Magic: The Gathering - Page 466

The big one: Icy Manipulator & Ball Lightning

This situation is very famous since it exists since Ice Age and it took a while before judges found a consistent way to deal with it. Of course it also works with many other cards, including Twiddle, and all creatures with haste.

As you all know, to go from the first main phase to the combat phase, both players have to pass in succession. Then comes the beginning of combat step, the first step of the combat phase, where both players can also pass in succession to enter the declare attackers step. If one of the players plays something, we stay in the phase or step we were in, so if the non-active player plays a spell or an ability while the active player passed priority in his main phase, we stay in the active player’s main phase and he can play sorceries or spells like creatures or equipments.

A usual situation is player A having a creature in play while his opponent controls an Icy Manipulator. A says “combat?” (or “attack?”), at that moment, B uses his Icy Manipulator to tap A’s creature. A then claims he’s still in his main phase and can play a creature with haste and attack with it.

As a judge, you have to find what “combat?” (“attack?”) means and it isn’t that obvious. There are two solutions:

“I’m in my main phase and I pass priority; if you have nothing to play we’ll enter the combat phase”
“I’m in my main phase and I pass priority; I consider you have nothing to play now and enter my combat phase. I pass priority in my beginning of combat step, if you have nothing to play, I’ll declare my attackers”.
Option (1) is very seducing. It looks simpler than (2) since it is all about replacing “pass priority” by “combat?”. It’s like considering that A is not doing a shortcut but is only using improper language.
Fine, let’s buy this.
Now you have two options: rule directly against B (A was still in his main phase because B played something) or consider that B did a technical mistake on the timing and look for B’s intent. If you look for B’s intent, you’ll find that he now has the advantage to know that A has a Ball Lightening in hand, and rule against him.
So, as a result of A not being sharp, B won’t be allowed to tap the creature with haste. The only means B could escape the trick would be if he answers A’s “combat?” by saying “Ok, we enter your combat phase”, that is to say spotting the shortcut and explaining what he understood from it…

Option (2) isn’t that stupid in itself though.

Let’s first slightly change the scenario. If there were no Icy Manipulator on the table, the three possible options would have been:

(a) (b) (c)
A: “combat?”
B: “Ok”
A: “declare attackers?”
B: “Ok”
A: -tap attacking creatures- A: “combat?”
B: “Ok”
A: -tap attacking creatures- A: -tap attacking creatures- “attack”
Option (a) sounds really weird. Player A knows about the phases and steps, and makes a point in showing it despite it delays the action, whereas there is no reason to do so. Nevertheless, he uses improper and confusing language. In real life, such communication barely never happens.

Options (b) and (c) can be merged. It is exactly what happens in 99,99% of the games: players play fast and don’t pay attention to the shortcuts they use.

To sum up, it is clear that if there is no means to tap a creature on the table, “combat?” is a shortcut that means that A is about to tap his attacking creatures, that is to say option (2).

So why would the meaning of a word change according to the cards on the table?
There is no reason behind this, and we should always consider that “combat?” means “I’m in my main phase and I pass priority; I consider you have nothing to play now and enter my combat phase. I pass priority in my beginning of combat step, if you have nothing to play, I’ll declare my attackers”.

Therefore, in order not to have A gain an advantage by using a shortcut, we have to rule that B used his Icy Manipulator in A’s beginning of combat step.

No, I don't think so. But lets try it out, shall we?