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I use Breathe Your Last on a creature, and my opponent uses Flicker of Fate to stop its death. Does the death get prevented?

I assume one of 3 things happens:

1: The creature dies, and I gain 2 life because the spell resolves last.

2: The creature doesn't die, and I gain 2 life (doesn't make sense to me).

3: The creature doesn't die, and I don't get life.

I'm sure it's 1, but please help me.

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  • Is there seriously not a duplicate for the general issue of flickering something while it's targeted by a spell on the stack?
    – Karl Knechtel
    Commented Jul 29 at 10:58

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
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It's #3.

Flicker of Fate will cause the creature to leave the battlefield and return. FYI, this will trigger any ETB effects related to that creature entering.

When it returns, it will be a new instance of that creature. The relevant rule here is 400.7, which reads:

400.7. An object that moves from one zone to another becomes a new object with no memory of, or relation to, its previous existence.

The creature which had been targeted by Breathe Your Last no longer exists. Since BYL no longer has a valid target, it does not resolve, or "fizzles". The rule here is 608.2b:

608.2b If the spell or ability specifies targets, it checks whether the targets are still legal. A target that’s no longer in the zone it was in when it was targeted is illegal. Other changes to the game state may cause a target to no longer be legal; for example, its characteristics may have changed or an effect may have changed the text of the spell. If the source of an ability has left the zone it was in, its last known information is used during this process. If all its targets, for every instance of the word “target,” are now illegal, the spell or ability doesn’t resolve

Example: Sorin’s Thirst is a black instant that reads, “Sorin’s Thirst deals 2 damage to target creature and you gain 2 life.” If the creature isn’t a legal target during the resolution of Sorin’s Thirst (say, if the creature has gained protection from black or left the battlefield), then Sorin’s Thirst doesn’t resolve. Its controller doesn’t gain any life.

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  • Upvoted, but reading the question, I think the asker might additionally be confused about the order of operations. It might be good to add a quick explanation of the stack, to explain why Flicker of Fate resolves before Breathe Your Last when it was cast second.
    – Tim C
    Commented Jul 25 at 16:36
  • Your Sorin's Thirst quote from 608.2b is out of date - spells with no targets are no longer countered, they simply do not resolve; this was changed in Dominaria (2018), I believe.
    – Philip Kendall
    Commented Jul 25 at 17:00
  • @PhilipKendall yep, you are correct. My original answer had other references to the old rules, but I missed that one.
    – David Robie
    Commented Jul 25 at 23:26
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Here's the order of what happens:

  1. You cast Breathe Your Last, targeting your opponent's creature.

  2. In response, your opponent casts Flicker of Fate, targeting the same creature.

  3. Flicker of Fate resolves, exiling the creature and returning it to the battlefield. At this point, it is considered a new creature, different to the one that was there before.

  4. Breathe Your Last tries to resolve. However, because the creature it targeted no longer exists, it has no legal targets and thus fizzles.

Because Breathe Your Last wasn't successfully cast, no creature dies and you gain no life.

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