Rules refresher

Spells and abilities go on the stack and wait there. Each time both players pass in a row, the top one resolves, so the last one added resolves first (last in, first out). It is your main phase, so you hold priority, the right to cast a spell.

You attack with Dáin's Company (2/2) and your opponent blocks with Ravening Warg (2/2 deathtouch). Once blockers are declared, the player whose turn it is gets priority first. That's you. You hold Smaug's Fury.

You cast Bothersome Noisemaker and both pass, so it resolves: “Whenever you cast a noncreature spell, amass Goblins 1.” Your Goblin Army has two +1/+1 counters. You get priority again, as the active player. Their Ravening Warg is in your way.

Their Ravening Warg (2/2 deathtouch) can block and kill your Dáin's Company. You move to the beginning of combat, the last moment to act before attackers are declared, and you hold priority. You have Bilbo's Deadly Slice and Pinecone Strike in hand.

Priority is the right to cast a spell or activate an ability, and one player holds it at a time. It's your opponent's turn, in their end step. They're the active player, so they get priority first.

They pass: they do nothing, and priority moves to you. The stack is empty. If you pass too, both players have passed in a row, and the end step ends.

You cast Plunder the Trollshaws: “Draw a card.” Casting it wipes out the passes, so their pass no longer counts. You cast the spell, so you get priority again.

Both passed in a row on an empty stack, so their end step is over. Their cleanup step follows, where normally no one gets priority, and then your turn begins. No one gets it while you untap either. In your upkeep you're the active player, so you get it first.

Your turn began with the untap step: Desolation Prowler, tapped from attacking last turn, untapped. No one gets priority (the right to cast spells and activate abilities) in the untap step, so not even an instant can be cast there. Now it's your upkeep, the first step where players get priority, you first.

Abilities that trigger at the beginning of your upkeep would go on the stack now. You have none, so you pass, and priority goes to your opponent.

Your opponent passes too, so the upkeep ends. In the draw step you draw a card first, then get priority. You draw Plunder the Trollshaws, an instant. You'd also like Dwarven Mauler, a creature, on the battlefield soon.

You can't yet. A creature spell needs a main phase of your own turn, an empty stack and priority. Sorceries share this timing, called sorcery speed. So Mauler waits.

You both pass on an empty stack, and the draw step ends. Main phase 1. Now you may play your one land for the turn and cast creatures and sorceries while the stack is empty. You play a Mountain, which skips the stack, then tap it to cast Dwarven Mauler, which uses the stack.

Both pass and Mauler resolves. It has summoning sickness: it hasn't been under your control since your turn began, so it can't attack this turn. On your next turn it can.

You both pass on an empty stack, so the turn moves to combat. In the beginning of combat step you both get priority once more. It is the last moment to act before attackers are declared, for example to tap a would-be attacker.

Declare attackers. You attack with Desolation Prowler, and attacking taps it. Mauler has to stay home. Once attackers are declared, you get priority again, then your opponent.

Declare blockers. Your opponent blocks with Bard the Bowman (1/3), which would survive your 2/2. You get priority first in this step too, so you can still answer the block: “Pay 2 life: This creature gets +2/+2 until end of turn. Activate only once each turn.”

That works. An instant can be cast any time you have priority, even in your draw step. Plunder the Trollshaws goes on the stack and you get priority again.

With both passed, Plunder resolves: “Draw a card.” You draw a Forest, and Plunder goes to your graveyard. You get priority again.

You both pass on an empty stack, and the draw step ends. Main phase 1. Now you may play your one land for the turn and cast creatures and sorceries while the stack is empty. You play a Mountain, which skips the stack, then tap it to cast Dwarven Mauler, which uses the stack.

Both pass and Mauler resolves. It has summoning sickness: it hasn't been under your control since your turn began, so it can't attack this turn. On your next turn it can.

You both pass on an empty stack, so the turn moves to combat. In the beginning of combat step you both get priority once more. It is the last moment to act before attackers are declared, for example to tap a would-be attacker.

