(Written for Keeper.)

Here we go--the absolute basics of how the turns in Magic work. Allons-y!

Each player's turn is divided into a number of steps--don't worry about the exact number or what they all are yet. Each turn, the game proceeds from the first step to the second, to the third, and so on until the last step happens, and then the turn is over and it's the first step of the next player's turn--the process starts all over again, and this continues until the game ends. (If you're wondering about "phases", they're just groups of one or more related steps lumped together under a single term to make it easier to refer to all of them as a whole--if each of the Star Wars movies was a step, "the prequel trilogy" and "the original trilogy" would be phases.)

So, what happens during each step?

As each step begins, the game performs any and all actions that are associated with that step. (For example, drawing a card for your turn is the action associated with the "Draw step".) These are called "turn-based actions"--some steps have them, some steps don't, but they all work the same way--they happen as soon as the step they're associated with begins, before any player can do anything.

Then, after those actions have happened, players get a chance to do things--mostly casting spells and using abilities; the details of how that works aren't particularly important right now. The game may only allow players to do certain things during certain steps, but otherwise this part is the same for every step.

Once all players are completely finished doing things, everything's resolved, and nobody wants to do anything else, each player's mana pool empties and the step ends. Again, this part is the same for every step.

All clear so far? (Feel free to break in with quotes to ask for clarification if anything isn't making sense.)


Okay, so with that out of the way, we focus in on what happens during combat. The combat phase (see above for a description of phases) consists of five steps. They are, in order: Beginning of Combat, Declare Attackers, Declare Blockers, Combat Damage, and End of Combat.

The turn-based actions associated with each are as follows:

• Beginning of Combat:
  
  Some stuff that doesn't matter except in multiplayer.
  
  
• Declare Attackers:
  
  The player whose turn it is declares which creatures they're attacking with (and if need be what they're attacking).
  
  
• Declare Blockers:
  
  The player being attacked declares which creatures they're blocking with, and what each of those creatures are blocking.
  

  If a creature is blocked by multiple creatures, the attacking player decides which blocking creatures it's more important for them to kill.
  If a creature is blocking multiple creatures, the defending player decides which attacking creatures it's more important for them to kill.
  
  
• Combat Damage:
  
  Combat damage is assigned and dealt.
  
  
• End of Combat:
  
  Nothing.

Okay, so let's put it all together by going though a sample combat. It's Angie's turn, and she controls three creatures: Glory Seeker, Trained Armodon, and Craw Wurm. Her opponent is Nolan, who controls a tapped Sky Ruin Drake, a Giant Octopus, and a 1/1 token.

The game moves to combat phase of Angie's turn--we start the Beginning of Combat step. There's no turn-based actions to do, so the game asks if players want to do things. Nolan wants to do something--he casts Twiddle on Angie's Craw Wurm. Craw Wurm is tapped. Anything else? No? Okay, the Beginning of Combat step is over.

The Declare Attackers step starts; Angie needs to declare attackers. She decides to attack with Glory Seeker and Trained Armodon. Once that's done, the game asks if players want to do anything. Nolan does--he casts another Twiddle to untap his Sky Ruin Drake. Sky Ruin Drake is untapped. Anybody want to do anything else? No? Okay, the Declare Attackers step is over.

The Declare Blockers step starts; Nolan needs to declare blockers. Nolan has his Giant Octopus block the Glory Seeker and his Sky Ruin Drake and 1/1 token block the Trained Armodon. Angie needs to decide whether it's more important for her to kill the Drake or token--she chooses the Drake. Turn-based actions are done, so does anyone want to do anything? Angie does--she casts Giant Growth on the Trained Armodon. Nolan wants to do something in response to that--Counterspell! Giant Growth is countered. Anybody want to do anything else? Angie does! She casts Inspired Charge--her creatures get +2/+1. Anybody want to do anything else? No? The Declare Blockers step is over.

The Combat Damage step begins. Both players assign combat damage. Glory Seeker assigns 4 damage to Giant Octopus, and is assigned 3 in return. Trained Armodon assigns 5 damage to Sky Ruin Drake. (It can't assign any to the token because the Armodon only has 5 power, and Angie decided in the last step it was more important to kill the Drake.) Sky Ruin Drake assigns 2 to the Armodon and the token assigns 1 to it. All the assigned damage is dealt. The turn-based action is over; Glory Seeker, Giant Octopus, and Sky Ruin Drake all die. The token and Trained Armodon survive. Does anybody want to do anything else? No? Okay, the Combat Damage step is over.

