Traditionally speaking, Bile Blight and Valorous Stance are both removal spells- you’re going to use them to get rid of something you don’t like on the other side of the board. Valorous Stance happens to have a second mode that allows it to be used as anti-removal; did you know you can use Bile Blight in much the same way? Valorous Stance is conditional removal; it can only legally exile a targeted creature with toughness 4 or greater. That target legality is checked twice, as with all targeted spells and abilities: once when you’re choosing a target in the first place, and again upon resolution. Even if the target started out as legal, the Stance will fizzle if the target isn’t legal upon resolution. So you’ve got a Courser of Kruphix generally doing work, as Coursers usually do. Your opponent wants to get rid of it, so they aim a Valorous Stance at it, and all you have in hand is a Bile Blight. You can cast Blight on your own Courser to shrink it down to being a 0/2- too small for Valorous Stance to target it! As Stance tries to resolve, it sees an illegal target, and the rules of the game counter Stance on resolution. You used your removal to dodge their removal- value!

Today’s Rules Tip was written by Trevor Nunez