Heroic sacrifice question

By Nerdmeister, in Star Wars: The Card Game - Rules Questions

Heroic Sacrifice

Type: Event

Cost: 1

Force Icons: 1

Faction: Light Rebel Alliance

Action: Sacrifice a Vehicle unit to destroy a target enemy Vehicle unit with printed cost 4 or lower.

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Does heroic sacrifice require a legal target to be played? Last night I played a game in which Devastator was the only vehicle on the DS side and I played heroic sacrifice to get X-Wing Escort to leave play just in order to utilize that units ability. I wasn´t sure if I could do it, without a legal target, and we did have a discussion about it afterwards which didn´t lead us to a definite answer. Was kinda important cause that single incident is what decided who would win the game.

oh and the specs for x-wing escort:

X-Wing Escort


Type: Unit
Cost: 2
Force Icons: 1
Icons: 1 unit-damage-black.png
Faction: Light Neutral
Vehicle. Fighter. Squadron.
Interrupt: When this unit leaves play, your opponent must sacrifice a Vehicle unit he controls.

From the rulebook:
target
The term “target” refers to a game element (most often
a card) chosen as the subject or recipient of an effect.
The controller of a targeting effect chooses all targets
for the effect. If there is no valid target for a targeting
effect, the effect cannot be initiated.
Since there was no legal target, Heroic Sacrifice could not be played.

Thank you, Carist. Right you are. Just needed a push to the correct ruling and the part in the rulebook about targets is pretty straightforward

I would just add that it's important to recognize that the term "target" requires the target only to be present when initiating the effect, not at resolution. It's also important to note that if an effect doesn't use the terminology "target," it does not require one in order to be used/played (see Tribal Support for a good way to get an extra card draw, even if you do not have an Ewok in the discard pile).

I guess what you're asking though is if you can play Heroic Sacrifice without a legal target? In that case, the answer has been given already.

Trying again, never mind as an answer above has changed.

Niranth said:

The devestator is a 6 cost unit so is not a valid target.

Ninja edited before you replied.

Heh, sorry bout that.

Surge1000 said:

Niranth said:

The devestator is a 6 cost unit so is not a valid target.

Ninja edited before you replied.

Heh, sorry bout that.

I'm glad this works as it does. It seems very thematic.