Declare attackers. You attack with Desolation Prowler, and attacking taps it. Mauler has to stay home. Once attackers are declared, you get priority again, then your opponent.

Declare blockers. Your opponent blocks with Bard the Bowman (1/3), which would survive your 2/2. You get priority first in this step too, so you can still answer the block: “Pay 2 life: This creature gets +2/+2 until end of turn. Activate only once each turn.”

It's your opponent's turn. They cast Elvenking's Harper this turn, so it has summoning sickness and can't attack. Their Ordinary Bear (4/5) and Patient Instructor (2/2) can. You have Mirkwood Nurturer (3/2) and Snowslope Hunter (2/3).

Declare attackers. They attack with the Bear and the Instructor. Attacking taps a creature, but the Instructor has vigilance, so it stays untapped and can still block on your turn. Harper stays home.

Declare blockers. Now you choose. Each untapped creature of yours may block one attacker, and two of yours may block the same one. An attacker that no one blocks is unblocked and deals its damage to you.

You double block the Bear with both creatures. Together they deal 5 damage, enough for its 5 toughness. The Instructor is unblocked, so its 2 damage will come to you.

Combat damage. A creature blocked by two divides its damage between them as its controller chooses. They split the Bear's 4: 2 kills Nurturer, and 2 leaves Hunter 1 short. Your 5 kill the Bear, and the Instructor deals 2 to you.

You traded Nurturer for their biggest creature. The Bear had 4 damage to share, and your blockers needed 2 and 3, so it could kill one of them but never both. Before a double block, add up what each blocker needs.

Snowslope Hunter blocks the Instructor, and Nurturer stays back. The Bear is unblocked, so its 4 damage will come to you. The Instructor runs into a creature it can hurt but not kill.

Combat damage, all at once. The Bear deals 4 to you. Hunter and the Instructor deal 2 to each other. That is lethal for the Instructor, with 2 toughness, but not for your Hunter, with 3.

You took 4 but killed the Instructor and kept both your creatures. A block where your creature survives and theirs dies is the best trade combat offers. The damage on Hunter wears off in the cleanup step.

No blocks. Both attackers are unblocked, so all their damage goes to you. Your creatures stay untapped and unhurt, ready to attack on your turn, when the Bear is tapped and the Instructor is not.

Combat damage. The Bear and the Instructor deal 6 to you at once, and you drop to 14. Not blocking keeps your creatures, but your life total is a resource too, and 6 a turn runs out fast.

Your opponent attacks with Elvenking's Harper (2/2) and Elrond, Moon-Reader (3/3). You control Dwalin, Weaponmaster (2/1) with first strike: in combat it deals its damage before creatures without first strike do.

Declare blockers. Dwalin can block one attacker. Without first strike, a 2/1 blocking a 2/2 would trade, each dealing lethal damage to the other. Which attacker should Dwalin block, if any?

Dwalin blocks the Harper. A creature in this combat has first strike, so combat gets an extra step: the first-strike damage step comes before the regular combat damage step. Elrond is unblocked.

First-strike damage. Only creatures with first strike deal damage in this step. Dwalin deals 2 to the Harper, which has lethal damage and dies before it can strike back.

The regular combat damage step. Creatures without first strike deal theirs now. The Harper is gone, so it deals nothing, and Dwalin takes no damage. The unblocked Elrond deals 3 to you.

Dwalin blocks Elrond. With a first striker in combat there will be two damage steps, first strike first. The Harper is unblocked, so its 2 damage will come to you.

First-strike damage. Dwalin deals 2 to Elrond first. That isn't lethal. Elrond has 3 toughness, so it survives with 2 damage marked and gets to strike back in the next step.

The regular combat damage step. Elrond deals 3 to Dwalin, which dies. The unblocked Harper deals 2 to you. First strike only saves your creature when its first hit is lethal.

Elrond survives, and its 2 damage wears off in the cleanup step. Against a creature with more toughness than your first striker's power, first strike changes the order of the damage but not the result.

