of course i used banshee of the dead choir and grizzly bears as examples blocking mirran crusader to test you guys and see who would catch the mistake.
@@mfsoab already asked somewhere else and gotten answer. Was confused due to english being my secondary launguage and in my primary, first there is "closest one" and then is "next"
@@tornad8063 Not my first language either, but once you get into how wizards words stuff on cards/what the typical phrases are things like these become clearer ;-)
I've always liked that magic can be as simple or as complicated as you make it, depending on the cards and playstyles you use. You can run a generic mono green ramp deck with big creatures and never encounter half of the confusing interactions most decks are built upon. Or you can make an Obeka deck and convince everyone at the table that you're either a genius or cheating.
@@Mihomiti isn't combat actually more simple with banding as long as all your creatures are in a single band? I bet you are using some Tolarian Entrancer + Lure type effect.
@@philippschmidt9499 No, because I'm using Enrage creatures and other things that like to take damage like Stuffy Doll and lots of anthems to give my creatures trample and death touch so each combat is trying to optimally place damage. lol
The trample deathtouch combo blew my mind when I learned about it last year. I've been playing for 13 years and had never heard that before. There's always more to learn with this game lol
In my Tough Rules & Cool Interactions series, episode 9 does a deep dive into this interaction. I also cover what happens when the blocking creature has Protection from as well as when they have Indestructible. Oh, and I cover how Double Strike changes things up for the attacking creature. Damage assignment can get pretty goofy with all these things.
Just 1 thing that came to mind: "When this creature deals combat damage, do x" triggers twice on double-strike (if the target is still valid after the first strike damage)
Yes, if you have a double strike creature with an ability that triggers on dealing combat damage, it will trigger once for double strike damage and once for normal damage.
Trample has a lot more interesting interactions with various mechanics. -When being blocked by an indestructible creature, or a creature worth an ability that prevents damage (like protection), it still only assigns damage to that creature equal to its toughness. -When you have a damage doubler such as dictate of the twin gods, it is applied after damage is assigned. This means that a 6/6 with trample that is blocked by a 2/2 creature will assign 2 damage to the creature and 4 to the defending player, then those will be doubled to 4 and 8 damage respectively. -You can choose to have a creature with trample deal all it's damage to the blocking creature. This normally doesn't come up much outside of political fun with stuffy doll in commander, but it interacts interestingly with an old mechanic which is less complicated than people assume and was wrongly discontinued called banding. If a creature with banding is blocking a creature, you choose how that creature's damage is distributed rather than it's controller. This means you can have a 10/10 with trample deal all of it's damage to a 1/1 banding creature that's blocking it.
Me too. So many players think I'm cheating when I explain reconnaisance. "But it says prevent damage" and I'm like "you can't prevent that which has already happened".
@@nelsikegaming You can also still do Ninjutsu after Combat Damage and you can keep swapping the same creatures over and over and over. Handy for anything you have that triggers on ETBs.
What sorts of spells are you often casting after damage? Like immediately after while still in combat or you're just talking about during the post combat main phase?
@@craig1287 after damage lets say an opponent attacks one of your other opponents you can cast an aetherize to bounce all the creatures that just attacked to their owners hand or a similar spell like restore the peace
Only thing I see right away this didn't cover was, combat damage triggers with double strike interaction. Otherwise a good and helpful resource as usual. I've referenced these to several newer players as a resource for learning, and to some entrenched players who have been getting wrong, some of them because they're coming back to the game since a rules change.
Episode 18 of my Tough Rules & Cool Interactions series went into this. I cover all the different types of attack triggers and then also combat damage triggers. Lots of different ways for these to be calculated.
Really well presented video, thanks! I started playing magic 10 yrs ago with a group of legacy players and it really surprised me what discussions we sometimes had about certain card interactions. Magic really is a very complicated game. A fun interaction between Ninjutsu and first/double strike... You can use Ninjutsu on an attacking creature after first strike dmg has been dealt. It will still be an attacking creature in the normal damage step.
Verry clear explaining. Also works good with the exel spread sheet with steps on it. And yes at first I made some mistakes understanding or we didn’t know. But if it happens a lot u keep looking up the rules and combinations and orders. But this was a way faster learning experience.
16:45 It's worth noting that assigning excess combat damage with trample is optional, and you can choose how much. Normally you'd want to do it, but it can help a little with politicking. Caller of the Pack is an 8/6 with trample and myriad. If I have a could token doublers, I can swing at one opponent and four copies are each attacking other opponents. I can make a deal with one player that if they chump the original, I'll choose to assign all combat damage to the chump if they don't block it with enough power to kill it. Similar scenario with Giant Adephage, a 7/7 trample that when it deals combat damage to a player, make a token copy of it. I want token copies, so I make a deal with an opponent that they can chump, I'll choose to assign 6 damage to their blocker (which is at least lethal), and only 1 to the player. Can you tell I play a Ghired Conclave Exile deck? :)
knowing how first strike works is great. One time i had an opponent attack me with a bunch of creatures which were mostly Token creatures aside from a couple of them. i blocked one my opponent's creatures that had first strike with Kairi, The Swirling Sky and let the rest go through. Kairi died which activated its ability so i "bounced" all of the attacking tokens so that the tokens couldn't do any damage to me since they didn't have first strike.
First Strike is great with Ninjutsu as well as you can get two hits in, once from each of the creatures. It's extra damage for sure but also extra triggers for anything that cares about Combat Damage.
Similarly to deathtouch trample, I absolutely love banding interaction with deathtouch, trample or indestructible (Rhonas being the banding mvp) . It never stops being funny.
That one chart that showed the steps during combat mentions that mana pools empty after the phase, but it leaves out that mana pools also empty after each step. If you make mana from combat damage, if it doesn't say something that allows it to not empty like normal, then you gotta use it then. Same from abilities that make mana during your upkeep, you won't have it when you do your draw for turn.
Also, worth noting at 20:05 that the Banshee would not actually be able to be assigned as a blocker of the Crusader because the crusader has protection from black, so black creatures can't be assigned to block it. Alternatively, if the Banshee was attacking and is blocked by the Crusader, the crusader would deal 2 damage to it as double strike, then in normal damage it would deal another 2 but would take no damage from the banshee, again because of the protection from black. So the Banshee would die and the Crusader would live.
I did not know that a tapped, blocking creature used to deal no damage. I did, however, know that a attacking creature could become "unblocked" again if the creatures blocking it were to become invalid. The example in the rulebook was casting "Jump" on something, giving it flying and then it flies over the blocker.
@@bluemoonflame342 i built him when he first came out but then took it apart because it didn't seem like i could poison to death consistantly at least not everyone at once. So after you start that people just gang up on you
@@mrnekomaneki01 I've got a couple of fog effects in mine to try to offset that, I've actually thought about putting an isocron scepter in just for that but not sure if it's worth it.
Another great vid, thanks Demo! Possible idea for a future rules one: all defensive mechanics and some interactions with them. I'm thinking indestructible, protection, shroud, hexproof, phasing, "blinking", counter magic and redirection. The last two might be a bit much to include in the same video, but it'd probably be a nice thing for a lot of players to have a single place to go to understand all the ways you can protect your game pieces :)
If you want, check out episode 9 in my Tough Rules & Cool Interactions series, it covers Trample, Deathtouch, and Double Strike when blocked by creatures with Indestructible and Protection. Really interesting results.
As an Obeka user... I can clarify that Every Card stating "at the end of turn" was errata to work as "at the beginning of the end step", which makes them work in the Obeka deck.... However, every single card saying "Until end of turn", will not work as U may intend with Obeka since it happens at clean up
Also with double strike, if the creature has lifelink and kills the creature in the first strike combat damage step, you won't gain any life in the regular combat step. Actually that thing about blockers being removed from in front of creature with lifelink doesn't give you any life thing is probably a pretty confusing interaction to begin with
Excellent video. I’m relatively new to Magic and had to learn the hard way the last game I played that I can’t Path to Exile a blocking creature to get Master of Cruelties through. Should have removed the blocker prior to.
Here's a VERY corner case Rules questions. Player has the counter doubling (and halving) Vorinclex out and then they play Urza's Saga. Q1: it will get two lore counters and gain both chapters triggered abilities (I-tap for mana, II- tap, pay 2 create a construct), correct? Q2: what happens when the next lore counter(s) would be put on with Vorinclex (or another doubler) still out? On Player's next turn, after draw step, it will get two more lore counters for a total of 4, does the 3rd chapter's triggered ability (artifact with MV 1 or 0 tutor) still trigger or, because it has more than 3 counters, it does not.
