Combat

Declaring, blocking, damage assignment order, and the tricks that break it.

The rules are CR 506–511. Declaring attackers is 508, blockers 509, damage assignment 510. The keywords live in 702: deathtouch 702.2, double strike 702.4, first strike 702.7, indestructible 702.12, protection 702.16, trample 702.19, ward 702.21, menace 702.111.

The combat phase has five steps: beginning of combat, declare attackers, declare blockers, combat damage, end of combat. If nobody attacks, the declare blockers and combat damage steps are skipped entirely — so "at the beginning of the combat damage step" triggers never happen on a turn with no attackers.

Only a creature can attack or block. Only a player, a planeswalker, or a battle can be attacked — never a creature. Creatures fight each other only because blocking puts them in the way.

Declaring attackers

A creature can be declared as an attacker if it is untapped and either has haste or has been controlled by you continuously since your turn began.

Read that carefully: it isn't about how long the creature has been on the battlefield, it's about how long you have controlled it. Gain control of an opponent's long-standing creature this turn and it still can't attack without haste.

Tapping a creature for attacking is not a cost — attacking simply causes creatures to become tapped. That distinction matters because costs can be replaced, increased and reduced, and this can't. Real costs to attack ("attacks only if you pay…") do exist separately and are handled as costs, complete with a window to activate mana abilities.

Blocked stays blocked

Once blockers are declared, an attacking creature with at least one blocker is a blocked creature and stays that way for the whole combat, even if every blocker leaves.

And a blocked creature with no creatures currently blocking it assigns no combat damage. So killing the blocker does not get your attacker through — it just saves the blocker's controller from damage they had already stopped.

Trample is the deliberate exception. If an attacking creature with trample is blocked but has no blockers when damage is assigned, its damage goes to the defending player as though all blockers had been assigned lethal damage. Same board state, completely different outcome, purely because of one keyword.

Damage is assigned, then dealt, with no window

Each attacking and blocking creature assigns damage equal to its power. Then all combat damage is dealt simultaneously, and no player gets priority between assignment and dealing.

Use your combat trick before damage. Once you're in the damage step there is no window left.

First strike and double strike modify this by creating a second combat damage step: if any attacking or blocking creature has either keyword as the combat damage step begins, only those creatures assign damage in that step, and everyone else assigns in the following one. Because they're genuinely separate steps, players get priority in between.

The timing details are worth knowing: removing double strike during the first damage step stops the creature assigning in the second; removing first strike after the first step lets it assign in the second; and giving first strike to a creature after damage has already been dealt doesn't stop it hitting in the second step either. The game checks what's true when each step happens.

Removed from combat

A permanent is removed from combat if it leaves the battlefield, its controller changes, it phases out, or an effect specifically removes it.

Tapping does not. Tapping an already-attacking creature achieves nothing — it's already tapped and still attacking. "Tap target creature" is only useful before attackers are declared. Gaining control of an attacking creature, on the other hand, is a genuine fog.

The keywords, precisely

Menace — can't be blocked except by two or more creatures. A defender with one available blocker simply can't block it.

Deathtouch — a separate state-based action destroys any creature dealt damage by a deathtouch source, however little. It's destruction, so regeneration and indestructible still apply. And any nonzero combat damage from a deathtouch source counts as lethal for working out excess — which is why deathtouch plus trample is so much stronger than either alone. A 5/5 with both, blocked by two 3/3s, assigns 1 to each blocker and tramples 3 over.

Indestructible — can't be destroyed, and ignores the lethal-damage check entirely. The damage is still dealt and still marked (relevant to anything asking whether damage was dealt), it just never kills. What does still work: 0 toughness, sacrifice, exile.

Protection from [quality] — covers exactly three things: can't be targeted by spells/abilities with that quality, can't be attached by Auras/Equipment/Fortifications with it, and damage from sources with it is prevented. It does not stop a red creature blocking your protection-from-red creature, and it does not save it from a red sweeper that neither targets nor deals damage. Knowing what protection doesn't do is where the value is.

Hexproof vs shroud — hexproof stops opponents targeting it (you still can). Shroud stops everyone, including you.

Ward — is a triggered ability, not a static one: "whenever this becomes the target of a spell or ability an opponent controls, counter it unless that player pays [cost]." So the spell is legally cast and does target, then the ward trigger goes on the stack and can be responded to. Ward with X in the cost has X determined on resolution.

32 questions in this track, checked against the 2026-06-19 Comprehensive Rules.

Rules covered: 310.8c, 310.8d, 506.1, 506.3, 506.4, 508.1a, 508.1f, 508.1g, 508.1h, 509.1, 509.1a, 509.1b, 509.1c, 509.1d, 509.1e, 509.1f, 509.1g, 509.1h, 509.1i, 509.2, 509.2a, 509.3e, 509.3f, 509.3g, 509.4, 510.1, 510.1a, 510.1c, 510.1d, 510.1e, 510.2, 510.3, 510.3a, 510.4, 702.2c, 702.4, 702.4a, 702.4c, 702.7, 702.7a, 702.7b, 702.7c, 702.10b, 702.12a, 702.12b, 702.15b, 702.16a, 702.16b, 702.16c, 702.16d, 702.16e, 702.19a, 702.19b, 702.19d, 702.21a, 702.21b, 702.111a, 702.111b, 704.5g.