I've searched for this, but I haven't found a definitive answer that I actually understand, so I'm asking here.
Say I'm playing my friend, who is using an Infect deck. During his turn, he swings for 1 infect with Glistener Elf. I have a creature that I can block with, say Yoked Ox, but I choose to take. He plays two Groundswells and a Mutagenic Growth, making his creature a 11/11 with infect. I have no instants to prevent damage. Does this damage go through? If it does, why are instants so rare at high levels?
It is legal (for either player) to cast instants after blockers are declared, but before combat damage is assigned and dealt. If those instants change a creature's power, this will affect the damage they deal.
The combat phase has several steps. In each of the steps, the turn-based action the step is named after (if there is one) happens first, then players get priority and may cast spells or activate abilities before the next step starts. The steps are:
- Beginning of combat
- Declare attackers
- Declare blockers
- Combat damage
- End of combat
Why instants such as Groundswell aren't used much in high level competitive play isn't a question that this forum is intended to cover, but a big reason is card advantage. If you had a Path to Exile and used it on your opponent's Glistener Elf after they used all of those pump spells, they'd be out quite a lot of cards for nothing. There are a few decks where these spells see play because the payoff can be worth the risk (infect being one of them) or which are built around being resistant to creatures being removed in response (e.g. Hexproof decks.)
Based on your response, I have another question (sorry). If, in the same situation, I chose to block, and he played Apostle's Blessing, giving it protection from white, what happens?
Once blockers have been declared, things that would make it illegal to declare a particular block have no effect. While normally a creature with protection from white cannot be blocked by a white creature, giving it protection after it has been blocked does not retroactively undo the block. Your opponent's creature would not be dealt any damage by the blocking creature, though, since protection also prevents damage.
If your opponent wants to keep you from being able to block, they need to use Apostle's Blessing before the declare blockers step. (Of course, if you have a Yoked Ox and a Runeclaw Bear available to block with, one Apostle's Blessing isn't getting the creature through.)
Edit: To expand on this and cover another common scenario, destroying your blocking creature (say, with Doom Blade) after you have blocked with it does not cause the attacking creature to become unblocked either. A blocked creature may only assign combat damage to creatures that are blocking it, and if there are no such creatures left, the attacking creature simply won't assign combat damage to anything. The exception is if the creature has trample, in which case it can assign all of its combat damage to the defending player (the rule for trample is that you have to assign at least lethal damage to all blockers - of which there aren't any - and then you may assign any remaining damage to the player.)
I've searched for this, but I haven't found a definitive answer that I actually understand, so I'm asking here.
Say I'm playing my friend, who is using an Infect deck. During his turn, he swings for 1 infect with Glistener Elf. I have a creature that I can block with, say Yoked Ox, but I choose to take. He plays two Groundswells and a Mutagenic Growth, making his creature a 11/11 with infect. I have no instants to prevent damage. Does this damage go through? If it does, why are instants so rare at high levels?
Thanks!
The combat phase has several steps. In each of the steps, the turn-based action the step is named after (if there is one) happens first, then players get priority and may cast spells or activate abilities before the next step starts. The steps are:
- Beginning of combat
- Declare attackers
- Declare blockers
- Combat damage
- End of combat
Why instants such as Groundswell aren't used much in high level competitive play isn't a question that this forum is intended to cover, but a big reason is card advantage. If you had a Path to Exile and used it on your opponent's Glistener Elf after they used all of those pump spells, they'd be out quite a lot of cards for nothing. There are a few decks where these spells see play because the payoff can be worth the risk (infect being one of them) or which are built around being resistant to creatures being removed in response (e.g. Hexproof decks.)
Based on your response, I have another question (sorry). If, in the same situation, I chose to block, and he played Apostle's Blessing, giving it protection from white, what happens?
If your opponent wants to keep you from being able to block, they need to use Apostle's Blessing before the declare blockers step. (Of course, if you have a Yoked Ox and a Runeclaw Bear available to block with, one Apostle's Blessing isn't getting the creature through.)
Edit: To expand on this and cover another common scenario, destroying your blocking creature (say, with Doom Blade) after you have blocked with it does not cause the attacking creature to become unblocked either. A blocked creature may only assign combat damage to creatures that are blocking it, and if there are no such creatures left, the attacking creature simply won't assign combat damage to anything. The exception is if the creature has trample, in which case it can assign all of its combat damage to the defending player (the rule for trample is that you have to assign at least lethal damage to all blockers - of which there aren't any - and then you may assign any remaining damage to the player.)