Tips for new players about the more confusing rules

I see a lot of similar posts from new players asking for clarification on certain interactions. While there are many edge-case interactions, I see a lot of confusion about how some core rules work. I am going to try and clarify what I think are the most confusing parts that occur fairly often.

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The Stack

This is probably the most confusing aspect for new players and the tutorial completely omits it for some reason. MTG allows you to to cast instant spells (or spells with the flash keyword) in response to actions, even if it's during your opponent's turn. Creatures on the board have abilities that trigger. What if multiple abilities trigger at the same time? How are these abilities resolved?

This is where "the stack" comes in. First of all, for those of you with a CS background, the stack is... well, a stack. It operates on a LIFO (Last-in-first-out) basis. When you cast a spell, it goes on top of the stack: it does not resolve yet (i.e., its text is not yet activated). If your opponent casts a spell in response (before it resolves), then it gets placed on the stack on top of your spell. Since the stack resolves Last-in-first-out your opponent's spell will resolve first, and then your spell.

A concrete example (see if you can guess which deck I've been playing recently ;) ):

I have a [[Mist-Cloaked Herald]] in play. My opponent casts a [[Shock]] on it to kill it, and it goes on the stack. In response, I cast [[Dive Down]] on my creature. This, too, goes on the stack. Now, let's say my opponent doesn't have an answer so the stack begins resolving. It starts with the top card, which is my [[Dive Down]]. My dude gains +0/3 and Hexproof, so now he is a 1/4 with hexproof. Now, the [[Shock]] that my opponent casts begins resolving and clearly doesn't kill my dude. The [[Shock]] goes into the graveyard and my dude survives.

What if instead of letting my [[Dive Down]] resolve my opponent played a [[Lightning Strike]] in response]? It would go on the stack:

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Shock (targeting Mist-Cloaked Herald)

Dive Down (targeting Mist-Cloaked Herald)

Lightning Strike (targeting Mist-Cloaked Herald) <------- starts resolving here

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If I don't have an answer, the stack begins resolving. First, the top card (Lightning Strike) resolves. My dude dies (;_;). Then, dive down starts resolving. However, there is no longer a valid target, so it goes straight to the graveyard. The same happens with Shock.

What about creature abilities? They, too, go on the stack just like spells. One important thing to note about creature abilities is that once the ability is on the stack, killing a creature does not remove the ability from the stack.

Let's say my opponent has a [[Gigantosaurus]] in play. This thing sucks, so I want to kill it with my [[Ravenous Chupacabra]]. I play the chupacabra, and the creature spell resolves (chupcabra enters the battlefield). Now, its ETB (shorthand for enter-the-battlefield) ability gets placed on the stack. My opponent panics, and plays a [[Shock]] to kill my chupcabra. It goes on the stack and I let it resolve. My chupabra dies as a result of the shock, but its ability is still on the stack. After [[Shock]] resolves, the next ability on the stack is my chupacabra's ETB ability. Even though the Chupabra died, its ability is still on the stack and so it resolves, killing the Gigantosaurus.

One final thing I want to talk about is counters. Counters (such as [[Cancel]] [[Essense Scatter]] [[Negate]]) target spells that are on the stack (the UI will even make you choose a spell if there are multiple spells on the stack). You do not have to target the most recently cast spell (the top of the stack), you may choose to counter any (valid) spell on the stack.

There is clearly a lot more to say about the stack but I think this is a good starting point for new players.

tl;dr: take a CS data structures course and this will work exactly as you expect it to.

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Hexproof

This is one of those keywords that people assume means things it doesn't actually mean. The tooltip for the Hexproof keyword reads "This permanent can't be the target of spells or abilities your opponents control." You might be surprised to learn that it works exactly as it reads (if you're coming from Hearthstone this is shocking, I know). The creature cannot be the TARGET of spells OR ABILITIES your OPPONENT controls.

What happens if I attack with my [[Carnage Tyrant] and my opponent plays [[Settle the Wreckage]]? My dude will get exiled, since Settle does not target that creature (it targets a PLAYER).

Can I kill my opponent's [[Carnage Tyrant]] with a Ravenous Chupacabra? No, it cannot be targeted by abilities.

Can I buff my [[Carnage Tyrant]] with a [[Gift of Growth]]? Yes, I am not my opponent so I can target Carnage Tyrant with spells.

