When in the first main phase of the the active player’s turn the active players says something alone the lines of ‘attack?’ or ‘combat phase’ it indicates that the active player wants to move on to the beginning of combat step, which is within the combat phase, AND is passing priority to the non-active player. […]
Category: Combat Phase
Damage assignment order is not the same as combat damage assignment.
With the release of Magic 2010, the rules governing how combat damage is dealt with were changed. Because the assignment of combat damage no longer uses the stack, a few other rules were tweaked to keep some of the same feel and strategic gameplay as before. One aspect of these rules changes is the creation […]
How to use Thrummingbird’s Proliferate triggered ability to your advantage.
‘s ability triggers when it deals combat damage to a player. When this ability resolves you choose any number of permanents or players with at least one counter and add another counter of that type. Because this ability triggers when combat damage is dealt you can use the timing of when this ability resolves to […]
Surprise Blockers?
All blocking creatures are declared at the very beginning of the declaration of blockers step. In order for a creature to be declared as a blocker it must be in play when this step begins. This means that the last chance you have to either get a creature into the battlefield or make another permanent […]
There is always a combat phase
Unless an effect has caused a player to skip the combat phase, there is always a combat phase in a turn. This is true even if no creatures are declared as attacking.
Declaring attackers and blockers
The declaration of attacking creature and declaration of blocking creatures does not use the stack. While you can play spell and abilities after these game actions have taken place, you cannot respond to these declarations in the normal Magic sense.