Second Era of Magic Rules
Introduction
The second era of Magic rules started in 1999 with Sixth Edition. Big changes included replacing the byzantine batch system of resolving spells and ailities with the stack, players losing the game immediately after their life total dropped to zero instead of waiting until the current phase ended and certain card types like Mana Source and Interrupt being removed from the game.
While the first era is primarily associated with the batch, the second one is mostly known as the "damage goes on the stack" era. Mercadian Masques was the first block designed in this era and Shadowmoor - the last. It ended after Magic 2010 introduced another set of major changes to how the game worked and got us into the modern rules era.
There are three aspects of the game that work differently in this era compared to modern Magic that I think are quite relevant for limited play. In decreasing importance, these are: combat changes, mana pool changes and finally changes to do with Lifelink and Deathtouch. While there are other rules that differ between this era and the modern one, these are less important so for the time being I won't mention them.
To write this I'll be using this guide and the 2009-02-01 Comprehensive Rules as these are the most recent official rules I found before the updates introduced in Magic 2010.
You can hover over any card in the examples below to see an enlarged version.
Combat Step
Players don't declare the order in which their creatures will deal damage
This is mostly relevant for when multiple creatures block a single attacker, in such a case the attacking player doesn't declare in which order their creature will deal damage.
New Rules
-
Modern Rules
During the Declare Blockers Step, after blockers have been declared the attacking player declares which order their creature will deal damage to the creatures blocking it.
A creature's combat damage can be assigned however the player controlling it chooses
If an attacking creature is blocked by multiple creatures, the attacking player assigns damage however they wish among the creatures blocking it. This happens at the start of the Combat Damage Step.
New Rules
The attacking player assigns damage their creature deals among defenders however they wish.
Modern Rules
If the attacking player wants to assign damage to a creature blocking one of their creatures, they need to have assigned lethal damage to every blocking creature that precede it in the order announced during the Declare Blockers Step.
Example
- Alice attacks Bob with a Hill Giant and Bob triple-blocks with his Gnarled Masses.
- During the Combat Damage Step, Alice assigns 1 point of damage to each Gnarled Mass.
- After combat damage is dealt, during the End of Combat Step, Alice casts Inflame, which deals 2 damage to each Gnarled mass, sending them all to the graveyard.
Once combat damage is assigned, it goes on the stack as a single object
The damage goes on the stack as originally assigned. Afterwards players can play spells and activate abilities before damage resolves.
New Rules
Players get to play spells and abilities after damage is assigned, but before it's dealt.
Modern Rules
Once damage is assigned, it's dealt immediately, only then do players get priority.
Example: power/toughness tricks
- Alice attacks Bob with a Turtleshell Changeling and Bob blocks with a Gnarled Mass.
- During the Declare Blockers Step, Alice activates her creature's ability, switching its power and toughness.
- During the Combat Damage Step, Alice's creature assigns 4 points of damage to Bob's creature and Bob's creature assigns 3 points of damage to Alice's creature.
- Combat damage goes on the stack.
- Alice activates her creature's ability again, turning it back into a 1/4
- Damage resolves. Bob's creature is dealt 4 points of damage, which is enough to kill it. Alice's creature is dealt 3 points of damage, but because its toughness is now 4, it survives.
Example: bounce spells
- Alice attacks Bob with a Hill Giant and Bob blocks with a Gnarled Mass.
- Combat damage goes on the stack.
- Alice casts Boomerang targeting her creature.
- Combat damage resolves. Since Bob's creature is still on the battlefield, it is dealt lethal damage and dies, whereas Alice's creature is safely back in her hand.
Example: sacrifice effects
- Alice attacks Bob with a Krovikan Scoundrel and Bob blocks with a Sakura-Tribe Elder.
- Combat damage goes on the stack.
- Bob sacrifices his creature, fetching a basic land.
- Combat damage resolves and the Krovikan Scoundrel is killed.
Emptying the Mana Pool
Mana pools empty at the end of phases
When a phase ends any unspent mana left in a player's mana pool is lost, mana is not lost this way when steps end.
New Rules
Mana can be used throughout a phase and is only lost at the end of that phase.
Modern Rules
Mana pools empty at the end of steps and phases.
Example
- During the Declare Attackers Step, Alice declares her Radha, Heir to Keld to be attacking Bob.
- Radha's ability triggers, adding 2 red mana to Alice's mana pool.
- The game moves to the Declare Blockers Step and Bob declares his Gnarled Mass to be blocking Radha.
- During the Declare Blockers Step, Alice casts Brute Force targeting her Radha, using the mana obtained from Radha's ability.
Mana burn
When unused mana is lost from a player's mana pool, that player loses life equal to the amount of mana lost this way.
New Rules
Loss of mana causes loss of life.
Modern Rules
Loss of mana doesn't cause loss of life.
Example: involuntary mana burn
- Alice attacks Bob with a Radha, Heir to Keld.
- Radha's ability triggers, adding 2 red mana to Alice's mana pool.
- Alice doesn't use this mana and once the game moves to the end of the Combat Phase, this leftover mana causes her to lose 2 life.
Example: pinging opponents
- At the start of Bob's End of Turn Step, Alice uses her Spectral Searchlight to add 1 mana to Bob's mana pool.
- If Bob doesn't use this mana, when the game moves to the end of his End Phase, it will cause him to lose 1 life.
Example: purposefully dealing yourself damage
- Alice is at 7 life and controls 6 untapped lands.
- At the start of Bob's End of Turn Step, she taps all of her lands, adding 6 mana to her mana pool
- Once the game moves to the end of his End Phase, Alice loses 6 life due to the unspent mana in her mana pool.
- At the beginning of her Upkeep Step, Alice activates her Magus of the Mirror's ability, leaving Bob with 1 life.
Lifelink and Deathtouch
Lifelink is a triggered ability
When a creature with lifelink deals damage, the triggered ability goes on the stack and the player gains life only when it resolves.
New Rules
The lifelink trigger needs to resolve before gaining its controller life.
Modern Rules
When a creature deals damage, its controller gains life immediately.
Example: dying before gaining life
- Bob is at 3 life.
- Alice attacks Bob with 2 Hill Giants.
- Bob blocks one of the Giants with his Changeling Hero.
- Once damage resolves, the lifelink ability triggers and gets added to the stack, but before priority can pass to Alice, state-based actions are checked and Bob loses the game due to being at 0 life.
Example: creatures having multiple instances of Lifelink
- Alice attacks Bob with a Changeling Hero and Bob doesn't block it.
- Before damage resolves, Alice activates her Nectar Faerie to give her Changeling Hero another instance of Lifelink.
- After damage resolves, two Lifelink triggers are added to the stack, each gaining Alice 4 life once they resolve.
Deathtouch is a triggered ability
When a creature with deathtouch deals damage, the triggered ability goes on the stack, any creatures it dealt damage to will be destroyed only when this ability resolves.
New Rules
A creature dealt damage by a creature with deathtouch will die once the deathtouch trigger resolves.
Modern Rules
A creature dealt damage by a creature with deathtouch will die the next time state-based actions are checked.
Example: creatures needing to regenerate multiple times
- Alice attacks Bob with a Moonglove Winnower and Bob blocks it with a Horned Troll.
- Bob activates the Horned Troll's ability to regenerate it.
- Damage resolves and the damage gets removed from the Horned Troll due to it regenerating.
- The Deathtouch trigger goes on the stack.
- If Bob doesn't activate his Troll again to regenerate it, once the Deathtouch trigger resolves, his Troll will be killed.