Short answer, yes and yes. Long answer: Rule 714.2b “{rN}-[Effect]” means “When one or more lore counters are put onto this Saga, if the number of lore counters on it was less than N and became at least N, [effect].” So that's basically say if lore counters are put on a saga, every ability checks wether it now has N or more counters on it if yes then if it didn't have N or more counters on it before the counters were put on it, the ability triggers.
clarifying 20:00 , that is technically an illegal block as the double-strike attacker has Protection from Black and therefore cannot be blocked by the black creature. Good ruling but missed the example. :D
If you don't mind, if you enjoy videos like this that cover Magic rules, I'd love for you to check out my series called Tough Rules & Cool Interactions which covers and explains the deeper rules in Magic. I'm always looking for feedback on how I explain things in those videos.
Regarding one of the questions at the beginning of the video, the one about Sundial/"end the turn" effects; you glossed over an important distinction relating to the original question. The commenter mentions "only saving things for one more turn", which I'm assuming is referring to the distinction between "at the beginning of the end step" (e.g. Ball Lightning) and "at the beginning of the next end step" (e.g. Sneak Attack), wherein if you end the turn with Ball Lightning's trigger on the stack, it will trigger again at the end of every turn afterward, but if you end the turn with the Sneak Attack "Sacrifice the creature at the beginning of the NEXT end step" trigger on the stack, it never triggers again, having met the specific end step specified by the trigger. Unrelated to the bulk of the video, just a clarification for those kind of effects.
I love this series. Would recommend new players to check this out. I’d like to see a video explaining cloning effects. It took me awhile and a lot of research to get right
If you enjoy videos like this that go over Magic rules, I have a whole series of videos called Tough Rules & Cool Interactions that is dedicated to explaining the deeper rules of Magic. I've done a few videos that cover Copiable Values and Copiable Characteristics as well as the Copy Layer. I have plenty more episodes planned as the Layers System is a complicated beast for most players.
The part about removing blockers after they r declared actually became a house rule in our playgroup cuz we realized unless we did the timing that way my brother's deck wouldn't work. We adjust combat so that it became more reactive n full of combat tricks cuz my brother ran 4 copies of Raking Canopy but we realized that if he gave an enemy creature flying after it was declared as an attacker then it wouldn't take the damage from the enchantment. N when we changed that we also changed the blocking response timing to even things out. My old roommate was clever n when we tried out Ting Leaders he built blue monk with the jeskai colour identity (I think it's Shu Yun) n the first thing he asked before our 1st game was about the house blocking rule cuz he had soooooooo much instant speed removal in that deck
I like explaining the rule that a blocked creature deals no damage with the cards Curtain of Light or Dazzling Beauty. Both of those cards make a creature blocked without ever involving a blocking creature. The attacker, even though zero creatures blocked it, deals no combat damage, unless, of course, it has trample. If the rule didn’t work as you described, these cards would have no reason for existence, except as a wired way of cantripping.
This is going to be a weird one. Awhile ago, this dude specifically had a Delina and Isshin out on the battlefield. Then he went to combat, triggering Delina and he picked Isshin as the copy. He was attacking with several other creatures, but he had specifically put the Delina trigger on the stack before everybody could have a blocker. So, back to the question. Can you put a Delina in side of a Isshin deck and still have all the triggers go on the stack as in you had a ton of Isshin?
As someone who came from yu-gi-oh it's honestly pretty funny how I thought magic would be less convaluted compared to all the various edge cases that yu-gi-oh has. Magic is certainly more consistent but it's still pretty fucking messy lol
@@SimpleVisionVideos Depends on the cards and words ;-) But at least you can read the words on MTGs cards without a microscope...if they explain anything or not ^^
In regards the ninjitsu. There was a cedh game I remember seeing where a Satoru umezawa player use a clone creature and another ninja to copy a dockside extortionist then repeatedly the 2 creatures to make infinite treasure.
you saved me some time looking up that double strike ruling. tho in general having come into the game from yugioh I think Magic has very clear rules and effects and I love that about it.
So just to nitpick, since this is a rules video: At 16:16 you say you respond to blockers being declared. But there is actually no thing as "responding" to blockers (or attackers). You just wait for priority, and then do your action when you get the priority, without responding to anything. And the reason I mention this, is because this is something I see *ALL* the time. Especially when I declare attackers, people say "I response, I do this" so I have to ask what they actually want here, but normally it's logical from the context. And this is something not only beginners do... I of course assume you know how this works and thst it was just a blip, but it's important thst everyone knows the difference here.
With your ninjutsu example, if your unblocked attacker deals first strike damage, then you can ninjutsu in your ninja and have it deal normal damage as well for double value.
should be noted 9:36 because of tournament rulings if someone says they want to move to combat it is assumed they are already in the beginning of combat step without actually passing priority to the other players. This means if my opponent says "I'd like to move to combat" and I interrupt with "before that" it is assumed he is already in combat but has not declared attacks yet and is not in the main phase anymore. The exception to this rule is when there is an 'At the beginning of combat' trigger in which case it is up to the person interrupting. This exists so there is less confusion and 'ha gotcha' moments for people who speak more clearly. Basically the judge always sides with the person trying to interrupt the other person.
No. It is considered that the players are acting at the last possible moment. If someone says “Move to Combat” and your reaponse is “Before that” you are acting in the main phase still. I don’t know what logic hoop would be required that implying you’re doing something before combat actually means that you’re actually doing something in the combat phase. And I do think I know which incodent you’re talking about, and that had everything to do with proposed shortcuts and that judge’s rulling is regarded as a pretty aggregious example of almost screwing a player over in a tournament.
This is the stuff that blew my mind when I found out about these rules first, mainly because I was a filthy diehard gruul player and wanted nothing more than to deal hundreds of points of damage to my opponents lmao my first real commander deck that I went out of my way to build was Jetmir, Nexus of Revels because it had double strike and trample with one card.
@@zackfro Oh yeah, a lot of old cards got a ton better with mana burn gone. Braid of Fire too is worth a lot compared to the $0.75 it was back in the day. I took a break in 2006 and started up again with Commander in 2018 and it was wild to see/hear all the changes.
One combat interaction I'm still not clear on - deathtouch + trample vs indestructible. Eg: attacking with a 6/6 with deathtouch and trample, blocked by a 2/2 with indestructible - how much damage can trample through? Does the deathtouch still have the effect of 'one point would have been enough for lethal', so five would go through even though the blocker is not destroyed? Or does the indestructible negate the effect of the deathtouch, so four would go through since two would have been needed for lethal? (Or does indestructible negate trample, since no amount of damage can be lethal? I don't think that's the case, but I'm not sure why it wouldn't be from the way trample is worded...)
My interpretation, and someone please feel free to correct me. But, let's break it down this way: Deathtouch= Any amount of damage is enough to DESTROY a creature. Indestructible=Effects that say DESTROY, do not destroy creature, permanent, etc. When Deathtouch is added with Trample, only 1 damage is required to pass through blocking creature and deal trample damage. The defending creature having indestructible is irrelevant. They still take the damage, but does not become destroyed as a result of deathtouch or reaching 0 toughness as a result of combat damage. Only things that get around destruction are Exile, -1/-1 counters, sacrifice, etc. Hope this helps.
it would still work the same. one point of damage is still considered "lethal damage", even if the blocking creature is inderstructible. the rule of deathtouch are not that it kills the creature it's that any damage is considered lethal. since trample only cares about doing lethal damage the extra damage would still go to the face even if the blocking creature lives. hope i managed to make it clear for you.
Ah yes, thank you both, that does clarify :) (And has led me to finding the relevant rule - "702.2c Any nonzero amount of combat damage assigned to a creature by a source with deathtouch is considered to be lethal damage for the purposes of determining if a proposed combat damage assignment is valid, regardless of that creature’s toughness. See rules 510.1c-d." - with your explanations that makes it perfectly clear :) )
Neither trample nor deathtouch looks ahead to see what the result of the damage will actually be; as far as they're concerned, one point with deathtouch is lethal damage. They don't care that destroy effects don't destroy indestructible creatures.
I actually covered this stuff in episode 9 of my Tough Rules & Cool Interactions series. I cover multiple combinations of Trample, Deathtouch, Double Strike, Indestructible, and Protection.
I always like saying that every rule in magic has an asterisk by it that says “except for when it’s not” A weird thing with postcombat main phase is that any main phase other then the first is considered postcombat even if there hasn’t been combat most likely because it was skipped. I think that’s actually the only way to two main phases before a combat phase. The only effects that make extra main phases are ones that do so after an extra combat. Anywho that little detail basically only matters for beginning of post combat main phase triggers.
Banding is the answer against Trample/Deathtoucher. Band with an indestructible creature or protection from color or something and it also works against trample/double strike.. Play more banding
At a LGS when I started to get in to commander, I had a planeswalker on the battlefield, a player attacked me, I decided not to block (4 damage to the face, better than losing 1 of the 2 creatures I had). Once I said no blockers, he tried to respond saying he is redirecting the damage to my Planeswalker instead (if he attacked my planeswalker, I would have blocked to keep it around). I said I don't think that is how it works, everyone else at the table agreed with the guy. I flagged over one of the store employees to assist with this, and got the situation resolved.
