Stalking Tiger and Banding
Asked by SteelNinja 8 years ago
Sorry to bring up banding, but I cannot figure out how this interaction works.
I know that flying and shadow and intimidate are basically neutered when it comes to banding, but what about Stalking Tiger's ability? (Or Menace for that matter.)
Simple scenario: I attack with a Stalking Tiger and a Benalish Hero in a band. Can the defending player block with multiple creatures? How about if I have Goblin War Drums out at the same time? Or what if my Stalking Tiger was instead banded with a Boggart Brute? (Without the Drums)
PremiumCola says... #2
Link to rules:
http://mtgsalvation.gamepedia.com/Banding
June 21, 2015 9:27 p.m.
Gidgetimer says... #3
The updated rules on banding make it a bit clearer how it works. The current version of the comprehensive rules states:
702.21g Banding doesnt cause attacking creatures to share abilities, nor does it remove any abilities. The attacking creatures in a band are separate permanents.
702.21h If an attacking creature becomes blocked by a creature, each other creature in the same band as the attacking creature becomes blocked by that same blocking creature.
So only one creature can be assigned as blocking Stalking Tiger. And only 2 or more creatures can be assigned to block Boggart Brute. If you have Goblin War Drums out the Stalking Tiger can not have any creatures assigned to block it.
After the assigning of blockers any creature blocking one creature in a band becomes blocking all other creatures in that band without being assigned.
June 21, 2015 10:20 p.m.
TheRedMage says... Accepted answer #4
I believe some of the previous responders were a little confused on how this particular part of the rules works (unsurprising, since we are after all talking about banding).
The last sentence in the previous explanation is key to understand exactly what happens. Quoting the rules:
702.21h If an attacking creature becomes blocked by a creature, each other creature in the same band as the attacking creature becomes blocked by that same blocking creature.
That means that if you attack with a band of Benalish Hero and Stalking Tiger, your opponent will be able to declare as many creatures as he wants as blocking Benalish Hero, and up to one creature blocking Stalking Tiger. Then, all creatures blocking Benalish Hero will also start blocking Stalking Tiger, and the other way around! Blocking restrictions do not apply here because your creatures became blocked, but technically no illegal block was declared (the player declared a legal block i.e. blocked Stalking Tiger with only one creature, if any - the rules of the game then shuffled the blockers around).
Going example by example:
In this scenario you attack with Benalish Hero and Stalking Tiger, and declare them together in a band. Your opponent controls a fearsome team of Fugitive Wizard, Mons's Goblin Raiders, Eager Cadet, Muck Rats and Willow Elf. Your opponent can declare, for example, the Elf as blocking the Stalking Tiger, and the other four creatures as blocking the Benalish Hero. The game will check that the block is legal (it is: the only restriction is that Stalking Tiger is blocked by only one creature, and only Willow Elf is blocking it). Then both Benalish Hero and Stalking Tiger will become blocked by all five creatures, because of banding. The game will only check if the block was legal once, and it already did, so this turn of events, even though it results in Stalking Tiger becoming blocked by more than one creature, is perfectly fine! Your opponent can also declare any other block as long as exactly zero or one creature are blocking the Stalking Tiger. After blockers have been declared, each creature blocking either Benalish Hero or Stalking Tiger will be blocking both creatures.
This case is similar. You attack with Boggart Brute and Benalish Hero, and band them together. Your opponent controls the same ragtag team of 1/1s. An example of a legal block here is: Mons's Goblin Raiders blocks Benalish Hero; Willow Elf and Fugitive Wizard block Boggart Brute. As usual, after the block has been declared, the blockers will be reshuffled so that both Benalish Hero and Boggart Brute are blocked by all three Mons's Goblin Raiders, Willow Elf and Fugitive Wizard. However, another fine block is: Eager Cadet blocks Benalish Hero; Boggart Brute is left unblocked. Once again, this is a legal block, as the blocking restriction on Boggart Brute is obeyed and there are no blocking rstriction on the Benalish Hero. After blockers have been declared, Eager Cadet will be moved around so that now it's blocking both Boggart Brute and Benalish Hero. Once again, this results in a block that would not have been possible to declare, but that is still fine.
You attack with Grizzly Bears and Benalish Hero, and band them together. You control Goblin War Drums. Your opponent controls the same ragtag team of 1/1s. This case is not dissimilar from before. Your opponent can block Benalish Hero with either 0 or 2+ creatures; and Grizzly Bears with either 0 or 2+ creatures. Any creature or, in this case, set of creatures that is blocking one of the two will then start blocking the other. An example of legal blocks is Mons's Goblin Raiders and Eager Cadet block Benalish Hero, Willow Elf and Muck Rats block Grizzly Bears; this will result in all four creatures blocking both Benalish Hero and Grizzly Bears.
You attack with Stalking Tiger and Benalish Hero, and band them together. You control Goblin War Drums. Your opponent controls the same ragtag team of 1/1s. By now it should be fairly clear how this works. Because of the combined action of Stalking Tiger's stalking ability and Goblin War Drums, it's impossible to declare a legal block on Stalking Tiger. However, your opponent can still block Benalish Hero (provided they do so with at least two creatures, so that the restriction created by Goblin War Drums is satisfied) and then any creature blocking Benalish Hero will begin blocking Stalking Tiger as well
PremiumCola says... #1
I'm not 100% familiar with how banding works simply because its not in my playgroup. Here's the MTG ruling words on banding : Any number of attacking creatures with banding can join together with up to one attacking creature without banding; the defending player must either block the entire band or allow it to be unblocked. If a blocking creature can block any one creature in the band, it can block the entire band.
What I take from that is that if you attack with Stalking Tiger and Benalish Hero then the band can be blocked but only by 1 creature.
This part I'm sure about though, if a creature "Can't be blocked except by two or more creatures" and "can't be blocked by more than one creature" then it simply cannot be blocked.
So from that I guess, if you have a Goblin War Drums out and you attack with the tiger in a band, the band cannot be blocked.
Regarding a band with Boggart Brute, then the band must be blocked by more than 1 creature. If Stalking Tiger and Boggart Brute are in the same band then the band cannot be blocked.
As I said, I am a little unfamiliar with the in's and out's of banding so I could so with somebody seconding this.
June 21, 2015 9:25 p.m.