Cards And Zones
What Counts as Choosing a Target?
Recognize specific choices, check their restrictions and distinguish targets from whole groups or costs.
RiftPal explanation · Answer first
The short answer
A spell or ability normally targets the specific things its controller chooses to affect. The text does not need to use the word "target": "Stun a unit" chooses a target.
Choose legal targets when putting the spell or ability on the ChainAn off-board zone that holds cards and abilities during the process of playing them. Cards and abilities on it are public information.View in Glossary . You cannot play it without its required targets, although "up to" or "any number" can allow zero.
RiftPal explanation
How it works
Card reference
Rune Prison
Check every restriction, such as enemy, at a battlefield or a MightMight represents both how much Combat Damage a unit can contribute and how much marked Damage it can normally take before being killed.View in Glossary limit. A reference to a unit normally means one on the board unless the text names another zone. A target that cannot be chosen by this spell or ability is not legal.
Spell
Rune Prison
[Action] (Play on your turn or in showdowns.) Stun a unit. (It doesn't deal combat damage this turn.)
Not everything mentioned is a target. A cost does not target what you use to pay it. Choosing a card from your hand is not targeting that card, because your hand is not a public zone. A location mentioned only as a play or move destination is not a target merely for that reason.
A whole group can be affected without its members being targeted. But a location chosen for that group can itself be a target. UntargetableUnable to be chosen by the spells or abilities specified by an effect. This protects against those targeting choices, not against every effect that could affect the object.View in Glossary protects against the specified targeting, not every effect that could affect the unit.
Instructions where each player chooses their own affected card, or where a player "must" do something, make those choices during resolution rather than targeting. An ordinary target choice still counts even if only one legal option happens to exist.
The word "pick" expressly makes a choice without targeting. "Ready your legend" also does not target: if you have several legends, select one when the effect resolves. "Ready a friendly legend" does target. A pending spell or ability whose play steps are not finished is not a legal target on the ChainAn off-board zone that holds cards and abilities during the process of playing them. Cards and abilities on it are public information.View in Glossary .
In practice
Example
Example 1 - Choosing one unit
"Kill a unit at a battlefield" targets the unit. The battlefield is only a restriction on which unit you can choose.
Example 2 - Affecting a group
"Kill all units at a battlefield" targets the chosen battlefield, not its units. "Kill all units at battlefields" targets neither the units nor a battlefield.