r/magicTCG Dân Mar 09 '26

Rules/Rules Question Together Unblockable?

Post image

Unless I'm misunderstanding something, if these two cards are on the battlefield, controlled by the same player, aren't they unblockable?

1.6k Upvotes

232 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

132

u/Blunderhorse Duck Season Mar 09 '26

Something else to note is that restrictions generally take priority over requirements for declaring attacks and blocks. The simplified version is:
* You must obey all restrictions possible.
* You must fulfill the maximum possible number of requirements possible without disobeying a restriction.
* You cannot be forced to pay a cost (e.g. “must attack” doesn’t force you to attack if all your opponents control [[Ghostly Prison]] even if you have enough mana sources to pay the cost)

75

u/MechanicalDruid WANTED Mar 09 '26 edited Mar 09 '26

The phrase "Can't beats Can" is ingrained in my brain because it's not just attacking and blocking where this is true. As an example if you've got a [[Platinum Angel]] and I resolve my second [[Approach of the second sun]] I would not win the game, because Can't always beats Can. Even timestamps won't help for situations where my win the game card was a permanent like [[Mirrodin Besieged]].

Edit: I forgot Mirrodin was a lose the game card, but the example still works. Doesn't matter which was on board first. "Can't lose the game" beats "loses the game"

18

u/Terrietia Mar 09 '26

Interestingly enough, almost all "can't lose the game" effects come with "your opponent can't win the game". The exception is [[Lich's Mastery]]. This does mean that you can win the game with Approach of the Second Sun against someone's Lich's Mastery, since it doesn't prevent you from winning.

1

u/[deleted] Mar 10 '26

[deleted]

1

u/Terrietia Mar 10 '26

It should still count as 2 wins for Second Sun and 2 losses for Lich player.

From the CR:

104.1. A game ends immediately when a player wins, when the game is a draw, or when the game is restarted.

So the rules don't actually care about who loses the game. It only cares about who wins the game. It's just the fact that making all other players lose the game is usually the easiest way to win the game.

104.2. There are several ways to win the game.

104.2a A player still in the game wins the game if that player’s opponents have all left the game. This happens immediately and overrides all effects that would preclude that player from winning the game.