Among the new cards we’ve gotten questions about from M15 is a neat little aura called Inferno Fist. As with other Auras, it’ll enchant something (in this case, a creature!) and do something neat. What Fist does, specifically, is boost your creature by +2/+0. It also has an ability that lets you sacrifice the Fist to do 2 damage to a target creature or player, so you can sorta choose how you want that 2 “extra” damage to go. You can leave it strapped to your creature so your creature hits harder, or you can use it as removal or burn if your opponent’s close to death. Heck, you can even effectively use it as a 3 mana Shock, as awful as that may be, by casting it and immediately sacrificing it once it resolves.

But that’s all pretty easy to understand. What we’re going to talk about today is how Infero Fist works when you need to make some choices in combat! Potentially difficult choices, at that. Similar to old favorite Mogg Fanatic, you can’t have your cake and eat it too: if your creature’s going to die in combat, you can sacrifice your aura to throw 2 damage elsewhere. The thing is, if you do that, your creature doesn’t have the boost from Inferno Fist come damage. So, say you control a Runeclaw Bear who is exercising his right to bear fire arms. Your opponent attacks you with a 4/4 and a 2/2. You can kill ONE of those two- not both! If you sacrifice the Inferno Fist before the damage step to kill the 2/2, your Bear is only a 2/2 itself when it deals damage, so it won’t kill the 4/4. If you keep the Inferno Fist for damage, your Bear dies in combat with the 4/4 before you can sacrifice the aura, so you can’t kill the 2/2. So, again: you can’t have your cake and eat it too! You have to make a choice.

Today’s Rules Tip written by Trevor Nunez