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Say I have Lucky Clover on the battlefield, which I want to Bring to Life (this is the adventure side of Animating Faerie). So I cast Bring to Life. Lucky Clover triggers, and there's a 2nd Bring to Life on the stack. Lucky Clover is the only artifact I have, so I only have one legal target, so the 2nd Bring to Life must target Lucky Clover as well.

Now the stack resolves. The copied Bring to Life resolves first, which turns Lucky Clover into a 4/4 creature. The original Bring to Life now perceives that the Lucky Clover is no longer a legal target (since it can only target noncreature artifacts), so it's sent to the graveyard without any effect.

This interaction seems pretty silly to me - my own permanents are hurting my own cards - so I'm wondering if there's anything I could've done to prevent this from happening. Do I have a way to get Animating Faerie to the adventure zone while simultaneously animating Lucky Clover?

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Nope, your analysis of what should happen is spot on. Short of having another card or ability to use, there's nothing you could have done. You'd need to have a way to stop the triggered ability (Stifle), counter the copy or have another legal target.

Silly as it might seem, sometimes normally beneficial effects have detrimental edge cases. That's just part of Magic.

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  • 1
    It’s worth noting that this is a big drawback with Lucky Clover and Adventure. I’ve lost so many Brazen Borrowers this way. I find it a fairly unfun, unintuitive interaction, but I had enough success with Adventure that I’m not sure I can complain about it having this drawback.
    – KRyan
    Jul 29 '20 at 18:41
  • Could've been avoided just by making Lucky Clover's trigger a "may" trigger. Oh well.
    – Allure
    Jul 29 '20 at 20:23
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    It seems like the drawback only becomes relevant when you cast an adventure spell that only has a single reasonable target. That's a rare enough situation that calling it a big drawback seems like overselling it to me.
    – David Z
    Jul 30 '20 at 5:34
  • @KRyan that sounds like a "win more" problem though, particularly with brazen borrower, if you've reached the point where the opponent's field is completely clear so your original fizzles - it's not a big drawback when the times it comes up you're already coming out ahead.
    – Andrew
    Jul 30 '20 at 17:30
  • @Andrew Not always, but yeah, while it frustrates me just because it “feels” wrong, I can’t complain that it weakens the interaction “too much” since clearly it works pretty well even if you do get jammed like that sometimes. (Cases where it’s messed with me is when I’m trying to top-deck something and I have ways I could bounce Brazen Borrower so I could use Petty Theft again once they recast whatever I bounce, to buy another turn to see if the deck was going to offer what I need.)
    – KRyan
    Jul 30 '20 at 17:33
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No, there is no simple way to prevent this interaction. You will need to play more cards to prevent it.

In the scenario you describe, you have a two options, none of which are "free" as in no extra card investment:

The first option is to change the card type of the newly animated artifact back into non-creature.

Blinking the Clover (e.g. Momentary Blink) in between the two instances of Bring to Life would do the trick, but that would result in the Lucky Clover becoming a new object, which would cause Bring to Life to lose track of its target and also be removed from the stack, meaning you didn't gain anything.

Most type-changing effects are animating effects, the opposite of what you want to do. Effects that directly remove types from objects are rare, and those that remove creature types are even rarer. One with the Stars is the most recent card that would have the desired effect, but it is an enchantment that you would have to play at instant speed, meaning even more card investment.

The second, and probably more practical option would be to bounce your own spell to your hand, e.g. with Unsubstantiate and let the copy do the animating.

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  • Or better yet unsubstantiate the copy so the original spell resolves, is exiled and can be cast from exile as adventures work normally.
    – Andrew
    Jul 30 '20 at 17:32

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