An astute reader might have noticed that I fudged a bit in the last section with [[Dive Down]] and [[Shock]], so let's see how hexproof works with the stack. Let's say that instead of casting [[Shock]] on my [[Mist-Cloaked Herald]] my opponent goes all-out and casts a [[Banefire]] on it and taps 20 mana to do 20 damage to my poor murloc. What can I say, he just really hates the damn thing. In response, I play the same [[Dive Down]]. My dude is now a 1/4 with hexproof. Since he now has hexproof, he is no longer a valid target for Banefire. Banefire does not resolve (even though it was already on the stack), and it goes straight into the graveyard. My opponent concedes and probably uninstalls the game and never touches MTG again.

tl;dr rtfm.

edit: I can't believe I forgot to mention this, but counterspells DO work on hexproof. If you counter a [[Vine Mare]] with [[Essence Scatter]], it gets countered and your opponent is sad.

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Indestructible

This one is a little confusing. The keyword means it can't be "destroyed". Ok, so cards like [[Murder]] obviously won't work. You might have even been able to figure out that cards like [[Vraska's Contempt]] will work since they say "exile" and not "destroy". Straightforward enough. Unfortunately, there are some edge cases that aren't as simple.

First, we need to see how MTG defines destroy. In layman's terms, a card is destroyed either when a card with "destroy" is used (such as murder), or from lethal damage (this is essentially what rule 701.b in the link means). To better understand "destroy", though, we need to look at the rule it references: 704.5g. The wording on this rule is: If a creature has toughness greater than 0, and the total damage marked on it is greater than or equal to its toughness, that creature has been dealt lethal damage and is destroyed.

Dafaq does that mean? Well, all it's saying is that if a creature dies from damage, it is destroyed. A 1 health creature that takes 1 damage from a blocker gets "destroyed". That's cool. What if I use [[Fungal Infection]] on the creature? Surprisingly, it is NOT DESTROYED. It get sent to the graveyard under rule 704.5f: If a creature has toughness 0 or less, it’s put into its owner’s graveyard. Notice that the word "destroy" does not appear in this rule.

If your eyes glazed over during the last section, don't worry because I'll summarize everything here: indestructible creatures may be removed via either an exile effect or enough -X/-X effects.

One small caveat is that -X/-X AND damage isn't enough. Here's an example:

Your opponent has [[Impervious Greatwurm]]. You have 4 1/1 creatures and 3 [[Vicious Offerings]] in your hand. He attacks you. You smirk smugly to yourself, imagining the tasty tasty tears you will be drinking after your opponent rage-concedes. After all, you know that -X/-X goes through indestructible! You play your 3 [[Vicious offerings]], sacrificing the appropriate token, and bring his mighty 16/16 down to 1/1. You then chump block with your final 1/1. It kills your 1/1, goes to 0, and then doesn't die. You blankly stare at your screen as your life flashes before your eyes and you become filled with despair.

What happened? Well, the 1 damage that you did with you blocker is DAMAGE, so it falls under "destroy". If you cannot put enough -X/-X modifiers to make the toughness 0, then it will not get sent to the graveyard under 704.5g and it instead dies from damage (aka, it's destroyed).

edit: One final note is that sacrifice is a separate effect from destroy. Creatures with indestructible can be sacrificed, and they will get sent to your graveyard.

The rule for deathtouch, however, DOES say destroy: so indestructible is immune to deathtouch.

tl;dr you can get around indestructible with exile or enough -X/-X modifiers. NO DAMAGE AT ALL WILL KILL AN INDESTRUCTIBLE PERMANENT.

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Blocking

But wait, this is really simple! The tutorial even teaches it to you! Well, yes, but there are a few more things to say on the issue, which are especially important if you are using cards like [[Fanatical Firebrand]] (which as new players you are probably running a monored aggro list with 4 of these).

So, simply put, once an attacking creature is blocked, its damage is blocked, even if the blocking creature dies (this is of course assuming the attacking creature does not have Trample).

Simply put, it means that if you chump block a Gigantosaur with your firebrand, you can use its ability to sacrifice it and deal 1 damage to the opponent's face (or a creature that doesn't have hexproof!). The 10 damage from the Gigantosaur will still be blocked and you'll sneak in an extra 1 damage somewhere. You should ALWAYS do this if you are chump-blocking with the firebrand.

edit So, what happens with Trample? The firebrand trick I described above actually does not work. This is because creatures with Trample are allowed to assign extra damage to the face, even if they are blocked. So, if you block and the blocking creature dies... the attacking creature with trample gets to assign all of its damage to face.