End of combat step begins. Does anyone want to do anything? No? Okay, combat is over.


Does that description help at all? If not, let me know and hopefully I can help straighten things out.

quick error note:
you say Giant but your example card is Trained Armodon, not Hill Giant.

That's what I get for trying to make sure the colors make sense--thanks for the correction, Razor!

thanks for the opportunity to prove I'm smarter than you!

no actually this is a pretty good guide although that's a pretty weirdly involved combat phase.

Ok so, what still is baffling to me, is that, we just had a WHOLE BUNCH of stuff use the stack, yes? Like, there were a lot of instants cast there.

So...

in what sense does combat not use the stack?

Because what I am reading when I read "combat doesn't use the stack" is "the combat phase does not use the stack, full stop" and that doesn't seem to be the correct way of parsing that statement.

I think "combat doesn't use the stack" is meant to be read "combat damage doesn't use the stack."

the turn-based actions involved in combat (assigning attackers, assigning blockers, the conga line of death, and assigning and dealing damage) don't use the stack.

When people use the phrase "damage on the stack" or refer to when "combat using the stack" they are referring to how combat worked from 6th Edition to Magic 2010.

How combat used to work, before Magic 2010, was slightly different than what GrifterMage outlined above.

• Beginning of Combat:
  
  Some stuff that doesn't matter except in multiplayer.
  
  
• Declare Attackers:
  
  The player whose turn it is declares which creatures they're attacking with (and if need be what they're attacking).
  
  
• Declare Blockers:
  
  The player being attacked declares which creatures they're blocking with, and what each of those creatures are blocking.
  
  
• Combat Damage:
  
  Combat damage is assigned by the attacking player, choosing how much damage is dealt to each blocking creature or defending player. All combat damage is put on the stack, where it can be responded to before it resolves.
  
  
• End of Combat:
  
  Nothing.

The key difference being is that there is a time between when creatures deal damage and when creatures actually take the damage. So if I attacked with my Mogg Fanatic, and you blocked it with your Grizzly Bears, I could allow both creatures to assign combat damage, and with that damage on the stack, I could sacrifice Mogg Fanatic to deal one damage to your Grizzly Bears. Then, combat damage resolve, and your bears would have been dealt one damage by my mogg fanatics ability, and one damage from being in combat with my Mogg Fanatic, and would then die.

The fact that there was a gap between dealing and receiving damage was fairly unintuitive, and thus got changed. But when you hear moan and groan about damage going on the stack, that is what they are complaining about.

Yes, indeed.

Ah, that's the issue--yes, that's definitely not the correct way to parse that statement.

In the sense of "Is the stack present and usable by the players during the combat phase?", yes, the combat phase "uses" the stack, but that's not what people generally mean when they say something "uses the stack".

If someone says something "uses the stack" in Magic, what's generally meant is that it doesn't happen immediately. Instead, whatever decisions and payments the game needs players to make about it are made, and then it's placed onto the stack as an object that players can respond to. It goes onto the stack, players have a chance to respond, and only after everyone's done responding does it actually resolve and do whatever it's supposed to do. And in that sense, the turn-based actions that comprise the mechanics of combat definitely don't use the stack. The game moves to the appropriate step, players make the necessary decisions, and those decisions are put into effect before anyone can do anything else. Players can do things during the previous step before any decisions are made, or they can wait until after everything happens and do it after everything's taken effect, but they can't wait to see what decisions will be made and then act before those decisions take effect.

Apparently Chrome doesn't think unintuitive is a word. I went ahead and editted my post (including adding a more extensive introduction).

You might have said a few words about the extra Combat Damage step for First/Double Strikers.
There's also the fact that both Declare Blockers & Combat Damage steps are skipped if no creature attacks.

As I said, this is the absolute basics--if someone's confused, going into detail about things that aren't particularly relevant to the matter at hand is the bane of comprehension.

Ok, so actually my initial understanding of combat damage as The Thing That Doesn't Go On The Stack, specifically the thing that changed in combat, was correct. That was the big important change.

I actually understood it exactly the way Dr Demento laid out--it was saying that combat didn't use the stack that confused me, because "combat" there is ambiguous.

Honestly I think the biggest problem for me with the initial change has always been that it was explained first through metaphor, and only distantly after the metaphor in rules terms, when explaining that it's a turn based action like [list of other turn based actions] from the get-go would have made it much easier for me to understand. Pretty sure the phrase "conga line of death" did the same thing, actually.

But I think I understand it now, so thank you for that. You've helped clear up a five year fog of angry bewilderment.