Disperse oversight?

wereotter

Not sure if this is a bug or not. It seems most effects that put a creature back into hand have been adjusted so they can not target creature tokens. Just played a match where my opponent was able to use Disperse on Tezzeret's living construct creature token to destroy it.

hawkyh1

I think it's been changed to conditional bounce can
target tokens if the condition is met. unconditional
bounce cannot target tokens.

HH

wereotter

Disperse and Harbinger of Tides have the same condition for bouncing creatures. Disperse can target tokens but Harbinger can not. Same with Reflector Mage.

AngelForge

I don't own harbinger but reflector mage can bounce token and kill them, when the opponents hand is not filled.

The only card that can't do that anymore is Lashweed Lurker as announced in a patch.

That is my information so far.

Mainloop25

Cards that bounce to your library no longer affect tokens. Cards that bounce to your hand were unaffected. This was changed in the previous update.

Tombstone

Hey guys, I'll go ahead and talk with the team to see if anything can be reproduced. Regarding your reports, so far we have seen Disperse, Harbinger of the Tides, and Reflector Mage. Are there any other cards you're seeing this issue with? When you try using any of these three cards, how many cards does the opponent have in their hand?

julianus

*Ahem*. I guess really nobody checks out the tips and guides forum.

To quote two posts I made there a few weeks back: viewtopic.php?f=35&t=49538&start=40

julianus wrote:

With effects that return an opponent's creature to hand or to library, I noticed some discrepancies with token creatures, in that some effects allowed you to target tokens and some did not. I tested out all of the return effects I could find in my cards, and these were the results:

Creature Cards: effect triggers when your creature enters the battlefield
Can target tokens
- Murk Strider: "If your opponent controls 5 or less cards in hand, Return target creature your opponent controls to their hand"
- Separatist Voidmage: "If your opponent controls 5 or less cards in hand, target creature your opponent controls is Returned to its owner's hand and gains 6 mana."

Cannot target tokens
- Lashweed Lurker: "Target creature is Returned on top of its owner's library"

Spell Cards
Can target tokens
- Aether Tradewinds: "If you and your opponent have 5 or less cards in hand, target creature you control is Returned to your hand and target creature your opponent controls is Returned to its hand."
- Anchor to the Aether: "If your opponent controls 5 or less cards in hand, target creature is moved to its owner's hand and you draw 1 card."
- Clutch of Currents: "If your opponent controls 5 or less cards in hand, Return target creature your opponent controls to his hand."
- Disperse: "If your opponent controls 5 or less cards in hand, Return one creature your opponent controls in the battlefield to its owner's hand. It gains 6 mana."

Cannot target tokens
Gone Missing: "Return target creature to it's owner's library. Investigate."


Summary
There are other cards that have Return effects, but these are the only ones I tested. Based on this, I would say it is very likely that any return to hand effect will let you target a token creature, and any return to library effect likely will not.

Also of note, return effects targeting a token act like a kill spell, and so will trigger any on death/on destruction effects (e.g. Eldrazi scions' mana gain).

And

julianus wrote:

AngelForge wrote:

Lashweed Lurker was nerfed ina recent patch so that it can't target tokens anymore.
But Gone Missing should still work on tokens. I'm quite sure I killed a moon token with that...

I just tested it again, and Gone Missing definitely does not allow you to target tokens. I also tested 3 additional cards:

Roil Spout: Return to library - does not work on tokens
Just the Wind: Return to hand - does work on tokens
Reflector Mage: Return to hand - does work on tokens

Of four return to library effects I've tested, none allow you to target token creatures. All return to hand effects I've tried so far do work on tokens, provided there are 5 or less cards in the opponent's hand.

Delnai

wereotter wrote:

Disperse and Harbinger of Tides have the same condition for bouncing creatures. Disperse can target tokens but Harbinger can not. Same with Reflector Mage.

If you've run into this behavior its a bug with Reflector/Harbinger, not Disperse. Can you say more about the situations when Harbinger has been unable to bounce?