Damage on the stack
General forum
Posted on Jan. 26, 2014, 3:48 p.m. by GlistenerAgent
I understand that in the old days of Magic, damage used to be put on the stack. I was wondering exactly what interactions this allowed that led to that being removed. I am fairly sure that you could cast Angel's Grace in response to a lethal attack or something like that, but that's all I got. Thoughts?
Arcbound Ravager was perhaps the height and prime demonstration of how crazy it could get. Being able to say trade off creature and still eat them for counters or force through some crazy attacks.
January 26, 2014 3:54 p.m.
It also made regeneration work differently. With damage using the stack, you could wait to see how your opponent was planning to assign combat damage when you assign double blockers on an attacking creature before deciding which creature to regenerate when using something like Swarmyard . Now, you have to put the "regeneration shield" on the creature before damage assignments are made, allowing them to just assign damage to any other blockers, effectively wasting your regeneration shield.
January 26, 2014 4:06 p.m.
GlistenerAgent says... #5
Thanks for answering. I did see some Buehler Blue lists floating around from back then which claimed they could phase out a Rainbow Efreet after damage went on the stack, so they could keep getting in while keeping their win con alive, somewhat like AEtherling in today's Standard control decks. As for the Arcbound Ravager thing, WHAT. Was that the main cause of it or was it causing actual gameplay issues rather than just competitive problems?
January 26, 2014 4:08 p.m.
Rhadamanthus says... #6
With Arcbound Ravager , you could put combat damage on the stack and then sacrifice some of your blocked creatures that were going to die in combat to pump the Ravager and save him from dying to whatever was blocking him (and trigger Disciple of the Vault a bunch of times as well).
raithe000 says... #2
There were wacky shenanigans with things like Unsummon ing your own creature but it still dealt damage and things of that nature. Or at least, that's what I've been told, I never played in those days.
January 26, 2014 3:51 p.m.