My Raggadragga deck loves combat, being able to untap my attacking mana dorks is amazing and following through with a instant March of The Progress (Or some other instant creature tutor) and drop in Craterhoof Behemoth (Or any anthem effect creature) to do huge damage in the damage step :P
My favorite quirk of the trample deathtouch thing is how it works with an indestructible blocker: deathtouch and trample don't care that destroy effects don't destroy the blocker; you only have to assign one damage.
@@craig1287 2 to opponent and 1 to Indestructible blocking creature during First Strike Damage, and then during non-First Strike Damage you can assign all 3 damage to the defending player and 0 damage to the blocking creature.
I didn’t actually know about the old rule that a tappened blocker doesn’t deal damage. If i had to guess I’d say the was changed to make the rules more streamlined. Ignoring vigilance an attacking creature will always be tapped so having it the rules that tapped blockers can’t do damage while tapped attacking creatures do is a bit odd.
Fun fact if your attacking creature has first strike - you can deal damage in the resolution of first strike damage step, then ninjutsu in a ninja and it will deal it's damage in regular damage step xd
One thing I find interesting when dealing with Trample that you did not mention is Trample vs Protection. It seems to me that if a creature has protection from a color and that creature blocks a creature with Trample, Trample should get through cause there is no "lethal damage." But apparently it does get through. Perhaps you can cover "Protection from" in your next rules video. I just learned last night that Protection from Black did not save my creature from a Toxic Deluge since it's not doing damage or targeting the creature.
I think you're confusing two different things. The Toxic Deluge example is correct. because there's no targeting of the protected creature. But a creature with color protection blocking another of that color with Trample, does not cause the attacking creature to trample over its damage. Trample requires you to deal enough combat damage (or "lethal") to FIRST destroy the blocker, and THEN you can assign the remaining damage to the player. Because a color protected creature can take infinite damage from an attacker of the protected color, you would never be able to assign enough combat damage to destroy it, and therefore, no damage tramples over. I hope that was clear and non smug, I don't mean to rule lawyer lmao. (But maybe you wrote "should" instead of "shouldn't" by accident. So dismiss my comment if that's the case)
@@Pawuichi I realize this comment is a year old, but I don't want anyone coming now to be confused. You can trample over a creature with protection. "Lethal damage" means the toughness of the blocking creature (or 1 if the attacker has deathtouch). You do not need to actually kill the creature in order to assign trample damage. Same goes for indestructible creatures. No amount of damage can kill them, but they can still only soak as much damage as their toughness. The rest will trample over.
If you don't mind, I have a series of videos similar to Demo's series here that explain rules. My series is called Tough Rules & Cool Interactions which focuses on the deeper rules of Magic and bringing up specific cards and situations to show how the results would pan out. I'm always looking for feedback on the series, how I convey the information, the pacing, the examples given, etc... If you do happen to check them out, thanks.
An interesting interaction that people get wrong a lot is if Brash Taunter is blocking a creature with trample, Brash Taunter is only taking 1 of that damage. He does not suck up the residual damage left to ping someone with it. Trample cheats it out.
Eh, that depends. Trample simply gives an option to deal the rest of the non-dealt damage to an opponent’s face. There is nothing stopping someone from not trampling damage over. There are fringe cases where this fact in particular is useful. In this particular example, that sounds like a perfect opportunity for a deal if the Trample player says: “Well, you could be taking 20 to face from my creature or you could shoot this other guy for 20 that goaded me if I don’t trample it over, since I couldn’t actually attack him.”
Every week in the playgroup. I must explain: Untap, Upkeep, Draw. It does matter, stop drawing before upkeep. In nearly every match you will have triggers in Upkeeps and that anoys me, that so many players just mix up the first steps. ARGSL
To my knowledge the only abilities that function in the command zone are yuriko the tigers shadow's ninjitsu, any commander with Eminence, the partner mechanic, and the background mechanic are the only abilities that function in the command zone
We've had to repeatedly remind my sister that blockers don't tap to block. I guess it just seems intuitive that if the attacker needs to tap, so too would the blocker.
Funny how you chose two invalid blockers for your example with mirran crusader xD Question here, how does indestructible works against trample ? On another note, in the first 4 years of playing magic with my friend and his brother, we were using those "tap this creature: tap target creature" to tap our opponents creature in reponse to their declared attacker to stop them from attacking xD. Funny how it took so long to actually understand the ruling, it totally shifted our meta
Interesting - I had not noticed that WOTC never printed anything with BOTH deathtouch and trample... though you get several creatures that can copy those abilities off other creatures in Abzan colors (WGB)... almost makes me want to make a Kathril, Aspect Warper deck and include all those in the 99 and make the rest of the creatures in the deck have either deathtouch or trample XD haha
best part of trample is that it doesn't care about anything else, other than deathtouch. So say you block a 2/2 deathtouch trample grizzly bears, with a 10/10 with protection from green, you are still gone take 1 damage. The 10/10 here however will not die tho.
Can you talk about the end phase a bit since I am curious about when does discard down to hand size and cleanup damage resolves is it a spefic order or can it be done in any order the turn player wishes also if you discarded for turn and then draw more cards afterwards while still on end phase would you still have to discard again or would you able to cast spells or activate abilities after you removed damage and or discarded down to hand size just wondering how that all happens and what order it does thanks
In the cleanup step (the last step of the end of turn phase and the last step of a turn), it is discard to hand size first, then remove damage. Note that, normally, no player receives priority during this step. However, after damage is removed the game checks if there are any state based actions to be performed or any abilities were triggered that want to go on the stack. If so, the state based actions are preformed, then all those abilities go on the stack and the active player receives priority. Once the stack is empty and all the players pass in succession, there is an additional cleanup step.
Combat damage seems to be the hardest in my opinion nowadays because it never happens. Creatures are either value sticks with a ton of passive, active, and triggered abilities such that no one wants to attack/block with them, OR they are suited up with so many counters, buffs, and keywords that when a player swings with them we know that whoever was attacked just lost so we don’t even bother with all of the steps.
I would argue that it depends heavily on your playgroup, meta, format and so on. Yes, there is a sad trend towards combo and alternate wincon decks overall, but it is not taking over MTG as a whole, at least in my experience. We got a pretty big, active local community and only a tiny amount is playing non combat focussed decks. Taking Arena for getting a slightly broader/global view, even there not that many decks are combo, tron, whatever across all formats and even most standard environments over the last years had at least 1-2 aggro/combat meta decks
Yeah, as mfsoab said, it depends on the group/s you're playing in. I don't play in a lot of cEDH groups and most of us are aggro players. 90% of my decks are aggro and I love the Combat Step. I've got two Goad decks now, one that Goads the creatures my opponents have and one that gives away creatures to my opponents that are Goaded and they're a blast to play.
Arena tries to smooth out the experience by doing things like automatically ordering triggers and swooshing through steps/phases that seem to be "not that important" to it unless you tell it to let you take control over this kind of stuff. You can activate control over trigger order in the game options and during matches you can use ctrl/shift+ctrl to get full control over every little step, holding priority and so on. So if you activate hold full control (shift+ctrl) it should be stopping at end of combat step, giving you the opportunity to do your ninjutsu shennanigans ;-) edit: on mac it should be the option key, don't know what they did on mobile tho
I tought i did have a good understanding of the combat in MTG. But i didn't knew at all about the trample + deathtouch interaction. it still work the same with indestructible and protection. That is bonkers to me
If you want to go even deeper into this sort of Combat stuff, check out my series Tough Rules & Cool Interactions, specifically episode 9 of the series that does a deep dive into this stuff. It also covers Double Strike as well as the Trample and Deathtouch, and to expand even more it goes into what happens when they're blocked by creatures with Indestructible and Protection.
Nope. 510.2 Second, all combat damage that’s been assigned is dealt simultaneously. This turn-based action doesn’t use the stack. *No player has the chance to cast spells or activate abilities between the time combat damage is assigned and the time it’s dealt.*
When it comes to the ability of Kaldra Compleat, how does that ability work if my opponent is blocking? It has to trample, so don't I get to choose how the damage is assigned?
How cards like Annex, Take Possession, Confiscate works? It says Enchant permanent and You control enchanted permanent. Dos it mean i can tap and untap enemies lands and take mana from enemy lands? Or do i need other cards like that says you can tap target land, to tap it (is even taping enemy land take his mana from that land its self?).
Thank you so much!!! So double strike does NOT (if 2/2 double strike vs 5/5 no text) deal two damage to the creature and then two damage to the opponent’s life force (then 2/2 dies)? It deals four damage total to the 5/5 before normal damage, then had 2 more to give to blocking creature, thus killing it and (without trample) not hurting opponent life points? Apologies for this chopped and screwed comment lol
Incorrect. If it is a 2/2 with double strike, it does 2 damage in first strike step and then 2 more in normal attack step, for a total of 4 damage, which will not kill the 5/5 creature.
