Starting with the release of the MTG Foundations set, block ordering will no longer be a feature of combat in Magic: The Gathering.
Currently, in the combat step, when a player blocks with multiple creatures, the attacking player must decide the order of blockers. The defending player then gets a chance to cast buff spells on creatures, such as pump spells, to save the first creature that would be dealt damage. This allows the defender to potentially save both creatures from dying by buffing the first one that would take damage from the attacking creature.
The rule will be removed from Magic: The Gathering, and a different process is being put in place.
Removal of Damage Assignment Order
With the removal of Damage Assignment Order, here’s how combat will work starting with the Foundations set.
Here’s the change: Damage assignment order no longer exists. If a creature is facing multiple opposing creatures in combat, that creature’s combat damage is assigned and dealt as its controller desires during the combat damage step. Other players won’t necessarily know what’s going to happen.
Magic: the gathering Rules update
In other words, the defending player no longer gets a chance to respond to how the attacking player assigns damage to blockers. If the defending player wants to save a creature, they must buff it before the attacking player assigns damage.
The net result of this change is that combat will favor attackers more than ever before and combat tricks will be less effective when defending.
Why the Change?
Wizards of the Coast gave the following reasons for this change in combat.
Damage assignment order was put in place to emulate the system that came before it, when combat damage went onto the stack as an object players could respond to. In many ways, it was enacted to lessen post-Magic 2010 shock, but it hasn’t aged particularly well. It’s somewhat unintuitive, adds a fair bit of rules baggage, and losing it means more interesting decisions and less double-dipping if you know the tricks. We decided to move away from it for many of the same reasons we moved away from damage on the stack many years ago. Damage assignment order just got noticed a lot less because it appears only in scenarios where one attacker is taking on multiple blockers, or vice versa.
Magic: the gathering Rules update
MTG has been internally playtesting this change for over a year now, and has been pleased with the results and the changes in play patterns.
For everyone else, this rules change will come into effect with the release of MTG Foundations on November 15, 2024.
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