Can you decline to pay deflect costs on mandatory triggered abilities, and does this allow you to skip the ability entirely?

Ruling: Yes, you can decline to pay deflect costs even on mandatory triggered abilities. When you decline to pay in step 4, the entire ability fails to enter the chain, effectively skipping it.

Sequence:

• Choose targets for the mandatory triggered ability (including units with deflect)
• In step 4, decline to pay the deflect cost
• The entire ability fails to enter the chain
• Continue playing the card as if the trigger never happened

Nuances:

• This works even when other legal targets without deflect are available - you can choose the deflect target and then decline
• No reaction window occurs during this process
• If an ability has multiple parts (like damage + another effect), declining deflect causes the entire ability to fail, not just the deflect portion