Juuudddgggeee!

By: Mark Young

Greetings all.

I hope that everyone had a good holiday and a great new year.

I thought that I would start 2013 with something a little lighter than what happens at Comp events.
Also, I would like some feedback from everyone as to what they would like to see me write about as
coming up with topics from the top of my head is a little difficult some times.

Any way, I thought we could look at a few areas where I know I made mistakes in my rules
interpretations in the past or areas that I regularly see players struggle with.

The first has to do with first strike.
When a creature with first strike is involved in combat, and additional step is created in which any
creatures with first strike will deal their combat damage before creatures that do not have first
strike.
Once this combat damage step happens, giving a creature first strike will do nothing as the first
strike damage phase is now over.
If a creature had double strike it will then get to deal damage in the normal combat damage step,
otherwise its’ part in combat is now done.
Secondly, if a creature with double strike kills its blocker in the first strike damage step, the creature
is still blocked and will deal no combat damage to the defending player unless said creature has
trample.



Next we shall deal with protection.
Protection mostly deals with colours. Ie: Protection Red/Black/Blue etc.
A creature with protection follows, what we call, the DEBT system.
D = Damage. A creature with protection from a certain colour cannot be damaged by and spell of that
colour regardless if it is targeted or not.
Example. If I have a creature with Protection from Red and my opponent plays Slagstorm. My
creature will not take the 3 damage because Slagstrom is Red.

E = Enchanted/Equipped. A creature that has protection from a certain colour cannot be enchanted
by an aura of that colour, and now with the advent of coloured artefacts, cannot be equipped by any
equipment of the colour in question.
Also if my creature is enchanted and then gains protection from the colour of the enchantment, the
enchantment will fall off.
Example. If I have a creature that my opponent has put a Pacifism on, and I play Stave Off, targeting
my creature and choosing white. The Pacifism will fall off and go to the graveyard.

B = Blocked. A creature that has protection from a particular colour cannot be blocked by any
creature that has that colour in its’ casting cost. This includes creatures with Hybrid mana symbols,
as they are both colours, and multi coloured creatures.
Example. If I attack with my Knight of Infamy (Protection from White), he cannot be blocked by a
Vassal Soul, as Vassal Soul has hybrid Blue / White mana symbols meaning that it is a blue and white
creature regardless of the mana that was used to cast it.

Lastly:
T = Targeted. A creature that has protection from a colour cannot be targeted by any spell of that
colour.

Another area that I have seen some players struggle with is Trample damage.
A creature with trample will assign any damage remaining, that is greater than that of the defending
creatures that blocked it, to the defending player.
In order for trample damage to go through, each creature that is blocking the attacking creature has
to be assigned lethal damage.
Example: I am attacked by an 8/8 creature with trample. If I block with a 2/2, the blocker will die and
I will take 6 damage.
If I block with the 2/2 and another 2/2. The attacking player has to assign lethal damage to both
creature before I would take 4 damage. So if I were to play Titanic Growth on the first blocker before
damage was dealt, both creatures would be destroyed but I myself would not take and damage
myself. As the first blocker has to take 6 damage and the second blocker 2 damage, leaving no
damage to come over to me as the defending player.
If a creature with trample is blocked, but the blockers “disappear” before the damage can be dealt,
the damage is the assigned to the blocking player. This is different from creatures without trample
who would deal no damage, as they are still blocked.

Something else to take note of is the difference between “casting” a spell, and a spell “resolving”
If I announce, Lightning Bolt, and tap a Mountain. I have cast Lightning Bolt (I know I am leaving out a
few steps here as there are 6 steps to casting a spell, but these are the basics).
If you respond with Mana Leak, and I cannot pay the 3 colourless, my Lightning Bolt is still cast, it just
fails to resolve.
This is important for creatures with abilities such as Guttersnipe.
If you are on 6 life for example and attack me with lethal damage. Your lands are tapped out and I
have a lone Guttersnipe in play, I could kill you by casting Lightning Bolt, Mana Leak, Mana Leak.
As each spell is cast you would lose 2 life, Guttersnipe does not care if they resolve or not.

Another thing I have seen new players do is, if they forget to untap their cards before drawing a
card, leave them tapped as the untap step has passed.
Please note that unless a card specifically gives you the choice to remain tapped or not, such as
Mana Vault, your cards must get untapped.
I understand that there may be situations where this “mistake” can be an advantage to the player
who made it, but that is why there are rules and rules enforcement levels. (Read my previous
articles)

I know that there may be many more areas that new players struggle with, so I ask you to tell me
what they are and I will try include them in a future article.
The key part of being a judge is to teach, so please help me teach others.
Remember, the only stupid question is the question not asked!

Until next time.......I end my turn.