There's one other thing I see coming up sometimes and that is: what happens if I have a 1/1 creature with deathtouch and I block Ghalta? In MTG, all damage is dealt simultaneously and the state check is done AFTER. Ghalta smashes through your pathetic 1/1 creature and hits you in the face with 11 while simultaneously taking 1 damage from the blocker. After this the state is checked, and Ghalta suddenly remembers it was hit by deathtouch and keels over. Hey, dinosaurs weren't known for their intelligence!

tl;dr exploit the fact that blocked creatures don't do damage. Cry if they have trample.

edit: Double Blocking is something that you should learn to immediately do. If you're coming from Hearthstone you might assume that a 3/2 can kill 2 1/3's blocking it, but this is not how it works in MTGA. Remember: a creature's power is the MAXIMUM damage it can do in a turn, so once a 3/2 does its 3 damage to a 1/3 it has 0 damage left over for the second 1/3. You have effectively only traded your 1/3 for their 3/2, seems like a pretty sweet deal.

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Edit: First Strike and Double Strike

So, first strike lets a creature distribute its damage first. Huh, I'd have thought it did something else but here we are. What does that mean exactly? Damage in MTG happens simultaneously, so two 2/2's will kill each other simultaneously. What happens if one of them has first strike? It deals its damage FIRST. Going back to our two 2/2's, if one of them has first strike it deals its 2 damage first.... and the other one dies. Since the other one is dead, it can no longer deal combat damage so the creature with first strike survives. The first strike creature only deals its damage once, so if the vanilla minion was a 2/3 instead of a 2/2 the damage would resolve as follows: first, the first striker hits and the vanilla minion takes two damage; it is now at 2/1 (or, to be more precise, a 2/3 with 2 marked damage). Then, the vanilla minion deals its damage to the first striker, killing it. Since the vanillia minion only has 2 damage marked against its 3 toughness, it survives.

This means that first strike creatures trade very favorably. What about double strike? Double strike means a creature does first strike damage AND normal combat damage. In other words, it does its damage TWICE. A creature with double strike can kill something that has DOUBLE its power as toughness. A double striking 2/2 will trade with a 2/4: during the firs strike phase it does 2 damage, and then during the normal combat phase both creatures do 2 damage to each other. Very powerful indeed.

When blocking first strikers it's important to remember that blocking it with something that will die to the first strike damage is pointless: it will just die for free.

tl;dr first strike op, double strike op op.

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Edit Edit Edit: Damage

From the comments, I see a TON of confusion about how damage in MTG works. This is partly the fault of MTGA's client and how it displays damage so let me clarify this:

DAMAGE DOES NOT MODIFY A CREATURE'S STATS. Damage is instead "marked" on a creature, so a 2/3 creature with 2 damage on it isn't a 2/1 creature: it is a 2/3 creature with 2 marked damage (arena conveniently displays it as 2 power and 1 toughness so you can quickly parse the board state). If you want to see exactly what's happening, you can hover your mouse over the card and the tooltip will actually tell you "2 damage marked" (or something to that effect). This is why my indestructible example doesn't result in the indestructible creature dying (even if you do the combat damage FIRST and THEN apply -X/-X): the 16/16 from the example is STILL a 1/1 with 1 marked damage, no matter the order you do it in. I believe MTGA's visualization of damage and -X/-X effects being the same (modifying the stat in red) is what leads to the confusion about indestructible.

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Creature Abilities

This is a pretty straightforward section but is not immediately obvious. By default creature abilities can be cast at instant speed (unless the card says otherwise). This means you may cast them any time you can cast an instant. If you have [[Slimefoot, the Stowaway]] and 4 open mana, you can use its ability during your opponent's combat phase to generate a 1/1 saproling chump blocker. Creature abilities that do not require tapping (i.e., don't have the tap icon) may also be used while tapped. Furthermore, they may also be used immediately when you summon your creature: summoning sickness only applies to attacking and tap abilities.

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I hope this guide was helpful. MTG is actually a very logical game and things work exactly as they are phrased. Sometimes, however, this can lead to some un-intuitive results to a player that's not very familiar with how the rules are actually phrased. Let me know what you think!