I've discussed the following quite a lot with my freinds and want clarifaction.
If I control Willbreaker and target a creature with a spell; "put this creature on its owners hand" do I get control of that creature or does it end up on the owners hand? Likewise if I destroy a creature do I get control of it or does it die? Does Willbreaker "overrule" or not?
Posted Sep 17, 2015, 6:08 PM UTC
When you target a creature with a kill or bounce spell, willbreakers ability triggers and causes you to gain control of them. Changing control does not change zones, so that creature is still targetted by the kill or bounce spell, so unless you counter your own spell or render that creature untargettable, it will leave the battlefield and you controlling it for a bit won't have mattered. It should be mentioned that if the spell you targetted with says "creature an opponent controls" it will fizzle now that that creature is no longer controlled by an opponent, which can be convenient with willbreaker.
You gain control of it, then the spell resolves as usual unless it's a spell like Mizzium Mortars
You do gain control of it, and then the creature goes wherever the spell puts it (owner's hand, graveyard, etc.). Note that if you have a sacrifice effect like Nantuko Husk, you can sac the creature after the Willbreaker trigger resolves but before your Disperse sends it back to hand or your Doom Blade kills it.
The creature will go back and the creature will die, the ability of willbender goes on the stack and resolves first, but then the spell you cast resolves causing the effect of the spell to go off such as destroying the creature or returning it to the hand.
It goes like this:
Willbreaker in play
Target a creature
Willbreaker ability goes on stack
You get creature
Spell goes off.
If your spell bounces the target, destroys it or otherwise removes it from play then you won't benefit from willbreaker. It works best with pumps, taps and other abilities/spells.
There is no "overruling". Things enter the stack then resolve.
The short answer is, Willbreaker gives you control of the creature, but the creature is still targeted by the spell. Unless the change of control renders the target illegal, the spell will still do whatever it would do.
So, if you target a creature with [[Murder]] or [[Unsummon]], you'll gain control of it, and then the spell will resolve and it'll be destroyed/returned to its owner's hand. However, if you target it with [[Cyclonic Rift]], which requires that you target a creature you don't control, you'll gain control of it and then the spell will be countered on resolution since it's now targeting an illegal target.
Cyclonic Rift - Gatherer, MC, ($)
Murder - Gatherer, MC, ($)
Unsummon - Gatherer, MC, ($)
^^^[[cardname]] ^^^to ^^^call ^^^- ^^^not ^^^on ^^^gatherer ^^^= ^^^not ^^^fetchable