does a creature tap to block

[Nik]

does a creature tap to block

[Urza]

No, only to attack

[seba1983]

you can still tap a creature for some ability after it hase been declared to block and it will still block in andtion to any ability. so a lanowar elf can block make a green mana with wich you play a giant growth on it and kill the attcking 3/3 without loosing you elf.

a long long time ago (before 5th edition was out) tapped blockers did not do damage but recived damage. but that is long ago and unless you dig up the shandalar magic pc game it will probably never be relavant to know ... just me showing off :P

[tagg]

I heard they changed it in M10 that you cannot block and sacrifice at same time like with mogg fanatic if you sacrifice it then its no longer blocking is that true?

[seba1983]

no that is not true. what was changed is that you can no longer react to a creature dealing damage. so a mogg fanatic blocks. you can then decided to sacrifice him befor damage is dealt to do 1 damage to any target or you can let him deal his normal damage if the damage he recives is enough to kill him you then can not sacrifice him in addition any more. so a mogg fanatic cant kill a 2/2 on his own any more for example.

[Twanos]

close. Before if you had a mogg fanatic and you were attacked by a 2/2 grizzly bear you could block let the 1 damage from you fanatic go on the stack, then sacrifice it to do a second damage to kill the 2/2 bear.

Now you can block the bear then in the fast effects stage before damage is delt you can sacrifice the mogg to do 1 damage to a target but then once you get to damage dealing your mogg is gone so it does no damage to the bear. and thus the bear lives. The bear is considered blocked as soon as a blocker has been assigned to it so it looks to do it's 2 damage to the mogg but its gone so he swings at the air where the mogg was standing but doesn't hit anything.


So old system mogg dies and bear dies, new system mogg dies bear lives.

Edited:**Sry Seba I started responding before your's had posted. I saw it after I got done, your post was correct too...

[tagg]

If I sacrifice the mogg fanatic to deal damage, is the creature he was blocking still considered blocked? Or will I (the player) take damage from the attacking creature

[Kev]

Even if blocking creature was removed from in meantime (through sacrificing) then attacking creature is still blocked.

So basically:

Mogg fanatic does not deal attack damage to attacking creature, since the mogg was sacrificed and is not there in damage assign stage

Attacking creature does not deal damage to player (unless it has trample) since it is still considered blocked.

[seba1983]

Attacking creature does not deal damage to player (unless it has trample) since it is still considered blocked.

very important point here totaly forgot about that. if the attacking creature has trample and the blocker is no longer there in the damage step the creature is still blocked. since it has trample it now hase to deal leathal damage to the blocker and can assign the rest to the player. if no creature is left to deal leathal damage to you can trample all of your damage to the player.

if you block a 4/4 trample creature with a mogg fanatic and then sacrifice it to deal 1 damge to the opponent then the trampler can deal you the full 4 damage.