Question About Kor Haven and Maze of Ith
Asked by theindigoeffect 8 years ago
Since you have to tap these lands in order to activate their abilities, it seems as though you can only use their abilities during your own turn, and since the aforesaid activated abilities only affect attackers, then wouldn't said abilities affect your own creatures, as opposed to your opponent's creatures?
The reason I raise this question is because there seems to be a distinction between attackers and blockers: I attack when it's my turn, and if I choose to do so, I block during my opponent's turn. Going by the instructions indicated on the cards, it seems like the only thing I can do is prevent my own creatures from dealing damage to my opponents.
I know that my logic is flawed because if the cards functioned the way I think they do, there would be no point in putting them in a deck whatsoever.
I confess to being completely ignorant in terms of how these cards work, and I would appreciate it if someone would kindly explain how their functionality to me.
Thank you!
BlueScope says... Accepted answer #1
The main thing you're missing is that you can activate abilities on permanents you control any time you have priority, like an instant. That means there's nothing to stop you from activating them on your opponent's turn, after they declare attackers.
To use this effectively, you want to make sure you know the exact steps of combat (skipping irrelevant-to-the-question ones): Combat happens between the main phases, so your opponents can't cast sorceries during combat. After declaring attackers, players can cast spells or activate abilities - your opponent, who is the active player, gets to do so first, then you may do so. After that, there's the declare blockers step, after which there's an additional round of priority, which is also the last opportunity to activate your land's abilities (if no creature has first strike, because after first strike damage has been dealt, there's another round of priority before regular damage is dealt).
This is a very short summary of how combat works, but hopefully enough to illustrate the utility of those lands. Note that they only prevent combat damage, so if your opponent Lightning Bolts your creature, you won't be able to save them with the lands.
A specific use case for Maze of Ith is that if your opponent has, for example, a Typhoid Rats and you have three Runeclaw Bears, you can attack with all three, wait until blocks have been declared, then use the Maze to untap the bears that have been blocked, which prevents you from losing a creature.
March 29, 2016 6:01 a.m.