What can a front-face Battle do as a Creature?

Asked by legendofa 2 years ago

Pick your favorite "animate permanent" effect, like March of the Machines + Mycosynth Lattice , so that you have a Battle - Siege existing as a creature. Can the Battle attack itself? I assume if it attacks or blocks, and takes damage, it still gets counters taken off.

Delphen7 says... Accepted answer #1

Battles cannot attack.

  • 508.1a: "The active player chooses which creatures that they control, if any, will attack. The chosen creatures must be untapped, they can’t also be battles", and each one must either have haste or have been controlled by the active player continuously since the turn began.".

Battles cannot block.

  • 509.1a: "The defending player chooses which creatures they control, if any, will block. The chosen creatures must be untapped and they can’t also be battles. For each of the chosen creatures, the defending player chooses one creature for it to block that’s attacking that player, a planeswalker they control, or a battle they protect."

If it takes damage, it will still lose counters

  • 310.6: "Damage dealt to a battle results in that many defense counters being removed from it.

Since it's not a battle, but a creature, it can't be attacked.

  • 506.3: "Only a creature can attack or block. Only a player, a planeswalker, or a battle can be attacked."
April 22, 2023 8:47 p.m.

Delphen7 says... #2

As a note, if a battle/creature receives enough damage to both remove all its defense counters and have lethal marked on it, it'll die as a state based action and won't be exiled for you to cast.

April 22, 2023 8:52 p.m.

legendofa says... #3

Since it's not a battle, but a creature, it can't be attacked.

  • 506.3: "Only a creature can attack or block. Only a player, a planeswalker, or a battle can be attacked."

Wait, does it stop being a battle? If so, why? At least in my example, Mycosynth Lattice states that "All permanents are artifacts in addition to their other types."

And is there any explanation for why an animated battle can't attack or block, or is it just to avoid one rule clashing with another?

April 22, 2023 9:39 p.m.

wallisface says... #4

legendofa it will still keep being a battle. That last condition doesn’t mentioned doesn’t apply to this specific scenario.

April 22, 2023 10:27 p.m.

Delphen7 says... #5

Until I looked at its rulings, I thought March of Machine overwrote other cards types

April 23, 2023 8:48 p.m.

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