Fire Covenant (or any X damage divided as you choose spell)

[TheWhiteDragon]

This is a two part question:

For this example, I'll use Fire Covenant, but rolling thunder or any "deal X damage divided as you choose/evenly to any number of target creatures" spell works for this question.

Fire Covenant   Instant  1BR

As an additional cost to cast Fire Covenant, pay X life.
Fire Covenant deals X damage divided as you choose among any number of target creatures.

So my questions are 1) can you deal less than 1 damage to a target?  So if there are 2 1/1 creatures, can I pay 1 life on covenant and hit both creatures for half a damage?  Or pay 1 and hit 8 creatures for 1/8th damage each? and 2) can I pay 0 to deal 0 damage, but choose several targets?  If there are 5 creatures in play, can I pay 1BR and 0 life to target all 5 creatures to deal 0 damage?

[TVand]

The answer to both of your questions is no.  As a general rule, Magic (outside of Un-sets) does not work with fractional numbers.  Spells that divide evenly, such as Fireball, are rounded down, so any damage less than 1 will round to 0.  Also, in order to 'divide damage' among targets, there must be actual damage to be divided.  You cannot assign 0 damage to any target with a spell like Fire Covenant.

[serracollector]

There goes your secret tech on killing those skulking ghosts and phantasmal images...

[Wagner]

This is a two part question:

For this example, I'll use Fire Covenant, but rolling thunder or any "deal X damage divided as you choose/evenly to any number of target creatures" spell works for this question.

Fire Covenant   Instant  1BR

As an additional cost to cast Fire Covenant, pay X life.
Fire Covenant deals X damage divided as you choose among any number of target creatures.

So my questions are 1) can you deal less than 1 damage to a target?  So if there are 2 1/1 creatures, can I pay 1 life on covenant and hit both creatures for half a damage?  Or pay 1 and hit 8 creatures for 1/8th damage each? and 2) can I pay 0 to deal 0 damage, but choose several targets?  If there are 5 creatures in play, can I pay 1BR and 0 life to target all 5 creatures to deal 0 damage?

Fire Covenant ruling text:

9/16/2007: If X is 0, the number of targets must also be 0. If X is greater than 0, the number of targets must be at least 1 and at most X. You must distribute at least 1 damage to each target.