MCG Combat

Combat in Mage Wars CCG is governed by line rules, and is meant to mimic the combat tactics(tower tactics) employed in the Mage Wars. Combat is divided into 4 steps: declaration, attack, defense, and damage or capture. This is followed by a counter-attack from the defending player in which there is also a defense and damage step(but no declaration).

Combat Steps

The opening of Combat is signaled by the attacking player(the player who's turn it is) declaring that he has begun his Combat phase. At this time he may no longer deploy units, play slow-cast spells or weave spells, or lay down any additional resource cards.

Declaration

This opens the Declaration Step, at which point the attacking player decides which of his Units will attack and what targets they will go after. Only units on the Offensive Line may attack. When the attacking player has chosen these attackers, he yields priority to the defending player to cast any fast-cast spells. Defending player does not declare blockers yet.

Combat Targets

In general, attacking units must target specific "lines" in combat. The three Lines are Offensive, Defensive, and Tower. Units with no special abilities on may only attack the defending player's Offensive Line, unless the offensive line is empty, in which case they can attack the Defensive Line. If that is also empty, they are free to attack the tower directly.

Since Aerial Units ignore Line Rules, if the defending player only has them, the attacker may target the Tower directly.

Units with the "Hero" keyword ability are the only units that can be targeted directly, however they must still be on a line that can be legally targeted.

Attack

The Attack Step is when combat actually begins, and the defending player chooses blockers. Each defending unit may block one attacking unit. They may not play fast-cast spells at this time; however, they may turn face-up any units which be legally deployed. At this point, final targets are determined; if there previously had been no Units on the Offensive Line, but there now are, any attacks targeted at other Lines are directed to the Offensive Line. Units turned face up on the Defensive Line similarly divert attacks away from the Tower Line, but not from the Offensive Line.

During this period, Ritual cards with Deploy Effects can be used by either side. Units deployed by the attacking player to the

Defense

Once final targets are determined, the Defense Step begins. At this time, Players again have the option to play Fast Cast spells, they may also activate cards with a fast-cast or "any time" effects. Blocks happen at the start of the Defense step, so any defending units destroyed at this time still "blocked" the attackers they were designated to block.

The final step of the Defense step is determining which units won. In battle, the unit with the highest Power Level wins, and the unit defending against it is destroyed. Units may not be sacrificed at this time.

Damage or Capture

Once defending units are eliminated, any units that were not blocked are able to deal their damage to the mage tower directly. Alternatively, the attacking player may choose to attempt to capture Resource cards from the defending player. If they do so, control of the resource cards does not change hands until combat resolves completely. Damage or capture is a choice, the attacking player must do one or the other.

Counter Attack

In the event that the defending player's tower was not destroyed, they may choose to launch an immediate counter-attack during the same turn. In this phase there is no declaration step, attacking units are choosen as part of the beginning of the Attack step and there is no priority. No spells may be played, only attack targets designated.

Counter-Attack Defense

During the Defense Step of a Counter Attack, both players may cast spells, use rituals, etc.