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If I attack with Hypnotic Specter and the defending team does not declare a blocker, should I "target" who is going to discard a card randomly? Or do they decide?

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  • This has changed as of the Dominaria rules update. Essentially, you attack one of the players, not the team as a whole, and the player you attack is the one who discards a card. Full answer to come shortly.
    – chif-ii
    May 22, 2018 at 20:26

1 Answer 1

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This is covered by the following two-headed giant specific rule:

810.7f As the combat damage step begins, the active team announces how each attacking creature will assign its combat damage. If an attacking creature would assign combat damage to the defending team, the active team chooses only one of the defending players for that creature to assign its combat damage to. Then the defending team announces how each blocking creature will assign its combat damage. See rule 510.1.

Thus, when an attacking creature is not blocked, you choose which player the combat damage is dealt to (and cause the Specter's triggered ability to affect).

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  • Similarly, rule 810.7b describes what happens when an ability like annihilator interacts with the “defending player”.
    – Stuart Cook
    Apr 6, 2012 at 0:45

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