Sundial and obeka are not the same. Idk why people assume this because there are tons of tech that specify how sundial stops end of turn effects. Ilharg for instance
The effect is exactly the same, what most people miss about it is the *timing* of when to activate these kinds of effects to get them to do what they think it does.
Here's something I ran into the other night. Opponent attacks me with a horde of infect creatures. I can't block them all so I'm about to lose regardless of what I do. I block with everything I have to kill as many of his creatures as I can before dying. One of my creatures is Ravenous Chupucabra and it has a coin counter on it so it will return to my field when it dies. If my opponent deals enough infect damage to kill me and and my creature at the same time, would my creature return to the field before the game checks my life status? If so, this would allow me to trigger the ETB and destroy another creature just before I die.
@@helderboymh That's the bummer with No Mercy, it will save you from small attacks earlier in the game, but at the end when they swing all out and kill you, all their creatures will be safe.
You missed the entering combat and then going back to activate Mishra's factory and cast a haste creature because they enabled you to rewind by responding by say tapping a creature. Also didn't address the stacking of blockers that folks do which is not banding but seems wrong to me. Thanks tho
If I attack with a creature with trample and my opponent blocks with a creature that has protection does all the damage go to the player? Since the blocking creature has protection does that prevent all dage from being assigned to it causing all trample damage to be assigned to player. Or does the protection prevent combat damage?
If I have a 6/6 creature on my side and I declare an attack with it; My opponent has three 1/1 tokens and one 3/2 creature and declares a block with only one 1/1 token My creature gets blocked, the token dies and they still keep two tokens and the 3/2 creature?
Do beginning of combat triggers happen in the same stack or can they be separated. Say one animates something, and the next i want to make copies of said thing with Rionya Fire Dancer.
I'd love some clarification about when a creature has to get flashed in, during combat, to be declared as a blocker. My understanding is that it would have to be flashed in during Declare Attackers when you get priority, after attackers have been declared, or is there a better way?
Nope this is the best way, during the declare attackers step. (at the start of this step attackers are declared so you would flash then in after all attackers have been declared)
@@GaZZuM I was answering your question at the end. Reading it back now I see it got confusing, I am not disagreeing with you, so yeah you did it correctly!
Can I ask how does repercussions work with blocking creatures ? It says any damage dealt to a creature is felt to that player as well . So if a player blocks a creature but then is sacrificed does the damage still get dealt?
Ok my question is when you gain control of a creature with something like mark of mutiny is that an etb or does the creature stay on the battlefield through that process?
heres a deathtouch ruling question someone claimed to me that a ping damage from attacking trigger from a deathtouch creature won't kill it is that true and to clarify it was "thorncaster Sliver" and "Venom sliver" combo and claimed that combo didn't work. (so a sliver deck)
If you somehow gave an "attacking-ping" creature deathtouch, like Scalding Salamander, being equipped with a Basilisk Collar, it will deal 1-deathtouch damage to each non-flying creature defending player controls. Unless those defending creatures were indestructible or had protection from red, they're going to die horribly. EDIT: That Sliver combo you mentioned does work. That's deathtouch damage! They would die, before getting a chance to block.
Could you please go over how exactly "protection" works? From what I remember, protection means that a card or permanent or spell (and maybe the player, if there's something that gives the player protection?), I'm not entirely sure which, cannot be targeted by, destroyed by, assigned damage by, or blocked by whatever it is protected from. But there are all kinds of potential interactions that can make that very confusing. (Really enjoy the vids btw, I appreciate the content!)
Protection does 4 things. The permanent or player with protection cannot be: - Damaged by sources with the specified quality. (All such damage is prevented.) - Enchanted, equipped, or fortified by permanents with the specified quality. - Blocked by creatures with the specified quality. - Targeted by spells with the specified quality, or by abilities from sources of that quality. An acronym to help remind it is DEBT.
@@helderboymh Thanks! What does "fortified" mean? I don't believe I've encountered that term within Magic. Also, I thought that the protected card couldn't be enchanted or equipped by those permanents *because* those actions targeted, but the fact that they're listed separately seems to imply otherwise, am I missing something? I thought that was why permanents with hexproof or shroud couldn't be enchanted/equipped by opponents'/any permanents respectively.
@@alicecrawford1033fortified is an obscure mechanic they used in the past, basically equipment for land. You can forget it. You'll most likely never encounter it ever playing magic.
@@alicecrawford1033 well yes, when you go to equip or enchant you are targeting the permanent. And if something has protection the targeting part is what stops it. But when something is equiped or enchanted, so after the initial moving it into the creature. It's attached by that enchantment or equipment Wich doesn't fall under the umbrella of being targeted by it. So if something *gains* protection from something that its attached too ( ex. creature with a blue enchantment attached to it gets protection from blue) It's the part about it not being able to be attached by a thing it has protection from that causes the equipment or enchantment to fall off .
I'm trying to find an answer to a question with magic The gathering and I'm having a hard time finding it.. The card warg rider from the Lord of the Ring set says at the beginning of your combat amass two orcs.. does that mean I have to attack to get the two orgs?
One thing that still confuses me after many many years of playing is timing around the end of turn. For example when you can activate something that lasts until end of turn at the end of one turn and have it last until the end of the next turn. Or how some effects that trigger at end of turn work. Can you hold priority after a Sandwurm Convergence makes a token and tap your Idol of Oblivion to draw a card? Or do you lose the chance since the enchantment happens at the end step?
There is an important distinction between end step and end of turn here. Things that happen until the beginning of the next end step can be activated during end step to last until, well, the next end step. However if it says end of turn those things change until your cleanup step. The clean up is when your discard down to hand size happens. No one can react to those effects. But you could draw a card with idol since it happens in the end step (basically all triggers like it do) since yiu can get priority before the turn is passed but after the token was made. Hope that helps.
When you create that first strike step in the combat phase, can people respond to things? If someone has a first strike creature and reconnaissance in play, can they deal first strike damage to the blocking creature, then use reconnaissance to untap the first striker and remove it from combat?
Yes, before going to the normal damage step when you are in the first strike damage step, every player gets priority and can activate abilities or cast spells.
of course i used banshee of the dead choir and grizzly bears as examples blocking mirran crusader to test you guys and see who would catch the mistake.
I was going to type your example isn't great due to the protection rules.
Next endstep is nearest one, or... next one?
@@tornad8063 Next is the actual next one, doesn't matter whose turn. Otherwise it would say "your next"
@@mfsoab already asked somewhere else and gotten answer. Was confused due to english being my secondary launguage and in my primary, first there is "closest one" and then is "next"
@@tornad8063 Not my first language either, but once you get into how wizards words stuff on cards/what the typical phrases are things like these become clearer ;-)
I've always liked that magic can be as simple or as complicated as you make it, depending on the cards and playstyles you use. You can run a generic mono green ramp deck with big creatures and never encounter half of the confusing interactions most decks are built upon. Or you can make an Obeka deck and convince everyone at the table that you're either a genius or cheating.
Meanwhile I'm over here with a Banding deck that makes combat painfully complicated.
Now that's just evil lmao
@@Mihomiti drop the list? 👀
@@Mihomiti isn't combat actually more simple with banding as long as all your creatures are in a single band? I bet you are using some Tolarian Entrancer + Lure type effect.
@@philippschmidt9499 No, because I'm using Enrage creatures and other things that like to take damage like Stuffy Doll and lots of anthems to give my creatures trample and death touch so each combat is trying to optimally place damage. lol
the "blockers dont tap" thing persists to this day, i do it absentmindedly all the time
I find alot of players who tap like that also play, previously played or have friends who play Yu-Gi-Oh. Mostly but not exclusively.
The trample deathtouch combo blew my mind when I learned about it last year. I've been playing for 13 years and had never heard that before. There's always more to learn with this game lol
In my Tough Rules & Cool Interactions series, episode 9 does a deep dive into this interaction. I also cover what happens when the blocking creature has Protection from as well as when they have Indestructible. Oh, and I cover how Double Strike changes things up for the attacking creature. Damage assignment can get pretty goofy with all these things.
my Necroi deck mutate on trample creatures just for that...
@@mathieubrebouillet714 that’s funny because I literally have a brokkos mutate deck that does the same thing but in reverse lol
Just 1 thing that came to mind:
"When this creature deals combat damage, do x" triggers twice on double-strike (if the target is still valid after the first strike damage)
Yes, if you have a double strike creature with an ability that triggers on dealing combat damage, it will trigger once for double strike damage and once for normal damage.
Trample has a lot more interesting interactions with various mechanics.
-When being blocked by an indestructible creature, or a creature worth an ability that prevents damage (like protection), it still only assigns damage to that creature equal to its toughness.
-When you have a damage doubler such as dictate of the twin gods, it is applied after damage is assigned. This means that a 6/6 with trample that is blocked by a 2/2 creature will assign 2 damage to the creature and 4 to the defending player, then those will be doubled to 4 and 8 damage respectively.
