So normally, when you attack, there’s no question which player you’re attacking. However, when there are multiple legal choices for who to attack, it gets a little more involved. You still only get one combat phase and one of each of the steps in that phase. So when you move to combat, each other player […]
Category: Combat Phase
After attackers deal damage, they’re still attacking creatures for a little while.
A lot of people associate combat damage with the end of the combat phase. While it’s true that the majority of the time, people move straight from dealing damage to doing stuff in the second main phase or passing the turn, there is still the rest of the combat damage step and an end of […]
Strategy Week: Ask your opponent if they have effects BEFORE you turn your creatures sideways.
Something you’ll hear and see a lot in any competitive event [and even some FNMs and prereleases where competitive crowds hang out] will be players consistently asking their opponent for a response before attacks. This commonly manifests itself in the form of a very simple shortcut: the active player will simply ask “Moving to combat?” […]
Strategy Week: It’s often better to attack BEFORE you cast spells on your turn.
If you watch many pro players, you might notice something consistent about how they play: They attack BEFORE they cast spells. Why is that? What’s the point of waiting? Well, sometimes, it makes sense to cast spells before you attack, such as when you’re casting a creature with haste. Also, you’d probably never want to […]
How Predatory Rampage works with your Acidic Slime.
makes all of your opponent’s creatures block if able. How does that wok with a single attacker? Easy enough, all of their creatures that CAN block it, must block it. Now, we’ll suppose you have a creature with Deathtouch. Deathtouch makes any nonzero amount of damage lethal. So say you did this with . It […]
How Sublime Archangel works with Geist of Saint Traft.
Those of you who were playing Magic during Shards of Alara block may remember Exalted, the feature mechanic of the shard of Bant. For the rest of you, let’s break it down step by step. ʺWheneverʺ signifies a triggered ability, that goes on the stack when a condition is met. ʺa creature you control attacksʺ […]
How trample works when the blocker is flickered.
Questions about Trample come up a lot, and I know firsthand that it’s not always terribly intuitive. When my friends and I were first learning Magic, Trample was one of the things that constantly made us shrug and guess. However, those of you who shrug don’t HAVE to guess, because you can just come to […]
You have the freedom to kill an animated land or flashed in creature before it can block.
Creatures with flash or animated lands are generally a good thing to have when you’re being attacked. They can’t be destroyed or removed by sorceries before blocking, and you’ll know exactly which creatures your opponent is attacking with before you have to decide whether you want to cast or animate them. As the attacking player, […]
How Silverblade Paladin and first strike blockers/attackers interact.
‘s ability allows it to pair with another creature, and for as long as the two are paired, they both have double strike. In order for creatures to un-pair, one of the three things must happen: One of the creatures leaves the battlefield; one of the creatures changes control; or one of the creatures stops […]