Tons of massive MTG announcements just went straight from MagicCon Vegas to the internet. Standard rotation is changing, Universes Beyond sets are Standard legal from now on, Spongebob Secret Lairs are coming, and MSRP is coming back to MTG. Bizarrely, none of these changes may be the biggest one of all. The biggest change coming to Magic: the Gathering could actually be a rules change.
The way that double blocking, triple blocking, and blocking with multiple creatures generally works is changing. To be specific, once MTG Foundations releases, the damage assignment phase no longer exists.
A Buff For Attackers Everywhere
Despite such a massive change appearing, the fanfare behind it was surprisingly quiet. This change can be found in the official MTG Foundations mechanics article.
The lack of new mechanics in MTG Foundations was made exceptionally clear. It makes sense not to add new mechanics in a set geared towards new players. As a result, the removal of the damage assignment phase is a massive change that was easy to miss. Here’s what that means:
In combat, when blocking with multiple creatures, attackers have to order blockers before damage is dealt. Afterwards, the defender can use a combat trick on the first creature in that damage order. This can commonly cause the attacking creature’s damage to be soaked up by the first defending creature in the party, saving all of the other creatures in the process.
This commonly happens when applying instant speed tricks that affect the stats of a blocking creature, like Giant Growth. It can also apply to Indestructible effects like Adamant Will that prevent the first creature from dying. Despite being unable to kill that creature, you still have to deal lethal damage to it because the creature is first in order. This can prevent you from killing a secondary blocker that you might have been able to if the assigned blocking order was different.
As of MTG Foundations, ordering blockers no longer happens. Now, the attacking player can arrange combat damage however they want as a final action. Was one of the defending creatures given Indestructible to save it? Perfectly fine. You can now kill the other creature if your creature can do that instead of being forced to assign damage to the indestructible creature because it was ordered first.
The example given in the MTG Foundations Mechanics article demonstrates this utilizing a Giant Growth pump spell. The given scenario involves a 5/5 being blocked by a 3/3 and a 4/4. With the old rules, as long as the defender uses Giant Growth on whatever blocker is ordered first, all of the defender’s creatures are saved. Now, the attacker can still decide to kill whatever creature did not get buffed.
Additionally, you no longer need to actually assign lethal damage to a creature. This was a rule in the past, but you can now split damage in any way you want. This opens up lines where Sorcery speed tricks like Pyroclasm can blow an opponent out depending on how they block.
What Formats Will this Affect Most?
The format impacted the most by this change is, bar none, the Limited format. Scrappy combat involving multiple bodies is commonplace in this format. Limited may be the weakest MTG format regarding the power level of cards, but it’s also the most challenging format. After all, you’re not assembling decks out of a larger pool of legal cards, but instead doing so from drafting booster packs or, in the case of Sealed, opening them.
As a result, clogged board states with multiple bodies are a lot more commonplace. Double blocking comes up commonly in this format, which means that assigning blockers happens a lot.
This is a massive buff for attacking players. It becomes much more challenging for defending players to completely blow out an attacker in combat with a well-placed trick if multiple blockers are involved.
This also means that the removal of the damage assignment phase will affect any MTG player attending an MTG Foundations prerelease. We expect the judge calls to be plentiful.
Promote Prerelease Awareness
If you are an MTG Foundations prerelease host reading this article, we highly recommend addressing this change in an announcement at the beginning of an event. This ensures that everyone is on the same page regarding the combat change and prevents disputes that may arise from confused players.
Similarly, if you’re attending a prerelease, ensure the party running the event knows about this rule change and announces it accordingly.
Overall, this change is probably a positive one. This speeds up combat overall and makes attacking a stronger option. A common weakness that newer MTG players have is not attacking enough. This should make confusing board states a bit less intimidating since, in double-blocking situations, there’s a pretty good chance that you’ll always be able to kill something.