No blocks. Dwalin isn't in combat, and neither attacker has first strike or double strike. So this combat has no first-strike damage step, only the one regular combat damage step.

Combat damage. Both attackers deal theirs at once: 5 to you, down to 15. Dwalin is safe, but its first strike did nothing here. It only matters for creatures in combat.

You attack with Ravening Warg (2/2), which has deathtouch: any damage it deals to a creature destroys that creature. You hold Warg Tactics, an instant. Your opponent has Mirkwood Meditator (2/4) untapped.

They block with the Meditator. The Warg will kill it, but a blocked creature deals all its damage to its blockers unless it has trample. You get priority first after blocks, the moment for a combat trick.

You cast it with its second mode, targeting the Warg: “Put a +1/+1 counter on target creature you control. It gains trample and hexproof until end of turn.” You get priority again.

You pass, and then your opponent passes, so Warg Tactics resolves. The Warg is now a 3/3 with a +1/+1 counter. Next to its deathtouch, it has trample and hexproof until end of turn. Hexproof means your opponent's spells and abilities can't target it, so for the rest of the turn they can't kill it with a spell that targets.

Combat damage. With trample, you must assign lethal damage to the blocker before the rest can go to the player. With deathtouch, 1 damage counts as lethal. How do you split the Warg's 3?

Your Duskwatch Hunter is a 6/4 flier: a 3/1 with a +1/+1 counter from its enters ability, wearing Eagle's Rescue (+2/+2 and flying). As combat begins, your opponent casts Bilbo's Deadly Slice at it: “Destroy target creature.”

You cast Gone Fishing, the Adventure half of Lake-town Mariners, in response, tapping your Island to help pay: “Exile two target creatures and/or lands you control, then return them to the battlefield under their owner's control.” It needs two targets, so the Island is the second.

Both players pass. Gone Fishing is on top, so it resolves first and flickers them. The Hunter and the tapped Island go to exile and come straight back as new objects with no memory of the old ones: the Island untapped, the Hunter a plain 3/1 with no counter and summoning sick. Eagle's Rescue was left enchanting nothing, so the game put it into your graveyard. Gone Fishing goes to exile on an adventure.

Entering again means the Hunter's ETB (enters-the-battlefield) ability triggers again: “When this creature enters, put a +1/+1 counter on target creature.” It goes on the stack on top of Deadly Slice, and you target the new Hunter.

Both pass and the trigger resolves. The Hunter gets a fresh +1/+1 counter and is a 4/2 again, only without the Aura. Deadly Slice is still waiting on the stack.

Both pass again and Deadly Slice tries to resolve. Its target was the Hunter that left, and the new Hunter is a different object it never targeted. With no legal target it does nothing and goes to the graveyard. Players say it fizzles.

You kept a 4/2 and they lost their removal spell, but the Aura is gone and the new Hunter can't attack this turn. It came under your control this turn, and only haste gets around that. Summoning sickness never stops blocking, so it can block on their turn.

You pass, so both players have passed and Deadly Slice resolves. The Hunter is destroyed, counter and all.

Then the game checked its rules. Eagle's Rescue enchanted nothing, so it was put into your graveyard too. That is a state-based action, which the game performs on its own, without a spell or the stack.

One removal spell cost you two cards, the Hunter and its Aura. Gone Fishing would have kept the Hunter, and its enters ability would have put a new counter on it. The price was the Aura and this turn's attack. Flicker in response is a common answer to removal.

You attack with The Master of Lake-town (3/2 deathtouch) and Lake-town Lookout (1/1). They block with Ravening Warg (2/2 deathtouch) and Fearsome Goblin Pair (1/1). Three of these creatures have a dies trigger. Your graveyard holds 4 cards, theirs 2.

Combat damage kills all four at once. A dies trigger is a leaves-the-battlefield (LTB) trigger. It looks back in time, so it triggers though its creature is gone: the Lookout's “When this creature dies, recruit.” and the Pair's “When this creature dies, amass Goblins 4.”

