated ability, which is detailed in the rules in section 602.2.
Part of this procedure calls for the player to pay the cost; for the
ability on Bile Urchin it's to sacrifice the Bile Urchin. The payment
of the cost doesn't cause the ability to happen, it just lets your
action of activating the ability proceed.
In the case of the Gatekeeper with the kicker, there is an effect
from the resolving triggered ability that's causing you to sacrifice
a creature. You don't have priority to activate an ability at this
time, you just have to follow the instruction, pick something and
sacrifice it.
--
-- Zoe Stephenson, NetRep rec.games.trading-cards.magic.rules
Group FAQ: http://www.daeghnao.com/magic/faq/ --
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