Magic: The Gathering's Damage Change is History Repeating Itself

Summary

Wizards of the Coast recently revealed more details and even some cards fromMagic: The Gathering’s Foundations set, which is going to act as a backdrop for all future releases in Standard and other formats until at least 2029. This is a big change for WotC, as the game will now move away from the release schedule of fourMagicMultiverse setsper year to instead do three mainMTGsets and three Universes Beyond sets that will be Standard-legal, all while Foundations is still there. On top of that, Foundations is going to be the best way to get intoMagic: The Gatheringmoving forward, streamlining some notoriously hard aspects of the game. However, one change to combat may be a double-edged sword.

Combat inMagic: The Gatheringis made of several important steps, much like the rest of each player’s turn, and declaring each action is crucial both when attacking and when defending. Given that Sorcery spells cannot be cast during combat, this is usually the time for Instants to shine - be it from the attacking player or the defending one. This usually happens in the form of removals, creatures with flash, spells that power up creatures not to let them die, and counters to any of these card types. However, Foundations is about to change things in one big way.

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Why Magic: The Gathering’s Combat Change May Fly Under Players' Radar

MTG: Damage Distribution in Foundations Explained

The way the current combat phase works is that players have to assign damage from attacking creatures to blocking creatures, but this can only be done by assigning lethal damage to one creature at a time. For example, if a player is attacking with a 3/3 creature and the defending player chooses to block with three 1/1 tokens, the attacking player will have to assign 1 damage to each token. However, the defending player can then play aMagic: The Gatheringcardthat gives at least +1/+1 to their creatures, effectively killing the attacking creature and not losing anything in the aftermath.

Instead, the change coming withMagic: The Gathering’s Foundations setis essentially a return to combat before M10, where players can better hide their strategy and not deal with further steps that are needed to assign damage. In Foundations, players can declare to which enemy creatures they are dealing damage during the combat damage step, so when the damage is being dealt. While it may seem confusing, this removes a step from combat and gives it an additional layer of strategy.

Combat phases inMagic: The Gatheringhave the following steps:

Much like in the past, after Foundations, if the defending player wants to use spells to weaken attacking creatures or power up blocking ones, this all happens before damage is assigned. What follows is that attackers can better understand what they are dealing with at all times, for better or worse. This may seem like a straight-up buff toaggro decks inMagic: The Gathering, and while it’s not entirely wrong, it also means that both attacking and defending players are going to have a rough time with combat tricks, which arguably got worse. At the same time, the second main phase holds even more weight.

For example, the attacking player may decide to deal enough damage to each blocking creature not to kill them yet if they are too bulky or too many and instead cast Toxic Deluge later to clear the board. Likewise, attacking with a 3/3 creature only to be blocked by three 1/1 tokens that each get +1/+1 with an instant no longer results in no deaths for the defending player, as the attacking player can now assign 2 damage to one of the tokens and kill it.Magic: The Gatheringis entering a new erawith Foundations, and damage distribution during combat may be one of those changes that go unnoticed until players have to deal with its consequences.