MISDIRECTION/DURESS

[aos1985]

Hi to everybody!
If my opponent plays duress, can I misdirect to him/her the duress? When I play in MWS some peope tell my that I can, but my opponent would choose the card he/she discards. But in duress puts "target opponent", and you can't be opponent of yourself. I would like somebody who explain to me right.
Thank you everybody. I see you in MWS.

[Implacable]

If your opponent plays Duress, you may not Misdirect Duress back at them.  It's as simple as that.

[vartemis]

No you cannot misdirect a duress.  There is only 1 opponent for your opponent to target, so there are no other legal targets for duress.  You would only be able to misdirect a duress in a game with multiple opponents.

j

[Komatteru]

The above responses are effectively correct, but there's a bit of a difference.

Duress is a legal target for Misdirection, as it only has one target.  After that, you are correct, as, when MisD resolves, you will not be able to change the target of Duress, as Duress is targeting the only legal target it can.  It is exactly the same as this:

In play: Grizzly Bears

Opponent plays [card]Fiery Conclusion[/card], targeting the Bears.  You can target the Conculsion with the MisD, but when MisD resolves, there will be no other target to chose, so Conculsion still targets the Bears (meaning MisD effectively did nothing).

Even if you could switch the targets with Duress, the player playing Duress would chose the card.  Compare Misdirecting a Cabal Therapy or a Cranial Extraction.

[Implacable]

The above responses are effectively correct, but there's a bit of a difference.

Duress is a legal target for Misdirection, as it only has one target.  After that, you are correct, as, when MisD resolves, you will not be able to change the target of Duress, as Duress is targeting the only legal target it can.  It is exactly the same as this:

In play: Grizzly Bears

Opponent plays [card]Fiery Conclusion[/card], targeting the Bears.  You can target the Conculsion with the MisD, but when MisD resolves, there will be no other target to chose, so Conculsion still targets the Bears (meaning MisD effectively did nothing).

Even if you could switch the targets with Duress, the player playing Duress would chose the card.  Compare Misdirecting a Cabal Therapy or a Cranial Extraction.

I'm not sure that I see a difference, but that's alright.

[Komatteru]

The difference is that Misdirection targeting Duress is a legal play.  At a relatively high REL, if your opponent makes that play, you can allow him not to take it back, as it is fully legal.  Basically, he removes a blue card in his hand and loses MisD for nothing.  On the other hand, if, for instance, he tried to target your Fire/Ice doing one to him and his Welder, you would have to allow him to take the play back (rewind the game state to the last time it was correct), as that Fire/Ice cannot be targeted with Misdirection.

[Matt]

I'm not sure that I see a difference, but that's alright.

One difference is if he has a [card]Crystal Rod[/card] in play, he can use it to gain 1 life. It will also grow a Quirion Dryad. Or, he could do this just to get his hand size smaller, which he might want for Black Vise, or to get him threshold, or to empty his hand for the new Hellbent cards from Dissension.

[forests failed you]

You can Misdirect a Crainial Extraction onto your opponent because it says target player;  However, since they name the card upon resolution they can actually name a irrelevent card and RFG all of them from their Library so they won't draw it.  Even if they did decide to name a card in their deck they could choose not to find those copies.

Funny story. 

I was playing Firemane Angel Control in a tournament last week against the worst player ever.  I have an Ivory Mask in play.  He casts Crainial Extraction;  I say, "Okay it resolves, what are you naming?"  He says "Meloku, the Clouded Mirror."  I say, okay I have an Ivory Mask in play so the Crainial Extraction has to be targeting you...  So, remove your Melokus from your hand and deck.  AND HE PROCEEDS TO SEARCH HIS LIBRARY AND HAND AND RFG ALL OF HIS MELOKUS!!!!

He could have just chose to not find any, but since he was an idiot who didn't know what his cards did he totally owned himself.  I told him after the match about how awful a play was and he was quite embarrassed.  Knowing the rules is powerful.

[Jacob Orlove]

Technically Extraction calls for the hand to be revealed, making it a public zone, so he can't fail to find any cards there (same with graveyard), but his library should have been safe.

[Komatteru]

He would have to pick it up and look at it, and then shuffle afterwards, but even if he named a card in his deck (dumb), he wouldn't have to find it there. 

There you go: new use for Extraction. 
3B
Sorcery
Name a Magic card (that's probably not in your deck at all).  Reveal your hand.  Shuffle your library.

[Pave]

Shouldn't you have technically confirmed with your opponent that it was indeed he who was the target of Cranial BEFORE he named the card?  Couldn't doing otherwise have been construed as unsporting conduct insofar as you took advantage of a confusion in the game state?  Is the Cranial target considered part of the 'game state'?

[pyr0ma5ta]

Technically Extraction calls for the hand to be revealed, making it a public zone, so he can't fail to find any cards there (same with graveyard), but his library should have been safe.

I believe this is false.  A hand is technically a private zone.  Can a judge please confirm this?

[Jacob Orlove]

Whenever a player reveals their hand for any card, the hand becomes a public zone, which means you cannot "fail to find" a card, even if there is some limitation. That's why when they reveal Mindslaver and lands to your Duress, you have to choose the Slaver, even if you don't want it in their graveyard.

[Nibble]

Extraction doesn't instruct you to reveal the hand, though, simply to search it. If it was cast on an opponent, obviously they have to show you their cards for you to be able to search. But if it's on yourself, it doesn't seem like you'd need to reveal.

[Komatteru]

Ooh, that is correct.  I thought it did.  Since your hand is a hidden zone, it stays that way throughout the resolution of Extraction.

In other context, in multiplayer games, only the player casting the Extraction gets to see the hand.

Technically Extraction calls for the hand to be revealed, making it a public zone, so he can't fail to find any cards there (same with graveyard), but his library should have been safe.

I believe this is false.  A hand is technically a private zone.  Can a judge please confirm this?

Judge JD sez: No, this is correct.  Basically, if a zone becomes revealed, you cannot fail to find in that zone.  In another context, for instance, if you cast Cunning Wish and FoW is sitting in your RFG pile, then you cannot fail to find an instant with Cunning Wish because there is one available in a public zone.


The thing here is that Extraction does not say "reveals his/her hand."  It says "search his or her hand."

[Jacob Orlove]

Whoops. I was thinking of Lobotomy, not Extraction.

[JAG]

Also, the scenario described (Player casts Cranial without naming a target, opponent has Ivory Mask in play) is actually a pretty clear case of Cheating.  The opponent knew that the announcement of Cranial Extraction was illegal (since I doubt the opponent is a good enough liar to successfully claim that he honestly believed the Cranial was targetting the player) and used that to his advantage.  Knowing the rules is one thing, as is using them to your advantage (sure, you can misdirect my duress.  It doesn't do anything, but you can do it).  Deliberately misrepresenting the rules as was done here is Cheating, plain and simple.

Now, the player will also get a Procedural Error - Minor warning for not clearly stating the target of his spell/illegally playing a spell, but the opponent almost certainly gets to go home early with a nice DQ without Prize in his pocket.

-JM