When you take control of a unit with Deflect using Hostile Takeover, do you still have to pay the Deflect cost when targeting it with your own abilities (like Deathgrip)?

Question

Accepted Answer

No. While you control an enemy unit you gained with Hostile Takeover, you are not an opponent of that unit, so spells and abilities you control that choose it (like Deathgrip) do not pay its Deflect cost. If you play your ability before Hostile Takeover finishes resolving (so you don't yet control the unit), Deflect still applies.

While Hostile Takeover has resolved and you control the unit, you do NOT pay the Deflect cost when you target that unit with your own spells or abilities such as Deathgrip because Deflect only imposes an extra cost on spells and abilities an opponent controls that choose the permanent [809]. If you cast your spell or ability before Hostile Takeover resolves (i.e., you don't yet control the unit), then the spell/ability is controlled by an opponent relative to that unit and Deflect applies.

You play Hostile Takeover and when it resolves you take control of the enemy unit at that battlefield; control changes as part of the resolution of the spell. While you control that unit, it is your permanent and you are not an opponent of that permanent. Deflect imposes an extra Mandatory Additional Cost only on spells and abilities an opponent controls that choose the permanent; it reads that spells and abilities an opponent controls that choose me cost extra [809]. Because you are the controller of the unit after Hostile Takeover resolves, your spells/abilities (for example Deathgrip) are not 'spells and abilities an opponent controls' with respect to that unit, so they do not pay Deflect. If you attempt to play your spell/ability before Hostile Takeover resolves (so you still don’t control the unit), your spell/ability is controlled by an opponent relative to that unit and the Deflect cost would apply.

Casting Deathgrip in reaction to Hostile Takeover before it resolves: because control has not changed yet, you are still the opponent of that unit and Deflect will impose its extra Power cost on your spell (per [809]). Multiple instances of Deflect on the unit are summed for Deflect Value, but still only affect opponent-controlled spells/abilities — they do not make the unit charge you extra when you control it [809.2]. If another effect simultaneously changes controller or grants an effect that explicitly makes your spells be treated as 'opponent' effects for that permanent, that could change the interaction; such cases require examining the specific text of those effects (this ruling assumes no such additional modifiers).

Deflect's functional text makes clear that it increases the cost only for "spells and abilities an opponent controls that choose me" — it is explicitly tied to whether the spell/ability is controlled by an opponent of the permanent in question [809]. When Hostile Takeover resolves and you gain control of the enemy unit, that unit becomes your permanent; you are not its opponent, so spells and abilities you control that choose that unit are not subject to its Deflect cost. Payment of costs happens in the normal cost-paying step when you play the spell/ability, and Deflect is a Mandatory Additional Cost only when the spell/ability is controlled by an opponent relative to the chosen permanent [357]. Therefore, after the control change from Hostile Takeover has happened, casting Deathgrip to choose that unit does not require paying the Deflect Power cost. The important timing caveat is that if you play your spell/ability before Hostile Takeover has resolved (for example a Reaction played while Hostile Takeover is still on the chain), you do not yet control the unit — in that situation your spell/ability is an opponent-controlled spell relative to that unit and Deflect will apply [809].