Committing a crime

Committing a crime is a game action introduced in Outlaws of Thunder Junction. Whenever you cast a spell or activate an ability that targets an opponent, or their stuff (spells, permanents, or graveyard) you are "committing a crime".

Description

You commit a crime as you cast a spell, activate an ability, or put a triggered ability on the stack that targets one or more of the following:

• An opponent
• A spell or ability an opponent controls
• A permanent an opponent controls
• A card in an opponent's graveyard

Once you cast the spell, activate the ability, or put the triggered ability on the stack, the crime has been committed. It doesn't matter what happens to the spell or ability (or any of its targets) after that point.

Untargeted removal is not a crime, however, technically not-harmful targeted effects (like healing or putting counters) are.

Committing a crime was designed to be backward compatible. In Outlaws of Thunder Junction, payoffs for committing crimes are mostly per-turn triggers, and the others are difficult to exploit multiple times, as committing crimes multiple times is easier. In the villain set, you get to be the villain.

Committing a crime is technically not a batching mechanic, because a batch lists the items that belong to it, and crimes encompass too many different things to be listed. But is similar in concept.

Rules

From the glossary of the Comprehensive Rules (June 7, 2024—Modern Horizons 3)

Crime

Targeting an opponent, anything that opponent controls, and/or any cards in an opponent’s graveyard is a crime. See rule 700.13.

From the Comprehensive Rules (June 7, 2024—Modern Horizons 3)

• 700.13. Some cards refer to committing a crime. A player commits a crime as that player casts a spell, activates an ability, or puts a triggered ability on the stack and that spell or ability targets at least one opponent; at least one permanent, spell, or ability an opponent controls; and/or at least one card in an opponent’s graveyard.

Rulings

• A player commits a crime as they cast a spell, activate an ability, or put a triggered ability on the stack that targets at least one opponent, at least one permanent, spell, or ability an opponent controls, and/or at least one card in an opponent's graveyard.
• The spell or ability that constituted a crime doesn't have to have resolved yet or at all. As soon as you're finished casting the spell, activating the ability, or putting the triggered ability on the stack, you've committed a crime.
• For example, an ability that triggers when you cast a spell that targets an opponent will trigger at the same time as an ability that triggers whenever you commit a crime. Those abilities can be put on the stack in either order (if you control them both), and they'll both resolve before the spell that caused them to trigger.
• A player can commit only one crime per spell or ability they control. Targeting multiple opponents, permanents, spells, abilities, and/or cards with the same spell or ability doesn't constitute committing multiple crimes.
• Changing the target or targets of a spell or ability won't affect whether the controller of that spell or ability has committed a crime. Only the initial targets chosen for that spell or ability are used to determine whether its controller committed a crime.

Example

Example

Gisa, the Hellraiser
Legendary Creature — Human Warlock
4/5
Ward — , Pay 2 life.
Skeletons and Zombies you control get +1/+1 and have menace.
Whenever you commit a crime, create two tapped 2/2 blue and black Zombie Rogue creature tokens. This ability triggers only once each turn. (Targeting opponents, anything they control, and/or cards in their graveyards is a crime.)