I've got a question regarding Sisters of Stone Death. I guess a rules question in general, regarding how blockers and removing blockers works.
If either of these situations will play out differently with the new rules changes, please elaborate on how the situation played out before the rules changes, and how it will play out after the rules changes.
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If Sisters of Stone Death attacks and is blocked, and the 2nd ability is played on a creature to remove a creature blocked by Sisters from the game, do the Sisters deal damage their 7 damage to the defending player as though they were not blocked?
If not, the creature that was blocked doesn't deal it's blocking combat damage to the Sisters, though, right? Is it like they're considered to be blocked by a 0/0 creature or something?
What if the Sisters had Trample? Would they still deal 7 damage to the defending player?
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And now a general rules question...
So, let's say I declare that I'm attacking with a Grizzly Bears and the opponent declares their Hill Giant as a blocker to my grizzly bears with a hill giant. In response, I terror the Hill Giant.
Do the grizzly bears now go through unblocked and deal 2 damage to the defending player? Or are they considered blocked? How does the stack/priority work in this situation? What is the latest possible moment I could terror the Giant in order to ensure the bears get through and deal damage? How would trample affect this scenario?
The way my friends and I have always played is that if the attacking player declared the Bears as the attacking creature, and then the blocker declared the Hill Giant as a blocker, and the attacking player Terror'd the Giant, the Bears will then be unblocked and deal their damage to the defending player. We believe this is because the attacking player is playing Terror in response to the defending player declaring the Giant as a blocker, and since actions in the stack resolve First In Last Out order, the Terror resolves first and destroys the Giant before it can technically be declared as a blocker. Have we been playing wrong this entire time?
- No. Once blocked, a creature remains blocked until end of combat. Sisters won't deal damage at all this combat.
- Essentially yes. No combat damage will be dealt to Sisters here.
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- You can't respond to blockers being declared. This is done as a game action at the very beginning of the declare blockers step. Your last opportunity to Terror Giant is during the declare attackers step. If Giant is your opponent's only creature, Bears will deal its combat damage to him.
- A blocked creature with trample that doesn't have a creature blocking it must deal all its damage to the defending player.
- You can't respond to blockers being declared. This is done as a game action at the very beginning of the declare blockers step. Your last opportunity to Terror Giant is during the declare attackers step. If Giant is your opponent's only creature, Bears will deal its combat damage to him.
- A blocked creature with trample that doesn't have a creature blocking it must deal all its damage to the defending player.
This is the same pre- and post-M10.
Okay. So, if the defending player had two creatures available to block, I'd have to terror one of them when I declare my bears as an attacker, before the defending player assigns blockers. Then, he'd most likely assign his other remaining creature to block the bears, so the bears would be blocked unless I had two terrors, or he decided for some reason not to block with the other creature (if perhaps it's an important 1/1 or something)
We've been playing that you could terror whatever creature the opponent blocks with and the bears would get through to deal damage, and the opponent would be unable to choose his other creature as a blocker. I suppose this doesn't make much sense now that I type it out.
Or sometimes you'd only want to terror the creature if he decided to block with it, if not, he'll let it live. Similar to playing Giant Growth - I generally don't growth my attacking creature until blockers are declared, so I can pump the attacker to kill the blocker. I don't usually Growth the creature before he declares blockers, because I don't want to waste the growth just to deal 3 extra damage to the player if he decides not to block.
Just to clarify a little on MajoraX, as your last chance to play spells before blockers are declared and are fixed in place (you can't do something in between those two, only after), if your opponent has only a Hill Giant, you can declare the Bears as attacking and then if you want the damage to go through to the player, doomblade the hill giant BEFORE blockers are declared (this is your last chance).
Of course this is important if defending player has multiple available creatures to block, you CAN'T find out which is going to block, kill it, and then have your damage assigned to the player (unless bears have trample, see below).
Instead, you either have to make a choice between killing off one of the possible blockers BEFORE blockers are declared, and hope they don't block the bears (so you can hit the player), OR wait to see which they DO block and kill that if you want to guarantee the bears survive (although taking this option removes any chance of hitting the player).
