General Jarkeld is strange.

Asked by PhotogenicParasympathetic 8 years ago

So. I have General Jarkeld on the battlefield, and let's say a 50/50 Consuming Aberration and a regular old Black Cat. I attack with the Aberration and the Cat, and my opponent puts his only available blocker in front of the Aberration. Can I activate Jarkeld, target the Cat and the Aberration, moving his blocker over to the Cat? Does this allow the Aberration to deal its damage as though it were unblocked, or does it remain blocked?

BlueScope says... Accepted answer #1

Actual text of General Jarkeld:

: Switch the blocking creatures of two target attacking creatures. Activate this ability only during the declare blockers step.

The ability requires you to select two attacking creatures as targets, so you may activate the ability as you described. Thhis will result in both creatures being blocked, however, due to the following rule:

509.1h. An attacking creature with one or more creatures declared as blockers for it becomes a blocked creature (...). This remains unchanged until the creature is removed from combat, an effect says that it becomes blocked or unblocked, or the combat phase ends, whichever comes first. A creature remains blocked even if all the creatures blocking it are removed from combat.

As nothng about Jarkeld's ability says that creatures without blockers become unblocked, all creatures previously blocked will still be blocked, and all creatures now assigned blocking creatures will become blocked.

November 23, 2016 10:28 a.m.

Rhadamanthus says... #2

An additional note: compare/contrast this with Balduvian Warlord, which can specifically cause an attacker to become unblocked as part of its effect. As BlueScope pointed out, General Jarkeld doesn't do this.

November 23, 2016 12:31 p.m.

BlueScope says... #3

I couldn't think of an example - thanks for the addition!

November 23, 2016 1:11 p.m.

Rhadamanthus says... #4

Yeah, Coldsnap had several shout-outs to cards from Ice Age block. Some of them were just as bizarre as the originals.

November 23, 2016 1:47 p.m.