Basically, because there are legal targets for every spell, spells with 'all' target 'all' as well.Īnother basic common sense example is Crux of Fate. Zombies do not get the -1/-1 counter because they are not legal targets of Noxious Ghoul's ability. Whenever Noxious Ghoul or another Zombie enters the battlefield, all non-Zombie creatures get -1/-1 until end of turn. For a spell to affect a permanent, the permanent must be a legal target for said spell. If a spell states that it does not target, then it cannot destroy anything according to the legal target rule. Hope that's clarified things more than it's confused them, for you!įirst of all, there is a little rule everyone is forgetting and it is the legal target rule which simply states before a permanent can be destroyed or removed from play it has to be a legal target of a spell:Ħ08.2b the spell or ability specifies targets, it checks whether the targets are still legal.Īll spells target, including those with 'all' in their text. even if the original Aura would have been unable to enchant that creature when it was cast! Sometimes Magic does some pretty counter-intuitive things, but it's very internally consistent. This means that if you copy an Aura on the battlefield, you can put that copy onto a creature with Shroud. But note that nowhere on the card does it say 'target'. This puts into play a copy of an enchantment already on the battlefield. If you can't find 'target' written anywhere on the card, then Shroud won't have any effect on what that card can do.Īs an interesting side point, take a look at a card like Copy Enchantment. Creatures with Shroud only interact with, and care about, the word 'target' on a card. Indestructible creatures survive a Wrath because their ability ('cannot be destroyed') specifically interacts with the word 'destroy' on the card Wrath of God. It just destroys them, whether they're slippery customers or not. Wrath of God doesn't 'target all creatures and destroy them'. And I think this is where your confusion is arising. Wrath of God just says 'Destroy all creatures'.

Protection means (among other things): 'this creature can't be the target of spells or abilities of the colour in question'. Shroud means: 'this creature can't be the target of spells or abilities'. To understand why this is, you have to look at the definitions of the terms. It won't kill creatures that are indestructible. It will also kill all creatures that have protection from white. Yes, Wrath of God will kill all creatures with shroud.

Shroud artifact mtg