If you wait until after (say you wanted to check that he was actually going to block), then your bears remain blocked and deal no combat damage to either the hill giant (now dead) or the defending player.
If the bears had trample, after the hill giant goes the bears are able to recheck and reassign there ALL to the player, so if the hill giant got doombladed they could hit the player for 2.
I'm not the best with explanations but that should answer your question.
In my opinion if you have cash, you are not a bum, you are an adventurer. Bums are poor and eat dead birds on the side of the road cuz they have no other options.
I eat dead birds at the side of the road, they call it KFC over here.
If either of these situations will play out differently with the new rules changes, please elaborate on how the situation played out before the rules changes, and how it will play out after the rules changes.
-----------
If Sisters of Stone Death attacks and is blocked, and the 2nd ability is played on a creature to remove a creature blocked by Sisters from the game, do the Sisters deal damage their 7 damage to the defending player as though they were not blocked?
If not, the creature that was blocked doesn't deal it's blocking combat damage to the Sisters, though, right? Is it like they're considered to be blocked by a 0/0 creature or something?
What if the Sisters had Trample? Would they still deal 7 damage to the defending player?
-----
And now a general rules question...
So, let's say I declare that I'm attacking with a Grizzly Bears and the opponent declares their Hill Giant as a blocker to my grizzly bears with a hill giant. In response, I terror the Hill Giant.
Do the grizzly bears now go through unblocked and deal 2 damage to the defending player? Or are they considered blocked? How does the stack/priority work in this situation? What is the latest possible moment I could terror the Giant in order to ensure the bears get through and deal damage? How would trample affect this scenario?
The way my friends and I have always played is that if the attacking player declared the Bears as the attacking creature, and then the blocker declared the Hill Giant as a blocker, and the attacking player Terror'd the Giant, the Bears will then be unblocked and deal their damage to the defending player. We believe this is because the attacking player is playing Terror in response to the defending player declaring the Giant as a blocker, and since actions in the stack resolve First In Last Out order, the Terror resolves first and destroys the Giant before it can technically be declared as a blocker. Have we been playing wrong this entire time?
Currently Playing:
- Essentially yes. No combat damage will be dealt to Sisters here.
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- You can't respond to blockers being declared. This is done as a game action at the very beginning of the declare blockers step. Your last opportunity to Terror Giant is during the declare attackers step. If Giant is your opponent's only creature, Bears will deal its combat damage to him.
- A blocked creature with trample that doesn't have a creature blocking it must deal all its damage to the defending player.
This is the same pre- and post-M10.
Okay. So, if the defending player had two creatures available to block, I'd have to terror one of them when I declare my bears as an attacker, before the defending player assigns blockers. Then, he'd most likely assign his other remaining creature to block the bears, so the bears would be blocked unless I had two terrors, or he decided for some reason not to block with the other creature (if perhaps it's an important 1/1 or something)
We've been playing that you could terror whatever creature the opponent blocks with and the bears would get through to deal damage, and the opponent would be unable to choose his other creature as a blocker. I suppose this doesn't make much sense now that I type it out.
Or sometimes you'd only want to terror the creature if he decided to block with it, if not, he'll let it live. Similar to playing Giant Growth - I generally don't growth my attacking creature until blockers are declared, so I can pump the attacker to kill the blocker. I don't usually Growth the creature before he declares blockers, because I don't want to waste the growth just to deal 3 extra damage to the player if he decides not to block.
Currently Playing:
Of course this is important if defending player has multiple available creatures to block, you CAN'T find out which is going to block, kill it, and then have your damage assigned to the player (unless bears have trample, see below).
Instead, you either have to make a choice between killing off one of the possible blockers BEFORE blockers are declared, and hope they don't block the bears (so you can hit the player), OR wait to see which they DO block and kill that if you want to guarantee the bears survive (although taking this option removes any chance of hitting the player).
If you wait until after (say you wanted to check that he was actually going to block), then your bears remain blocked and deal no combat damage to either the hill giant (now dead) or the defending player.
If the bears had trample, after the hill giant goes the bears are able to recheck and reassign there ALL to the player, so if the hill giant got doombladed they could hit the player for 2.
I'm not the best with explanations but that should answer your question.
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