-You can choose to have a creature with trample deal all it's damage to the blocking creature. This normally doesn't come up much outside of political fun with stuffy doll in commander, but it interacts interestingly with an old mechanic which is less complicated than people assume and was wrongly discontinued called banding. If a creature with banding is blocking a creature, you choose how that creature's damage is distributed rather than it's controller. This means you can have a 10/10 with trample deal all of it's damage to a 1/1 banding creature that's blocking it.
The after combat step is still the least known step
I've had to explain the phases too many times because of it
Me too. So many players think I'm cheating when I explain reconnaisance. "But it says prevent damage" and I'm like "you can't prevent that which has already happened".
@@nelsikegaming You can also still do Ninjutsu after Combat Damage and you can keep swapping the same creatures over and over and over. Handy for anything you have that triggers on ETBs.
@@ThisIsACommanderChannel something like Satoru Umezawa + 2+ etb creatures or so?
My favorite time to cast spells, before damage and after damage lol
What sorts of spells are you often casting after damage? Like immediately after while still in combat or you're just talking about during the post combat main phase?
@@craig1287 after damage lets say an opponent attacks one of your other opponents you can cast an aetherize to bounce all the creatures that just attacked to their owners hand or a similar spell like restore the peace
@@TheUltimateRey Oh, that's nasty.
@@craig1287 try and see if you can pull it off it’ll sure turn a head or two!
Only thing I see right away this didn't cover was, combat damage triggers with double strike interaction. Otherwise a good and helpful resource as usual.
I've referenced these to several newer players as a resource for learning, and to some entrenched players who have been getting wrong, some of them because they're coming back to the game since a rules change.
Episode 18 of my Tough Rules & Cool Interactions series went into this. I cover all the different types of attack triggers and then also combat damage triggers. Lots of different ways for these to be calculated.
Really well presented video, thanks!
I started playing magic 10 yrs ago with a group of legacy players and it really surprised me what discussions we sometimes had about certain card interactions. Magic really is a very complicated game.
A fun interaction between Ninjutsu and first/double strike... You can use Ninjutsu on an attacking creature after first strike dmg has been dealt. It will still be an attacking creature in the normal damage step.
Verry clear explaining. Also works good with the exel spread sheet with steps on it. And yes at first I made some mistakes understanding or we didn’t know. But if it happens a lot u keep looking up the rules and combinations and orders. But this was a way faster learning experience.
16:45 It's worth noting that assigning excess combat damage with trample is optional, and you can choose how much. Normally you'd want to do it, but it can help a little with politicking.
Caller of the Pack is an 8/6 with trample and myriad. If I have a could token doublers, I can swing at one opponent and four copies are each attacking other opponents. I can make a deal with one player that if they chump the original, I'll choose to assign all combat damage to the chump if they don't block it with enough power to kill it.
Similar scenario with Giant Adephage, a 7/7 trample that when it deals combat damage to a player, make a token copy of it. I want token copies, so I make a deal with an opponent that they can chump, I'll choose to assign 6 damage to their blocker (which is at least lethal), and only 1 to the player.
Can you tell I play a Ghired Conclave Exile deck? :)
knowing how first strike works is great. One time i had an opponent attack me with a bunch of creatures which were mostly Token creatures aside from a couple of them. i blocked one my opponent's creatures that had first strike with Kairi, The Swirling Sky and let the rest go through. Kairi died which activated its ability so i "bounced" all of the attacking tokens so that the tokens couldn't do any damage to me since they didn't have first strike.
First Strike is great with Ninjutsu as well as you can get two hits in, once from each of the creatures. It's extra damage for sure but also extra triggers for anything that cares about Combat Damage.
Similarly to deathtouch trample, I absolutely love banding interaction with deathtouch, trample or indestructible (Rhonas being the banding mvp) . It never stops being funny.
the banding taboo
Thank you for charts in the video it helped players in my playgroup visualize 🙂
That one chart that showed the steps during combat mentions that mana pools empty after the phase, but it leaves out that mana pools also empty after each step. If you make mana from combat damage, if it doesn't say something that allows it to not empty like normal, then you gotta use it then. Same from abilities that make mana during your upkeep, you won't have it when you do your draw for turn.
Also, worth noting at 20:05 that the Banshee would not actually be able to be assigned as a blocker of the Crusader because the crusader has protection from black, so black creatures can't be assigned to block it. Alternatively, if the Banshee was attacking and is blocked by the Crusader, the crusader would deal 2 damage to it as double strike, then in normal damage it would deal another 2 but would take no damage from the banshee, again because of the protection from black. So the Banshee would die and the Crusader would live.
Same goes for the Grizzly Bear due to the protection from green with not being able to assign it as a blocker
I did not know that a tapped, blocking creature used to deal no damage. I did, however, know that a attacking creature could become "unblocked" again if the creatures blocking it were to become invalid. The example in the rulebook was casting "Jump" on something, giving it flying and then it flies over the blocker.
I didn't know the deathtouch trample thing but gives me ideas now of gimmicks to pull.
Look into Fynn the Fangbearer. He is nasty with deathtouch and trample, and he facilitates a pretty brutal deck.
@@bluemoonflame342 i built him when he first came out but then took it apart because it didn't seem like i could poison to death consistantly at least not everyone at once. So after you start that people just gang up on you
@@mrnekomaneki01 I've got a couple of fog effects in mine to try to offset that, I've actually thought about putting an isocron scepter in just for that but not sure if it's worth it.
Another great vid, thanks Demo! Possible idea for a future rules one: all defensive mechanics and some interactions with them. I'm thinking indestructible, protection, shroud, hexproof, phasing, "blinking", counter magic and redirection. The last two might be a bit much to include in the same video, but it'd probably be a nice thing for a lot of players to have a single place to go to understand all the ways you can protect your game pieces :)
If you want, check out episode 9 in my Tough Rules & Cool Interactions series, it covers Trample, Deathtouch, and Double Strike when blocked by creatures with Indestructible and Protection. Really interesting results.
As an Obeka user... I can clarify that Every Card stating "at the end of turn" was errata to work as "at the beginning of the end step", which makes them work in the Obeka deck.... However, every single card saying "Until end of turn", will not work as U may intend with Obeka since it happens at clean up
Also with double strike, if the creature has lifelink and kills the creature in the first strike combat damage step, you won't gain any life in the regular combat step. Actually that thing about blockers being removed from in front of creature with lifelink doesn't give you any life thing is probably a pretty confusing interaction to begin with
Oh then I've definitely played that wrong.
I personally liked damage using the stack. It allowed some fun interactions.
Excellent video. I’m relatively new to Magic and had to learn the hard way the last game I played that I can’t Path to Exile a blocking creature to get Master of Cruelties through. Should have removed the blocker prior to.
Here's a VERY corner case Rules questions. Player has the counter doubling (and halving) Vorinclex out and then they play Urza's Saga. Q1: it will get two lore counters and gain both chapters triggered abilities (I-tap for mana, II- tap, pay 2 create a construct), correct? Q2: what happens when the next lore counter(s) would be put on with Vorinclex (or another doubler) still out? On Player's next turn, after draw step, it will get two more lore counters for a total of 4, does the 3rd chapter's triggered ability (artifact with MV 1 or 0 tutor) still trigger or, because it has more than 3 counters, it does not.
Short answer, yes and yes.
Long answer:
Rule 714.2b “{rN}-[Effect]” means “When one or more lore counters are put onto this Saga, if the number of lore counters on it was less than N and became at least N, [effect].”
So that's basically say if lore counters are put on a saga, every ability checks wether it now has N or more counters on it if yes then if it didn't have N or more counters on it before the counters were put on it, the ability triggers.
@@helderboymh Thanks!
clarifying 20:00 , that is technically an illegal block as the double-strike attacker has Protection from Black and therefore cannot be blocked by the black creature. Good ruling but missed the example. :D
Every word of this video was helpful. You explain things so well. Thank you.
If you don't mind, if you enjoy videos like this that cover Magic rules, I'd love for you to check out my series called Tough Rules & Cool Interactions which covers and explains the deeper rules in Magic. I'm always looking for feedback on how I explain things in those videos.
Regarding one of the questions at the beginning of the video, the one about Sundial/"end the turn" effects; you glossed over an important distinction relating to the original question. The commenter mentions "only saving things for one more turn", which I'm assuming is referring to the distinction between "at the beginning of the end step" (e.g. Ball Lightning) and "at the beginning of the next end step" (e.g. Sneak Attack), wherein if you end the turn with Ball Lightning's trigger on the stack, it will trigger again at the end of every turn afterward, but if you end the turn with the Sneak Attack "Sacrifice the creature at the beginning of the NEXT end step" trigger on the stack, it never triggers again, having met the specific end step specified by the trigger.
Unrelated to the bulk of the video, just a clarification for those kind of effects.
