When a attacks and is blocked by , the Crusader will not die. As we discussed a few weeks ago, protection does several things, such as preventing all damage from any source it has protection from. That means that deathtouch will not apply, as damage that is prevented is not considered dealt. Now let’s say […]
Category: Static Abilities
What Grafdigger’s Cage does and doesn’t stop.
prevents players from casting spells from the graveyard or library, as well as creatures from entering the battlefield from a graveyard or library. This is a static ability that changes the rules of the game for as long as the Cage is in play. This means that it stops a lot of things in standard, […]
What “Protection from [something]” really means.
Today we’re going over an old favorite: Protection! It’s a fairly common mechanic in Standard lately, between all the Swords kicking around and the Crusaders and what-have-you. So what does protection ‘stop’? A lot of people wonder why it is that can kill a , but can’t. Some people think protection from white will mean […]
When creatures “fight,” some abilities matter, and others don’t.
When a creature “fights” another creature, that means each of those creatures deals damage equal to its power to the other creature. It’s important to know that fighting isn’t considered combat damage and won’t trigger any abilities that look for combat damage being dealt. However, the creatures are still dealing the damage directly, so fighting […]
You don’t control the equipment or auras attached to a creature you steal with Traitorous Blood.
When you gain control of a creature, you aren’t gaining control of anything that’s attached to it. This can be important to know when the equipment or aura has an ability, as opposed to when it give the creature an ability. For example, Nancy has a 1/1 creature that is equipped with , and Adam […]
A blocked creature stays blocked for the rest of combat, no matter what happens to the blocker.
The first thing that happens in the declare blockers step is that the defending player chooses which creatures will block and how they’re blocking. Once that happens, the blocks are locked in. Attackers that had a blocker declared become “blocked” creatures, and nothing can change that (aside from a few obscure effects that specifically say […]
Abilities only do exactly what they say they do.
Most relevant information about how a card works is on the card itself. The biggest exceptions are in regards to keyword abilities that have additional information on how they work in the comprehensive rules. Most keyword abilities have reminder text that is not completely detailed, but does cover most situations. While it is important to […]
Instigator Gang / Wildblood Pack’s static abilities end when it leaves play.
Both sides of / have static abilities that give either a +1/+0 or +3/+0 bonus to attacking creatures controlled by the controller of this permanent. This bonus is applied as soon as a creature controlled by this player becomes an attacking creature and lasts until the combat phase ends or the Instigator Gang / Wolfblood […]
Inquisitor’s Flail does not have a triggered ability, it has static abilities that create replacement effects
has two abilities that cause the creature equipped by it to both deal and receive twice as much combat damage as it normally would. These two abilities are not triggers and do not use the stack. These abilities are static ones that create a replacement effect when the equipped creature would both receive and deal […]