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Combat phase question

I am confused about combat phase and casting spells. Here's what happened:

My friend declared his Necrotic Ooze as an attacker. I declared my Baneslayer Angel as a blocker. As a response he cast Wring Flesh on my Baneslayer making it a 2/4. I wanted to play twisted image, but I felt that playing it in response would not change anything and I have been told that I can no longer cast spells during the combat phase and prior to damage being dealt.

Would it have been possible to cast Twisted Image before precombat? Or does that require a spells to be "Stacked"?

Thanks for your help.
Posted 25 August 2011 at 19:56

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you could have cast it during the Declare Blockers step, in response to him casting Wring Flesh.

it would resolve first though, which would do nothing.

you could also have cast it during the Declare Attackers step, the Pre Combat step or even during the first Main Phase....but in all cases, it wouldn't have any impact.
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Posted 25 August 2011 at 20:20

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is there any situation were it would have been successful? such as before damage being dealt?
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Posted 25 August 2011 at 20:59

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no, the only way those two cards would interact(in the case of a creature with equal power and toughness) is if he had cast wring flesh in response of you casting twisted image.

that way wring flesh resolves first, affects the p/t numbers, then twisted image resolves, flipping them around.
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Posted 26 August 2011 at 00:47

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thank you for your help.
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Posted 26 August 2011 at 02:31

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Seras! I haven't been on here in a while. Anyways, this is actually not true because of a complicated little thing called Layers (yes, those layers). So, layers are how we determine what a card does and looks like after any number of other effects are applied. For creature Power Toughness, they have a layer full of sublayers to deal with this. Specifically, Layer 7. Now, I'm not gonna go over every part of layer 7, but I am gonna say that P/T switches (like twisted Image) are applied last. So, wring flesh gives BSA -3/-1, making it a 2/4. Since the Twisted Image would be applied on a different layer technically, timestamps are irrelevant. Twisted Image would resolve and make BSA a 4/2. Even if you go Twisted Image then Wring Flesh, the result is the same.


Source: MTG Comp Rules 613.3
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Posted 29 August 2011 at 23:30

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isn't layers more about the order in which those effects are applied when they are caused by the same entity resolving from the stack or by continous effects?
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Posted 31 August 2011 at 02:45

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[QUOTE=Seras]isn't layers more about the order in which those effects are applied when they are caused by the same entity resolving from the stack or by continous effects?[/QUOTE]

Uhhhhh, I'm not sure what you mean. Layers are applied when separate effects are applied to the same object.
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Posted 19 September 2011 at 23:13

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The layers rule seem to only apply when those effects are continuous tho, not meant to apply to every effect in the game.
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Posted 20 September 2011 at 17:56

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Yep, but Continuous effects modify characteristics of objects, control of objects, or affect players or the rules of the game for a fixed or indefinite period (paraphrased from 611.1)

There's a lot of continuous effects in the game, and they don't have to be indefinite to be continous.
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Posted 21 September 2011 at 02:40

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I guess I'm just having trouble reconciling the idea that these Layer rules are so strong in both impact(overrules the stack and timestamps, which is the core principle of the rules) and reach(ie: affects seemingly everything) ...with the fact that this is the first and only time I've ever seen/heard them mentioned anywhere in all these years of magic.
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Posted 21 September 2011 at 15:56

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That's the thing with layers: they're only really used in complicated situations involving several different effects happening simultaneously. Most magic doesn't get to that point, so most players don't need to know about them. When you get into complexities involving tournament-level eternal formats and EDH, that's where they come in for the most part. Or when developers print cards at common that set power/toughness (I'm not a big fan of turn to frog, tbh)
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Posted 22 September 2011 at 03:39

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