I love this series. Would recommend new players to check this out. I’d like to see a video explaining cloning effects. It took me awhile and a lot of research to get right
If you enjoy videos like this that go over Magic rules, I have a whole series of videos called Tough Rules & Cool Interactions that is dedicated to explaining the deeper rules of Magic. I've done a few videos that cover Copiable Values and Copiable Characteristics as well as the Copy Layer. I have plenty more episodes planned as the Layers System is a complicated beast for most players.
The part about removing blockers after they r declared actually became a house rule in our playgroup cuz we realized unless we did the timing that way my brother's deck wouldn't work. We adjust combat so that it became more reactive n full of combat tricks cuz my brother ran 4 copies of Raking Canopy but we realized that if he gave an enemy creature flying after it was declared as an attacker then it wouldn't take the damage from the enchantment. N when we changed that we also changed the blocking response timing to even things out. My old roommate was clever n when we tried out Ting Leaders he built blue monk with the jeskai colour identity (I think it's Shu Yun) n the first thing he asked before our 1st game was about the house blocking rule cuz he had soooooooo much instant speed removal in that deck
Well what do you know? An honorable mention from Demo! Thanks!
I like explaining the rule that a blocked creature deals no damage with the cards Curtain of Light or Dazzling Beauty. Both of those cards make a creature blocked without ever involving a blocking creature. The attacker, even though zero creatures blocked it, deals no combat damage, unless, of course, it has trample. If the rule didn’t work as you described, these cards would have no reason for existence, except as a wired way of cantripping.
This is going to be a weird one. Awhile ago, this dude specifically had a Delina and Isshin out on the battlefield. Then he went to combat, triggering Delina and he picked Isshin as the copy. He was attacking with several other creatures, but he had specifically put the Delina trigger on the stack before everybody could have a blocker. So, back to the question. Can you put a Delina in side of a Isshin deck and still have all the triggers go on the stack as in you had a ton of Isshin?
As someone who came from yu-gi-oh it's honestly pretty funny how I thought magic would be less convaluted compared to all the various edge cases that yu-gi-oh has. Magic is certainly more consistent but it's still pretty fucking messy lol
Yugioh cards have lots of words on them, magic cards ask you to know lots of words that aren't written on the cards lol, at least that's how I see it
@@SimpleVisionVideos Depends on the cards and words ;-) But at least you can read the words on MTGs cards without a microscope...if they explain anything or not ^^
I'm just glad the word " if" on a card doesn't cause the whole English language to fall apart in Magic.
In regards the ninjitsu. There was a cedh game I remember seeing where a Satoru umezawa player use a clone creature and another ninja to copy a dockside extortionist then repeatedly the 2 creatures to make infinite treasure.
you saved me some time looking up that double strike ruling.
tho in general having come into the game from yugioh I think Magic has very clear rules and effects and I love that about it.
So just to nitpick, since this is a rules video: At 16:16 you say you respond to blockers being declared. But there is actually no thing as "responding" to blockers (or attackers). You just wait for priority, and then do your action when you get the priority, without responding to anything. And the reason I mention this, is because this is something I see *ALL* the time. Especially when I declare attackers, people say "I response, I do this" so I have to ask what they actually want here, but normally it's logical from the context. And this is something not only beginners do... I of course assume you know how this works and thst it was just a blip, but it's important thst everyone knows the difference here.
With your ninjutsu example, if your unblocked attacker deals first strike damage, then you can ninjutsu in your ninja and have it deal normal damage as well for double value.
16:08 that is crazy wow I did not know this!
should be noted 9:36 because of tournament rulings if someone says they want to move to combat it is assumed they are already in the beginning of combat step without actually passing priority to the other players. This means if my opponent says "I'd like to move to combat" and I interrupt with "before that" it is assumed he is already in combat but has not declared attacks yet and is not in the main phase anymore. The exception to this rule is when there is an 'At the beginning of combat' trigger in which case it is up to the person interrupting.
This exists so there is less confusion and 'ha gotcha' moments for people who speak more clearly. Basically the judge always sides with the person trying to interrupt the other person.
No. It is considered that the players are acting at the last possible moment. If someone says “Move to Combat” and your reaponse is “Before that” you are acting in the main phase still. I don’t know what logic hoop would be required that implying you’re doing something before combat actually means that you’re actually doing something in the combat phase. And I do think I know which incodent you’re talking about, and that had everything to do with proposed shortcuts and that judge’s rulling is regarded as a pretty aggregious example of almost screwing a player over in a tournament.
It's exactly the other way around and precisely why you say "I want to move to combat" instead of just declaring it's the beginning of combat.
Death touch and trample/doublestrike could be cool. If a creature dies at some point im curious how that interacts with everything.
Great video! Arcanis seems to come up occasionally during these videos, just pointing out that Omnipotent is pronounced "ahm-NIP-uh-tint"
This is the stuff that blew my mind when I found out about these rules first, mainly because I was a filthy diehard gruul player and wanted nothing more than to deal hundreds of points of damage to my opponents lmao my first real commander deck that I went out of my way to build was Jetmir, Nexus of Revels because it had double strike and trample with one card.
I took a 15 year break and started playing again at the LGS. I tried some damage on the stack tricks and people thought I was absolutely insane.
Mana burn is gone too. I miss Mana burn so much.
@@ThisIsACommanderChannel same! At least my old mana drains are worth something now
@@zackfro Oh yeah, a lot of old cards got a ton better with mana burn gone. Braid of Fire too is worth a lot compared to the $0.75 it was back in the day. I took a break in 2006 and started up again with Commander in 2018 and it was wild to see/hear all the changes.
One combat interaction I'm still not clear on - deathtouch + trample vs indestructible. Eg: attacking with a 6/6 with deathtouch and trample, blocked by a 2/2 with indestructible - how much damage can trample through? Does the deathtouch still have the effect of 'one point would have been enough for lethal', so five would go through even though the blocker is not destroyed? Or does the indestructible negate the effect of the deathtouch, so four would go through since two would have been needed for lethal? (Or does indestructible negate trample, since no amount of damage can be lethal? I don't think that's the case, but I'm not sure why it wouldn't be from the way trample is worded...)
My interpretation, and someone please feel free to correct me. But, let's break it down this way:
Deathtouch= Any amount of damage is enough to DESTROY a creature.
Indestructible=Effects that say DESTROY, do not destroy creature, permanent, etc.
When Deathtouch is added with Trample, only 1 damage is required to pass through blocking creature and deal trample damage. The defending creature having indestructible is irrelevant. They still take the damage, but does not become destroyed as a result of deathtouch or reaching 0 toughness as a result of combat damage. Only things that get around destruction are Exile, -1/-1 counters, sacrifice, etc.
Hope this helps.
it would still work the same. one point of damage is still considered "lethal damage", even if the blocking creature is inderstructible. the rule of deathtouch are not that it kills the creature it's that any damage is considered lethal. since trample only cares about doing lethal damage the extra damage would still go to the face even if the blocking creature lives. hope i managed to make it clear for you.
Ah yes, thank you both, that does clarify :) (And has led me to finding the relevant rule - "702.2c Any nonzero amount of combat damage assigned to a creature by a source with deathtouch is considered to be lethal damage for the purposes of determining if a proposed combat damage assignment is valid, regardless of that creature’s toughness. See rules 510.1c-d." - with your explanations that makes it perfectly clear :) )
Neither trample nor deathtouch looks ahead to see what the result of the damage will actually be; as far as they're concerned, one point with deathtouch is lethal damage. They don't care that destroy effects don't destroy indestructible creatures.
I actually covered this stuff in episode 9 of my Tough Rules & Cool Interactions series. I cover multiple combinations of Trample, Deathtouch, Double Strike, Indestructible, and Protection.
I always like saying that every rule in magic has an asterisk by it that says “except for when it’s not”
A weird thing with postcombat main phase is that any main phase other then the first is considered postcombat even if there hasn’t been combat most likely because it was skipped.
I think that’s actually the only way to two main phases before a combat phase. The only effects that make extra main phases are ones that do so after an extra combat.
Anywho that little detail basically only matters for beginning of post combat main phase triggers.
First thing I tell people when I'm teaching them how to play Magic, "every rule I'm about to say, there is always an exception to it."
Thanks for the answer.
You missed the opportunity to talk about my favorite combat mechanic „Banding“ when you talked about trample.
Banding is the answer against Trample/Deathtoucher. Band with an indestructible creature or protection from color or something and it also works against trample/double strike..
Play more banding
At a LGS when I started to get in to commander, I had a planeswalker on the battlefield, a player attacked me, I decided not to block (4 damage to the face, better than losing 1 of the 2 creatures I had). Once I said no blockers, he tried to respond saying he is redirecting the damage to my Planeswalker instead (if he attacked my planeswalker, I would have blocked to keep it around). I said I don't think that is how it works, everyone else at the table agreed with the guy. I flagged over one of the store employees to assist with this, and got the situation resolved.
