Syphon Mind if other player has no card do I still draw

[Gort]

Syphon Mind if other player has no card do I still draw

[Arix]

The card says "for each card discarded this way". If no cards are discarded, none are drawn.

[Gort]

because technically he discarded but he had no cards to discard? otherwise u couldnt cast this at all?

[Arix]

No, he didn't discard, because he couldn't discard. You can still cast it, it just wouldn't do anything.

[DatAsh]

Notice the difference in wording between Syphon Mind and a card like Mindculling

[Gort]

Notice the difference in wording between Syphon Mind and a card like Mindculling

so in mindculling I would also not draw anything since it says "target" and he is illegal target?

[DatAsh]

You missed the whole point entirely.

[Arix]

He's not an illegal target. Mindculling just says "target opponent" - as long as he's your opponent, and nothing like [card]Ivory Mask[/card] is stopping you from targeting him, he's a legal target.

Notice the wording on the two cards. Mindculling just says "draw two cards". It doesn't matter what the rest of the spell does, you will draw two cards. Syphon Mind, on the other hand, says "draw a card for each card discarded this way". The amount of cards you draw is dependant on the number of cards discarded. If three cards were discarded, you will draw three cards. If no cards were discarded, you won't draw any.