Combatting Confusion

 The Short and Sweet of Things

Recently, with an announcement focused on changes coming with Foundations (read about it here), WotC wrapped up by declaring The End of the World As We Know It! More accurately, the article announced then discussed the removal of some old, and arguably archaic and unintuitive, rules regarding combat (more specifically, blocking and damage). Effective with the release of Magic Foundations, damage assignment order will no longer be a thing in Magic.

In the Beginning (of Combat)

This all started in the beginning of Magic, with LEA rules of damage on the stack. In the old days, when creatures were terrible and spells were either just as terrible or beyond insane (for a long time, the Gold Standard of one-drops was Savannah Lions), combat damage used the stack. The stack also functioned fundamentally differently than it does today, using a game concept called “batches”, which is why older spells are divided into three categories (technically four) instead of two. Since these rules are beyond obsolete and are more fun trivia than useful for our purposes today, I won’t go into them much. You would go to combat, and declare attacks and blocks very similar to how you do today, but damage was something you could interact with. Eventually, Wizards figured out this made very little sense and was a substantial barrier for new players.

A New (Damage Assignment) Order

To ease the transition away from damage on the stack, the decision was made to implement a new rule: damage assignment order. This is the current (at time of writing) iteration of combat rules. This rule is somewhat unintuitive, and can be awkward to explain and enact even for experienced players. For those unfamiliar with how this works: any time blocks are happening on anything other than a 1:1 ratio, damage assignment order applies. The player who will assign the damage must, as a turn based action after blockers are declared, determine the order in which the damage will be dealt to the relevant creatures. If that sounds awkward, that’s because it is. I had a hard time finding a relatively simple way to explain the underlying rules concepts and that’s my job. It is literally easier for me to explain the technically correct process for casting a spell than to explain how damage assignment order works without using examples. Since examples are (likely) going to make things easier to understand, let’s do that:

Apple is attacking with a 3/3 Beast token, a 2/2 Bear token, and a 1/1 Human token. Newt decides to block the Beast token with their own Bear and Human tokens, and uses a Night Market Guard to block Apple’s remaining attackers. After blockers are declared, but before either player receives priority, each player (in turn order) must determine damage assignment order.
Apple, as Active Player, goes first. Their Bear and Human have only one creature to deal damage to, so no ordering is necessary. Since their Beast is being blocked by multiple creatures, they must decide which order their Beast will deal damage. Let’s go with Bear then Human for simplicity’s sake. This order is now “locked in”.

Now it’s Newt’s turn. Their Bear and Human are blocking a single creature, so no ordering is necessary (or possible). Their Guard is blocking two creatures, and so order is required by the rules. For simplicity, let’s go Bear then Human again. Just as before, this order is now “locked in”.

Once assignment order is decided, active player receives priority in the Declare Blockers step. Players have the opportunity to cast spells and activate abilities. This is when combat tricks have been most useful, as both attacker and blocker have the most information: each player knows which creature is going to be damaged in what order, and from that can derive a pretty good idea of how much damage will be dealt and from there a rough idea of the outcome of combat.
To go a little further, in the Combat Damage Step, damage must be assigned in order and lethal damage must be assigned to each creature before moving on to the next in the assignment order.

Damage Disorder

The change to combat rules attempts two primary goals: first and foremost is lowering/removal of barriers for new players. Strategic depth is indeed a Good Thing, however the rules should also make intuitive sense. It’s long been a fundamental aspect of Magic gameplay that skill should be rewarded, however that needs to be balanced with the simple fact obscure/complicated/confusing rules can and will drive off new and prospective players. Second is the game is long past needing a bridge point from “combat on the stack”. The rule did what it was intended to do, and has outlived its intended function. To illustrate why this is a good change, let’s revisit the previous example:

Apple attacks with a 3/3 Beast, 2/2 Bear, and 1/1 Human token. Newt blocks the Beast with a 2/2 Bear and 1/1 Human of their own, and the Bear and Human with a Night Market Guard. Once blocks are declared, the active player receives priority and players have the opportunity to cast spells and activate abilities. In the Combat Damage Step, each player distributes the damage dealt among the creatures blocking or blocked by their creatures as they choose. While this does have a noticeable impact on the efficacy of combat- and damage-related spells and abilities, overall this change is a net positive in that it greatly streamlines the combat phase, reduces barriers for new (and even experienced) players, and removes outdated (and oft irrelevant) rules. 

Trample: While we don’t have the official rules changes (yet), I suspect the changes won’t affect trample in that lethal damage must still be assigned to all blocking creatures before anything can trample over.

The End (of Combat)?

Like many non-minor changes to the game, I expect the transition to take some time for many to acclimate, and for many to hold on to the old way as “better” and the new way as “the dumbing down” (or similar) of the game. At the end of the day, Magic is still a highly complex and strategically deep and diverse game. A skilled player is, and will be, a skilled player; it would take a lot of rules changes to significantly affect the skill gap between skilled and experienced players over unskilled and/or newer players. This relatively minor change should be recognized (and indeed celebrated) for what it is: an attempt to make Magic more accessible and grow the playerbase. As always, be safe, be well, and be good to each other.

Your Friendly Local(ish) L2, Gray