Kaalia of the Vast is a very popular commander, thanks to her ability to summon hordes of Angels, Dragons, and Demons to her side.

One of Kaalia’s best Demon buddies is Master of Cruelties, the marquee Rakdos mythic from Dragon’s Maze.  Master of Cruelties has a very particular attacking restriction: if he attacks, he can only attack alone, which means no other creature can legally be declared as an attacker with him. (However, he doesn’t have to attack each turn.)

Kaalia’s ability, however, provides savvy players a way around this.  When Kaalia attacks and her ability resolves, you can put Master of Cruelties “onto the battlefield tapped and attacking.”  Because you never declared him as an attacker, his attacking restriction is ignored.

That’s well and good, but what about Master of Cruelties’ last ability?  As we can see by the word “whenever” at the beginning, it’s a triggered ability.  The trigger condition is met if “Master of Cruelties attacks a player and isn’t blocked.”  We already said that Master of Cruelties was never actually declared as an attacker, so you might think that this ability cannot trigger.  However, this trigger’s wording is deceptive.  It actually cares about whether or not the Master is blocked.

If your opponent neglects to block the Master of Cruelties, his ability will trigger and promptly reduce your opponent’s life total to 1.  Then, when combat damage is dealt, Kaalia will deal 2 damage herself.

Ding! One-hit KO!

Today’s Rules Tip written by Paul Baranay