Your graveyard now has 6 cards. The Master's trigger reads “When The Master of Lake-town dies, draw a card for each graveyard with seven or more cards in it.” It counts as it resolves, so the order of your two triggers matters.

Triggers go on the stack in APNAP order (active player, then nonactive player): you put yours on first, then your opponent puts theirs. You put the Master's on, then the Lookout's recruit on top. They add the Pair's last, so theirs resolves first, even on your turn.

Their trigger resolves. They have no Army, so they make a 0/0 Goblin Army and put four +1/+1 counters on it. Next is your Lookout's recruit: draw a card, then discard a card.

You draw, then discard the Swamp. It's a land, so you get no Soldier token, but your graveyard now has seven cards. The Master's trigger is next.

The Master's trigger resolves and counts: one graveyard has seven or more cards, so you draw a card. Putting the Lookout's recruit on top filled the graveyard first and got you the extra card.

Triggers go on the stack in APNAP order (active player, then nonactive player): you put yours on first, then your opponent puts theirs. You put the Lookout's recruit on, then the Master's on top. They add the Pair's last, so theirs resolves first, even on your turn.

Their trigger resolves. They have no Army, so they make a 0/0 Goblin Army and put four +1/+1 counters on it. Next is the Master's trigger, which sits on top of your Lookout's recruit.

The Master's trigger counts now. Your graveyard has 6 cards and theirs has 4, so no graveyard has seven and you draw nothing.

Then the Lookout's recruit: you draw, discard the Swamp, and your graveyard reaches seven, one trigger too late. With the Lookout's recruit on top, the Master would have drawn you a card.

State-based actions are checks the game makes each time a player would get priority. On their turn their Ravening Warg (2/2 deathtouch) attacks, and you block with Ordinary Bear (5/6, one +1/+1 counter). You also have Elvenking's Harper, a 2/2 with a -1/-1 counter, so a 1/1.

Both players pass, and damage is dealt all at once. The Warg has 5 damage, at least its toughness: lethal damage. The Bear has only 2 damage on 6 toughness, but any damage from a deathtouch source is enough. One check destroys both, before anyone can act.

In their second main phase they cast Gnashing of Teeth on you, choosing its second mode: “Creatures target player controls get -1/-1 until end of turn.” That would make your Harper and your Lake-town Lookout 0/0. You hold Warg Tactics.

You cast Warg Tactics in response, choosing its second mode: “Put a +1/+1 counter on target creature you control. It gains trample and hexproof until end of turn.” Now you choose its target.

You let it resolve. Your creatures get -1/-1, and the next check finds two creatures with 0 toughness. Both go to your graveyard in the same moment.

The Lookout's dies trigger recruits, but you lost both creatures. A +1/+1 counter in response would have kept one of them alive.

You attacked with The Great Goblin (4/3, one +1/+1 counter) this turn, so it is tapped. You cast a second copy. Its second ability: “Whenever another Goblin, Orc, or Army you control dies, exile the top card of your library. You may play it until the end of your next turn.”

It resolves, and you control two legendary permanents with the same name. Before anyone gets priority, the legend rule makes you choose one to keep. The other is put into your graveyard.

The new one goes to your graveyard. Nothing sacrificed or destroyed it, but a creature put into a graveyard from the battlefield dies. Your kept Goblin sees another Goblin you control die, so its ability triggers.

The trigger is on the stack. The dying Goblin's own copy of the ability doesn't trigger. It says another Goblin, and the one dying was itself.

You exile Goblin-town Flunkies and may play it until the end of your next turn. You kept the counter, but the 4/3 stays tapped through their turn, so it can't block their Gundabad Opportunist.

The tapped one goes to your graveyard, and its +1/+1 counter is gone with it. Nothing sacrificed or destroyed it, but a creature put into a graveyard from the battlefield dies, so the new Goblin's ability triggers.

