As mentioned last week, the guild of Boros has this really great leader in . I mean, she has all the abilities one looks for when attacking: flying, to soar over the heads of her opponents; haste, so she can attack as soon as possible; and vigilance, to be there to defend the fort as […]
Category: Combat Phase
Geist of Saint Traft and Battalion is NOT a combo.
IMPORTANT UPDATE: This article has been updated as of the prerelease of Magic 2014 on July 13; Please refer to the revisions below. This was briefly explained in the Battalion mechanic blog entry last week, but it’s still a common question, so I’m making it as a bonus entry all to itself! All the triggered […]
Zero damage can’t be avenged by Avenging Arrow.
Your opponent’s has been pestering you all game. Your deck doesn’t really have any flyers, so you have no way to block it. However, you just drew an Avenging Arrow, so your plan it to let the Pest attack next turn, then use the Arrow after combat damage to get rid of the Pest. Does […]
Mishra’s Factory can pump itself when blocking, but only if it’s not sick.
When declaring blockers, the defending player can only use untapped creatures. Once blockers are declared, though, the game doesn’t care if the blocking creatures become tapped later! A useful application of this is , which has three abilities: (1) a mana ability, (2) an “animation” ability, and (3) a “pump” ability. You can use the […]
Feeling of Dread can only stop attackers if cast before the declare attackers step.
A question that I’ve been asked a lot is, “When is the last time I can tap a creature to prevent it from attacking?” So today, let’s use as our example card. When is the last time I can cast the Dread to prevent a creature or creatures from attacking? The last chance you’ll get […]
Sphere of Safety vs. Volatile Rig
loves attacking. It fact, it has an ability that says it has to attack each turn if able. But what if your opponent has a out? Does that mean I have to pay every turn to make it attack? The answer is no. Sphere of Safety adds a cost to creatures that are declared as […]
How Odric’s ability works (yes, you can choose ‘no blocks’).
Interestingly enough, Odric requires 3 other creatures to attack alongside him in order to employ his masterful tactics. That means you need to declare at least 4 creatures (including Odric) as attacking when you begin your declare attackers step. You can’t attack with just Odric and a spirit token and , because the Angel that […]
You draw eight cards if you attack with two unblocked Drogskol Reavers.
is a powerful card, but it gets pretty ridiculous when you attack with two of them! If your opponent can’t block, how many cards are you going to draw? Well, first we have to look at the Drogskol Reaver’s triggered ability. It says “Whenever you gain life, draw a card.” Ok, that makes sense. An […]
The new Jace’s +1 ability doesn’t affect Geist of Saint Traft’s Angel token.
A new block rotation always comes with a new set of planeswalkers, and the new looks to be a fair bit more complicated than his predecessors. Today we’ll be focusing on his +1 ability. When it’s activated, it sets up what’s known as a delayed triggered ability, meaning it’ll wait to be put onto the […]