As is usual with the summer Core Set, we’ve gotten back some good old friends from days past. One of those old friends is Preeminent Captain, a very fun creature that was originally printed with all his Kithkin buddies in Morningtide. Captain has an interesting ability: Whenever he attacks, you can throw down a Soldier creature from your hand onto the field, tapped and swinging with Captain. That can spell trouble for your opponent pretty quickly!

So, you might be considering using some Military Intelligence with your Captain and his maneuvers- but that won’t work out QUITE as well as you’d hope. You see, the creature that Captain calls in for reinforcements is never declared as an attacker, like the Captain was- it simply came down already attacking. For it to count as having ‘attacked’, you need to actually declare it as an attacker in the appropriate step. So, if you attack with JUST your Captain, then you didn’t attack with two or more creatures, so Intelligence won’t trigger. If you swing with Captain and his buddy the NEXT turn though, it’ll work because you actually are attacking with two creatures now.

This can also work a little in your favor, in older formats. Cards like Crawlspace ALSO don’t count the reinforcements that your Captain brings in, since they weren’t ever declared as attacking your opponent, so you can send three Soldiers into a Crawlspace that should only fit two! Fun times.

Today’s Rules Tip written by Trevor Nunez