The new Goblin entered this turn, but summoning sickness doesn't stop triggers. Its trigger is on the stack. The dying Goblin's own ability says another Goblin, so it doesn't trigger for itself.

You exile Goblin-town Flunkies to play later. You lost the counter, but the new 3/2 is untapped, so it can block on their turn. Summoning sickness only stops attacking and abilities with or in their cost.

Rhovanion Rampager is a 6/5 with three +1/+1 counters from earlier attacks. It's tapped, so their Magnificent End costs less: “Magnificent End deals 5 damage to target creature.” You hold The Eagles Are Coming! and Lake-town Mariners, a creature card whose Adventure is the instant Gone Fishing.

Magnificent End deals 5 damage, as much as the Rampager's toughness, and the next check destroys it. Its counters cease to exist. Its dies trigger still sees how big it was: “When this creature dies, amass Goblins X, where X is this creature's power.”

The Rampager is gone, so the trigger uses its last known information: its power as it last was on the battlefield, 6. The counters no longer exist, but they still count here.

You have no Army, so you make a 0/0 Goblin Army and put six +1/+1 counters on it. Letting the Rampager die turned its power of 6 into a 6/6 Army, at the price of the Rampager itself.

You cast The Eagles Are Coming! in response with your Plains and a Swamp, so your Island stays open for Gone Fishing. Without kicker it has one target: “Choose target creature you own.” Then “Return each chosen creature to your hand.” Returning a permanent to its owner's hand is a bounce.

Both pass and it resolves. The Rampager goes back to your hand. Like any card that changes zones, it becomes a new object, and its three counters cease to exist.

Magnificent End tries to resolve, but its only target has left the battlefield, so it fizzles and goes to their graveyard. The Rampager is safe in your hand as a plain 3/2 card.

At the beginning of the next upkeep, which is theirs, you get a 4/4 flying Bird Soldier. The Rampager waits in your hand. Recast, it is a plain 3/2 that has to earn its counters again.

You cast Gone Fishing in response, tapping your Island to help pay, and target the Rampager and that Island: “Exile two target creatures and/or lands you control, then return them to the battlefield under their owner's control.”

Both pass and Gone Fishing resolves. The Rampager and the Island come straight back untapped, as new objects. The Rampager is a 3/2 with no counters and summoning sick, with no memory of being the 6/5 that was targeted. The Mariners card goes to exile, and you can cast the creature from there later.

Magnificent End's target left the battlefield, and the new Rampager is a different object. Its only target is illegal, so it fizzles. The Rampager's dies trigger never fires, because it never died.

Flicker kept a 3/2 on the battlefield right away, untapped to block on their turn, but the counters are gone. Bounce gives a 4/4 Bird later and a card to recast. Letting it die made a 6/6 Army.

You cast The Notary Hobbits (1/1) and they enter: “When The Notary Hobbits enter, if they're not a token, create two tokens that are copies of them, except the tokens aren't legendary.” The trigger is on the stack, and you hold Warg Tactics.

You cast Warg Tactics on the Hobbits in response, choosing its second mode: “Put a +1/+1 counter on target creature you control. It gains trample and hexproof until end of turn.” It sits on top, so it resolves first.

Both players pass and it resolves. The Hobbits are now a 2/2 with trample and hexproof. When both pass again, the copy trigger resolves.

Each token copies only the copiable values, what is printed on the card. The counter, trample and hexproof stay behind, so both tokens are plain 1/1s. The trigger's “except the tokens aren't legendary” changes the copies themselves, so the legend rule leaves them alone.

The tokens have the same ability, but it says “if they're not a token”. They are tokens, so it doesn't trigger, and the copying stops there. All three Hobbits entered this turn, so none can use to add mana yet.

The trigger resolves: two tokens that copy the Hobbits, each a 1/1 and not legendary. The tokens have the trigger too, but it checks “if they're not a token”, so they don't trigger.

You cast Warg Tactics on a token, and it resolves. Same result as pumping first: three Hobbits and one counter between them. A copy never takes counters, pumps or damage from the original, only what is printed.