My Raggadragga deck loves combat, being able to untap my attacking mana dorks is amazing and following through with a instant March of The Progress (Or some other instant creature tutor) and drop in Craterhoof Behemoth (Or any anthem effect creature) to do huge damage in the damage step :P
My favorite quirk of the trample deathtouch thing is how it works with an indestructible blocker: deathtouch and trample don't care that destroy effects don't destroy the blocker; you only have to assign one damage.
Do you know how the damage assignment would work if a Trample, Deathtouch, Double Strike 3/3 would be blocked by a 5/5 Indestructable?
@@ThisIsACommanderChannel 1 damage to creature and 2 damage to player both times?
@@craig1287 2 to opponent and 1 to Indestructible blocking creature during First Strike Damage, and then during non-First Strike Damage you can assign all 3 damage to the defending player and 0 damage to the blocking creature.
I didn’t actually know about the old rule that a tappened blocker doesn’t deal damage.
If i had to guess I’d say the was changed to make the rules more streamlined. Ignoring vigilance an attacking creature will always be tapped so having it the rules that tapped blockers can’t do damage while tapped attacking creatures do is a bit odd.
There were also old artifacts that just didn't work as long as they were tapped.
Fun fact if your attacking creature has first strike - you can deal damage in the resolution of first strike damage step, then ninjutsu in a ninja and it will deal it's damage in regular damage step xd
One thing I find interesting when dealing with Trample that you did not mention is Trample vs Protection. It seems to me that if a creature has protection from a color and that creature blocks a creature with Trample, Trample should get through cause there is no "lethal damage." But apparently it does get through. Perhaps you can cover "Protection from" in your next rules video. I just learned last night that Protection from Black did not save my creature from a Toxic Deluge since it's not doing damage or targeting the creature.
I think you're confusing two different things.
The Toxic Deluge example is correct. because there's no targeting of the protected creature.
But a creature with color protection blocking another of that color with Trample, does not cause the attacking creature to trample over its damage.
Trample requires you to deal enough combat damage (or "lethal") to FIRST destroy the blocker, and THEN you can assign the remaining damage to the player.
Because a color protected creature can take infinite damage from an attacker of the protected color, you would never be able to assign enough combat damage to destroy it, and therefore, no damage tramples over.
I hope that was clear and non smug, I don't mean to rule lawyer lmao.
(But maybe you wrote "should" instead of "shouldn't" by accident. So dismiss my comment if that's the case)
@@Pawuichi I realize this comment is a year old, but I don't want anyone coming now to be confused. You can trample over a creature with protection. "Lethal damage" means the toughness of the blocking creature (or 1 if the attacker has deathtouch). You do not need to actually kill the creature in order to assign trample damage. Same goes for indestructible creatures. No amount of damage can kill them, but they can still only soak as much damage as their toughness. The rest will trample over.
Great videos always🤘🏻 did a very good job explaining I do like these videos a lot!! You rock bro!!
If you don't mind, I have a series of videos similar to Demo's series here that explain rules. My series is called Tough Rules & Cool Interactions which focuses on the deeper rules of Magic and bringing up specific cards and situations to show how the results would pan out. I'm always looking for feedback on the series, how I convey the information, the pacing, the examples given, etc... If you do happen to check them out, thanks.
Laughed at the Mirran Crusader being blocked by the Grizzly Bear. Grizzly Bear is so good it can block something with Protection from Green haha
An interesting interaction that people get wrong a lot is if Brash Taunter is blocking a creature with trample, Brash Taunter is only taking 1 of that damage. He does not suck up the residual damage left to ping someone with it. Trample cheats it out.
Eh, that depends. Trample simply gives an option to deal the rest of the non-dealt damage to an opponent’s face. There is nothing stopping someone from not trampling damage over. There are fringe cases where this fact in particular is useful.
In this particular example, that sounds like a perfect opportunity for a deal if the Trample player says: “Well, you could be taking 20 to face from my creature or you could shoot this other guy for 20 that goaded me if I don’t trample it over, since I couldn’t actually attack him.”
Fun fact, the foil version of time stop has no reminder text.
Every week in the playgroup. I must explain: Untap, Upkeep, Draw. It does matter, stop drawing before upkeep. In nearly every match you will have triggers in Upkeeps and that anoys me, that so many players just mix up the first steps. ARGSL
One thing that can help is advising them to put a coin or something on their library after they play a card with an upkeep trigger.
Question: there is a card Mantle of the Ancient, so what happend when I destroy that card... all the enchantmet gained also are removed?
To my knowledge the only abilities that function in the command zone are yuriko the tigers shadow's ninjitsu, any commander with Eminence, the partner mechanic, and the background mechanic are the only abilities that function in the command zone
Ah i remembered Direvi has an ability to be cast from the command zone too
@@zackkelley2940 still an effect of a commander while its IN the command zoen
@@zackkelley2940 the list of abilities active IN yhe command zone is pretty limited but yeah there are some
We've had to repeatedly remind my sister that blockers don't tap to block. I guess it just seems intuitive that if the attacker needs to tap, so too would the blocker.
funny enough i talk about this in my rules video tomorrow. maybe you should tell her to check it out.
This is where knowledge is power
Funny how you chose two invalid blockers for your example with mirran crusader xD
Question here, how does indestructible works against trample ?
On another note, in the first 4 years of playing magic with my friend and his brother, we were using those "tap this creature: tap target creature" to tap our opponents creature in reponse to their declared attacker to stop them from attacking xD.
Funny how it took so long to actually understand the ruling, it totally shifted our meta
This video is really going to help my playgroup
Interesting - I had not noticed that WOTC never printed anything with BOTH deathtouch and trample... though you get several creatures that can copy those abilities off other creatures in Abzan colors (WGB)... almost makes me want to make a Kathril, Aspect Warper deck and include all those in the 99 and make the rest of the creatures in the deck have either deathtouch or trample XD haha
best part of trample is that it doesn't care about anything else, other than deathtouch. So say you block a 2/2 deathtouch trample grizzly bears, with a 10/10 with protection from green, you are still gone take 1 damage. The 10/10 here however will not die tho.
Can you talk about the end phase a bit since I am curious about when does discard down to hand size and cleanup damage resolves is it a spefic order or can it be done in any order the turn player wishes also if you discarded for turn and then draw more cards afterwards while still on end phase would you still have to discard again or would you able to cast spells or activate abilities after you removed damage and or discarded down to hand size just wondering how that all happens and what order it does thanks
In the cleanup step (the last step of the end of turn phase and the last step of a turn), it is discard to hand size first, then remove damage. Note that, normally, no player receives priority during this step. However, after damage is removed the game checks if there are any state based actions to be performed or any abilities were triggered that want to go on the stack. If so, the state based actions are preformed, then all those abilities go on the stack and the active player receives priority. Once the stack is empty and all the players pass in succession, there is an additional cleanup step.
Combat damage seems to be the hardest in my opinion nowadays because it never happens. Creatures are either value sticks with a ton of passive, active, and triggered abilities such that no one wants to attack/block with them, OR they are suited up with so many counters, buffs, and keywords that when a player swings with them we know that whoever was attacked just lost so we don’t even bother with all of the steps.
I would argue that it depends heavily on your playgroup, meta, format and so on.
Yes, there is a sad trend towards combo and alternate wincon decks overall, but it is not taking over MTG as a whole, at least in my experience.
We got a pretty big, active local community and only a tiny amount is playing non combat focussed decks.
Taking Arena for getting a slightly broader/global view, even there not that many decks are combo, tron, whatever across all formats and even most standard environments over the last years had at least 1-2 aggro/combat meta decks
Yeah, as mfsoab said, it depends on the group/s you're playing in. I don't play in a lot of cEDH groups and most of us are aggro players. 90% of my decks are aggro and I love the Combat Step. I've got two Goad decks now, one that Goads the creatures my opponents have and one that gives away creatures to my opponents that are Goaded and they're a blast to play.
I didn’t know you could ninjitsu after damage has been dealt. I don’t believe MTG Arena lets you do this.
Arena tries to smooth out the experience by doing things like automatically ordering triggers and swooshing through steps/phases that seem to be "not that important" to it unless you tell it to let you take control over this kind of stuff.
You can activate control over trigger order in the game options and during matches you can use ctrl/shift+ctrl to get full control over every little step, holding priority and so on.
So if you activate hold full control (shift+ctrl) it should be stopping at end of combat step, giving you the opportunity to do your ninjutsu shennanigans ;-)
edit: on mac it should be the option key, don't know what they did on mobile tho
I tought i did have a good understanding of the combat in MTG. But i didn't knew at all about the trample + deathtouch interaction. it still work the same with indestructible and protection. That is bonkers to me
If you want to go even deeper into this sort of Combat stuff, check out my series Tough Rules & Cool Interactions, specifically episode 9 of the series that does a deep dive into this stuff. It also covers Double Strike as well as the Trample and Deathtouch, and to expand even more it goes into what happens when they're blocked by creatures with Indestructible and Protection.
Does anyone get priority between damage being assigned, and damage happening? I assume no?
