Rules Question: Does Damage Affect Toughness??
Asked by stevep16 10 years ago
Newer player here with a question regarding Damage:
I was playing a "veteran" player (certainly been playing a lot longer than myself) and he pulled a move that I don't wholly think is legal.
He announced attackers including a Ruination Wurm . I announced a blocker for the wurm which was a monstrous Nemesis of Mortals at 10/10. He said in response to my naming of blockers, he played a Ground Assault , which he claimed dropped my 10/10 to a 4/4 as he controlled 6 lands. I already researched and now know that a sorcery has to be played in a main phase (to my understanding NOT during the combat phase) but my real question is this. If I do have a 10/10, and he takes 6 damage from the sorcery during his pre-combat main phase, would the damage from Ground Assault affect both the attack power AND the toughness. It seems to me that if a creature takes damage it would be dealt to his toughness, and NOT to his ability to attack, hence NOT his attack power??
Would 6 damage on a 10/10 creature during the pre-combat main phase make the creature a 4/4, or a 10/4
Thanks for your help
Gidgetimer says... Accepted answer #2
Neither it would be a 10/10 with 6 damage marked on it. Damage affects neither toughness nor power.
This "veteran" player is either playing some game besides magic using his magic cards; bad at magic; or was trying to cheat. Damage is simply "marked" on the creature and if the marked damage at any time exceeds the toughness of the creature it is destroyed as a state based effect.
July 20, 2014 4:22 p.m.
Gidgetimer says... #3
Also you are right that at no point should he have tried to cast a sorcery during the combat phase. The only time someone can play a sorcery is during their main phase, when they have priority, on an empty stack.
July 20, 2014 4:25 p.m.
That's my second wrong answer in an hour. I'm going to stay away from the Q&A.
July 20, 2014 4:27 p.m.
@matsi883 This is mostly true. The damage would definitely not reduce the creatures power. Furthermore, it wouldn't reduce his toughness either, it would still be a 10/10, but with 6 damage marked on it. Once a creature has damage marked on it equal to or greater than it's toughness, it would die, but it does not reduce it's toughness. This matters for cards like Phenax, God of Deception
July 20, 2014 4:27 p.m.
Epochalyptik says... #6
Rules questions should be asked in the Q&A, which is linked in the header bar. I can't convert this to a question, so it's getting moved to BE.
Matsi883 says... #1
He would be a 10/4. The only cards that can reduce power are cards like Grasp of Darkness that say -X/-X. This excludes power setting, but I'm not going to go into that.
Also, Epochalyptik, please move to BE.
July 20, 2014 4:19 p.m.