<\/p>
\u201cCaptain! I\u2019m so glad you\u2019re here; it\u2019s a bad one.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhat\u2019s the situation, Sergeant?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWell, as you can see, we\u2019ve got a single victim, Beast subtype. Middle-aged, so his CMC was probably 3 or 4, and there was definitely some red mana in his cost.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHas the medical examiner taken a look yet?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYes, initial findings estimate that he had at least 3 power and 3 toughness, sir.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAny luck figuring out his rarity?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re pretty sure he\u2019s not mythic, sir, but that doesn\u2019t really narrow it down. There was something unusual, though…\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhat is it?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHe was wearing a blocking restriction requirement when we found him, sir…as well as a blocking restriction.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cNo! Are you sure, Sergeant?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYes, Captain — this Ember Beast was definitely Marked for Death.\u201d<\/p>\n ====<\/p>\n Suppose I\u2019m playing against you in a Gatecrash draft. You control an Ember Beast<\/a> and a few other creatures. Before combat, I cast Mark for Death<\/a> on your Ember Beast, then attack into you with my Ruination Wurm<\/a>. Can you block?<\/p>\n As it turns out, this situation will end up pretty ruinous for you. <\/p>\n When it resolves, Mark for Death creates two distinct effects. First, it demands that your Ember Beast block this turn. Second, it prevents all of your other creatures from blocking. <\/p>\n Ember Beast, however, has a third ability that\u2019s also quite relevant: it can\u2019t block by itself.<\/p>\n In judge parlance, effects that specify whether particular blocks are legal are classified as either \u201crestrictions\u201d or \u201crequirements.\u201d Restrictions are effects that prevent a creature from blocking, while requirements are any effects that force a creature to block. The game forces you to obey all restrictions, period. If you violate a single restriction, the Azorius will show up to say your block is illegal. On top of that, you also need to obey as many requirements as possible.<\/p>\n How we can classify the three effects involved here? Well, \u201cEmber Beast must block\u201d is clearly a requirement, and \u201cother creatures can\u2019t block\u201d is also pretty obviously a restriction. \u201cEmber Beast can\u2019t block alone\u201d is a bit weirder, but it has the word can\u2019t, so it\u2019s a restriction.<\/p>\n As a result, we have two restrictions — \u201cEmber Beast can\u2019t block alone\u201d and \u201cother creatures can\u2019t block.\u201d When we put those together, we perform the Magical equivalent of dividing by zero and end up realizing that nothing can block. The effect saying Ember Beast must block ends up doing nothing, because following that \u201crequirement\u201d would involve disobeying some restrictions.<\/p>\n Putting it all together, it\u2019s impossible for you to block my Ruination Wurm, so you\u2019ll be taking a hefty 7 damage.<\/p>\n (P.S. No Ember Beasts were actually harmed in the writing of this blog entry, because it couldn\u2019t block anyway.)<\/p>\n Today’s Rules Tip\/Drama was written by Paul Baranay<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In Magic: The Gathering\u2019s judging system, combat-based rules questions are considered especially heinous. On this blog, the dedicated judges who investigate these tricky interactions are members of an elite squad known as the Special Cards Unit. These are their stories. \u201cCaptain! I\u2019m so glad you\u2019re here; it\u2019s a bad one.\u201d \u201cWhat\u2019s the situation, Sergeant?\u201d \u201cWell, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[4,131],"tags":[926,925],"language":[1196],"class_list":["post-3140","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-combatphase","category-interactionofcontinuouseffects","tag-ember-beast","tag-mark-for-death","language-en"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.magicjudges.org\/rulestips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3140","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.magicjudges.org\/rulestips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.magicjudges.org\/rulestips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.magicjudges.org\/rulestips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.magicjudges.org\/rulestips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3140"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.magicjudges.org\/rulestips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3140\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4619,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.magicjudges.org\/rulestips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3140\/revisions\/4619"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.magicjudges.org\/rulestips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3140"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.magicjudges.org\/rulestips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3140"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.magicjudges.org\/rulestips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3140"},{"taxonomy":"language","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.magicjudges.org\/rulestips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/language?post=3140"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/p>In Magic: The Gathering\u2019s judging system, combat-based rules questions are considered especially heinous. On this blog, the dedicated judges who investigate these tricky interactions are members of an elite squad known as the Special Cards Unit. These are their stories.<\/em><\/p>\n