Nope.
510.2
Second, all combat damage that’s been assigned is dealt simultaneously. This turn-based action doesn’t use the stack. *No player has the chance to cast spells or activate abilities between the time combat damage is assigned and the time it’s dealt.*
When it comes to the ability of Kaldra Compleat, how does that ability work if my opponent is blocking? It has to trample, so don't I get to choose how the damage is assigned?
do the 5 eldrazis still kill the 6/6 trample deathtouch after it assigns 1dmg to each and 1 to opp ?
yes they do
How cards like Annex, Take Possession, Confiscate works? It says Enchant permanent and You control enchanted permanent. Dos it mean i can tap and untap enemies lands and take mana from enemy lands? Or do i need other cards like that says you can tap target land, to tap it (is even taping enemy land take his mana from that land its self?).
Thank you so much!!! So double strike does NOT (if 2/2 double strike vs 5/5 no text) deal two damage to the creature and then two damage to the opponent’s life force (then 2/2 dies)? It deals four damage total to the 5/5 before normal damage, then had 2 more to give to blocking creature, thus killing it and (without trample) not hurting opponent life points? Apologies for this chopped and screwed comment lol
Incorrect. If it is a 2/2 with double strike, it does 2 damage in first strike step and then 2 more in normal attack step, for a total of 4 damage, which will not kill the 5/5 creature.
@@lightbearer313 TYSM!!! I can't believe I've played a different way so long :')
Sundial and obeka are not the same. Idk why people assume this because there are tons of tech that specify how sundial stops end of turn effects. Ilharg for instance
The effect is exactly the same, what most people miss about it is the *timing* of when to activate these kinds of effects to get them to do what they think it does.
Rules question. If someone tries to spot removal one of my creatures can I respond with a flicker to make it fizzle?
yes
Here's something I ran into the other night.
Opponent attacks me with a horde of infect creatures. I can't block them all so I'm about to lose regardless of what I do. I block with everything I have to kill as many of his creatures as I can before dying. One of my creatures is Ravenous Chupucabra and it has a coin counter on it so it will return to my field when it dies. If my opponent deals enough infect damage to kill me and and my creature at the same time, would my creature return to the field before the game checks my life status? If so, this would allow me to trigger the ETB and destroy another creature just before I die.
No you leave the game, and everything that you control on the stack or is about to be put on the stack is removed.
@@helderboymh That's the bummer with No Mercy, it will save you from small attacks earlier in the game, but at the end when they swing all out and kill you, all their creatures will be safe.
Yuriko and Derevi also have abilities from the command zone
You missed the entering combat and then going back to activate Mishra's factory and cast a haste creature because they enabled you to rewind by responding by say tapping a creature. Also didn't address the stacking of blockers that folks do which is not banding but seems wrong to me. Thanks tho
What do you mean going back.
?
If I attack with a creature with trample and my opponent blocks with a creature that has protection does all the damage go to the player? Since the blocking creature has protection does that prevent all dage from being assigned to it causing all trample damage to be assigned to player. Or does the protection prevent combat damage?
Trample & deathtouch into indestructible creature. Still just have to assign 1 damage and the rest tramples over even though the creature won't die.
If I have a 6/6 creature on my side and I declare an attack with it;
My opponent has three 1/1 tokens and one 3/2 creature and declares a block with only one 1/1 token
My creature gets blocked, the token dies and they still keep two tokens and the 3/2 creature?
this question is confusing. they lose any creature they blocked with. any creature they didn't block with is fine.
Do beginning of combat triggers happen in the same stack or can they be separated. Say one animates something, and the next i want to make copies of said thing with Rionya Fire Dancer.
Should have precise in the schema: where the priority are given , like before every each phases, etc....
ty peace bro!
More videos like this please!
I was always under the impression you couldn't tap a blocking creature for an ability and only abilities that don't require tapping can be used...
I'd love some clarification about when a creature has to get flashed in, during combat, to be declared as a blocker. My understanding is that it would have to be flashed in during Declare Attackers when you get priority, after attackers have been declared, or is there a better way?
Nope this is the best way, during the declare attackers step. (at the start of this step attackers are declared so you would flash then in after all attackers have been declared)
@@helderboymh Intetesting, thank you. What is the advantage of doing it this way?
@@GaZZuM I was answering your question at the end. Reading it back now I see it got confusing, I am not disagreeing with you, so yeah you did it correctly!
Can I ask how does repercussions work with blocking creatures ? It says any damage dealt to a creature is felt to that player as well . So if a player blocks a creature but then is sacrificed does the damage still get dealt?
Nope
Ok my question is when you gain control of a creature with something like mark of mutiny is that an etb or does the creature stay on the battlefield through that process?
the creature never leaves the battlefield.
So, if i understand this right, you can use sundial to skip phases?
Skullbriar's ability works in the command zone but doesn't mention it specifically, that's one you forgot to mention.
Well it says "any zone other than a player's hand or library" so technically, if we start being nitpicky, it does mention the command zone 😜
heres a deathtouch ruling question
someone claimed to me that a ping damage from attacking trigger from a deathtouch creature won't kill it is that true
and to clarify it was "thorncaster Sliver" and "Venom sliver" combo and claimed that combo didn't work. (so a sliver deck)
If you somehow gave an "attacking-ping" creature deathtouch, like Scalding Salamander, being equipped with a Basilisk Collar, it will deal 1-deathtouch damage to each non-flying creature defending player controls. Unless those defending creatures were indestructible or had protection from red, they're going to die horribly.
EDIT: That Sliver combo you mentioned does work. That's deathtouch damage! They would die, before getting a chance to block.
Could you please go over how exactly "protection" works? From what I remember, protection means that a card or permanent or spell (and maybe the player, if there's something that gives the player protection?), I'm not entirely sure which, cannot be targeted by, destroyed by, assigned damage by, or blocked by whatever it is protected from. But there are all kinds of potential interactions that can make that very confusing.
(Really enjoy the vids btw, I appreciate the content!)
Protection does 4 things. The permanent or player with protection cannot be:
- Damaged by sources with the specified quality. (All such damage is prevented.)
- Enchanted, equipped, or fortified by permanents with the specified quality.
- Blocked by creatures with the specified quality.
- Targeted by spells with the specified quality, or by abilities from sources of that quality.
An acronym to help remind it is DEBT.
@@helderboymh Thanks! What does "fortified" mean? I don't believe I've encountered that term within Magic.
Also, I thought that the protected card couldn't be enchanted or equipped by those permanents *because* those actions targeted, but the fact that they're listed separately seems to imply otherwise, am I missing something? I thought that was why permanents with hexproof or shroud couldn't be enchanted/equipped by opponents'/any permanents respectively.
@@alicecrawford1033fortified is an obscure mechanic they used in the past, basically equipment for land. You can forget it. You'll most likely never encounter it ever playing magic.
@@alicecrawford1033 well yes, when you go to equip or enchant you are targeting the permanent. And if something has protection the targeting part is what stops it.
But when something is equiped or enchanted, so after the initial moving it into the creature. It's attached by that enchantment or equipment Wich doesn't fall under the umbrella of being targeted by it.
So if something *gains* protection from something that its attached too ( ex. creature with a blue enchantment attached to it gets protection from blue)
It's the part about it not being able to be attached by a thing it has protection from that causes the equipment or enchantment to fall off .
@@helderboymh Fair enough, I've been told the same thing about "banding" lol
I'm trying to find an answer to a question with magic The gathering and I'm having a hard time finding it.. The card warg rider from the Lord of the Ring set says at the beginning of your combat amass two orcs.. does that mean I have to attack to get the two orgs?
an attack trigger would say "when you attack". this video might help: th-cam.com/video/csv5NNhji30/w-d-xo.html
@@edhdeckbuilding awesome thank you!
Keep these comin! Love em
One thing that still confuses me after many many years of playing is timing around the end of turn. For example when you can activate something that lasts until end of turn at the end of one turn and have it last until the end of the next turn. Or how some effects that trigger at end of turn work. Can you hold priority after a Sandwurm Convergence makes a token and tap your Idol of Oblivion to draw a card? Or do you lose the chance since the enchantment happens at the end step?
There is an important distinction between end step and end of turn here. Things that happen until the beginning of the next end step can be activated during end step to last until, well, the next end step. However if it says end of turn those things change until your cleanup step. The clean up is when your discard down to hand size happens. No one can react to those effects. But you could draw a card with idol since it happens in the end step (basically all triggers like it do) since yiu can get priority before the turn is passed but after the token was made. Hope that helps.
What would the result be of using Animate Dead on a commander Horobi, Death's Wale?
When you create that first strike step in the combat phase, can people respond to things? If someone has a first strike creature and reconnaissance in play, can they deal first strike damage to the blocking creature, then use reconnaissance to untap the first striker and remove it from combat?
Yes, before going to the normal damage step when you are in the first strike damage step, every player gets priority and can activate abilities or cast spells.