Can you cast instants during combat

You can do this based on what you know to be in his deck, how much mana he has available, how many cards he has in hand, and any other information that might be relevant. Actually, playing against an infect deck is one of the easier matchups to play, strategically speaking, because all you have to do is block everything whenever your opponent might be able to play a pump spell.

Remember that infect creatures are small for their cost, so when you block, either your blocker will kill the infect creature, or your opponent will have to use a pump spell to save it.

After 3 or 4 blocks, your opponent will either be out of pump spells in which case his creatures aren't threatening anymore or out of creatures in which case the pump spells are useless. Short answer: Yes, he can cast those instants after you decide not to block. Yes, you can cast 'Holy Day' after he casts all those instants to prevent the damage. Basically, combat happens in 5 steps: 1. Players have a chance to cast instants and activate abilities at the end of each of those steps, including after he declares attackers and you declare blockers.

After he casts instants you are also given a chance to casts instants. Your opponent is allowed to pump up his creatures after you decline to block, resulting in you taking the damage, or you playing a spell or an ability to prevent the damage or kill that creature. Because you do not block, he can now pump his creature up and swing at you for X. These spells are now on the stack, and because yours was the last spell played, it resolves first.

Yes, he can play those instants after you declined to block. That's one of the most useful things to do with instant spells, and is done a lot after blockers are announced.

Keep in mind about the stacking: if he stacks an instant on top of yours, it may well counteract what you're trying to do. Sign up to join this community. The best answers are voted up and rise to the top. Stack Overflow for Teams — Collaborate and share knowledge with a private group.

Create a free Team What is Teams? Learn more. Can instants be played after I decide not to block? Ask Question. Asked 8 years, 10 months ago. Active 3 years, 1 month ago. Viewed k times. I'm really confused about it all, and would like to get an answer once and for all for this. Improve this question. Infect would have a really had time winning if it wasn't for post-block pumping : — corsiKa. Add a comment.

Active Oldest Votes. I think the best way to answer your question is to give a brief outline of the rules regarding the game steps, and timing of playing spells and abilities Game Phases and Steps In a nutshell, here are the phases and steps in a turn of a game of Magic.

Activated Abilities An activated ability is an ability that you can activate whenever you want like casting an instant , as long as you can pay the cost. Each activated ability is formatted in the same way: "Cost: Effect. Every creature card has a box in the lower right corner that shows its power and toughness. Its toughness the second number is the amount of damage that must be dealt to it in a single turn to destroy it.

This symbol tells you which Magic set the card is from. That gameboard is divided into several different game zones. The previous page shows what a two-player game might look like after a few turns.

Your library is your draw pile, which remains face down throughout the game. You lose the game if you are forced to draw a card but cannot because your library is out of cards. You start the game by drawing a hand of seven cards. If you have more than seven cards in your hand as your turn ends, you must discard down to seven.

You and your opponents share the battlefield. Cards that go onto the battlefield including lands, creatures, artifacts, and enchantments are called permanents. Instants and sorceries are never on the battlefield. You can arrange your permanents however you want we recommend putting your lands closest to you , but your opponent must be able to see all of them. Your graveyard is your discard pile: creatures that die, artifacts and enchantments that are destroyed, and cards you discard from your hand go here.

The cards in your graveyard should always be face up, and anyone can look at them at any time. Each player has their own graveyard. If a spell or ability exiles a card, that card is set apart from the rest of the game. Cards in exile are normally face up. To tap a card is to turn it sideways to show that it has been used for the turn. You do this when you use a land to make mana, when you attack with a creature, or when you activate an ability that has the symbol as part of its cost means "tap this permanent".

As your turn begins, untap your tapped cards so you can use them again. To cast a spell, you must pay its mana cost located in the upper right corner of the card by tapping lands or other permanents to make the amount and Game Actions type of mana which that spell requires. For example, if you were casting Serra Angel, which costs , you could tap three basic lands of any type to pay plus two Plains to pay. Once a spell has been cast, one of two things happens. If the spell is an instant or a sorcery, you follow the instructions on the card, and then you put the card into your graveyard.

If the spell is a creature, artifact, or enchantment, you put the card on the table in front of you. The card is now on the battlefield.

Cards on the battlefield are called permanents to differentiate them from instants and sorceries, which are never on the battlefield. The most common way to win the game is to attack with your creatures. The middle phase of each turn is the combat phase. In your combat phase, you choose which of your creatures will attack, and you choose which opponents they will attack. Tap your creatures to show that they are attacking. Your opponents then choose which of their creatures will block, if any.

Once all blockers have been chosen, each creature—both attackers and blockers—simultaneously deals damage equal to its power the number on the left side of the slash in the lower right corner of the card. When can you not play an instant MTG? Can you cast during end step? Can I cast instants in response to my opponent declaring?

When to cast instant to prevent a creature from blocking? When do you get a chance to cast instants?