playing an instant anytime

[Roasty]

.....my ass, sometimes this game doesnt even register "oh hey i clicked an instant" or some stupid ass lag makes the timer jump.

[Gryfn]

The timer can be pretty finicky. Got to be quick on the spacebar to pause it.

[GarbageCollector]

Lost a match (the last one I'll play for at least a long time) earlier today because I couldn't flash out Hixus. "You can't play cards during the declare blockers step." or some ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ like that. Apparently I was supposed to play him during the "attack" phase and I waited too long. Isn't the declare blockers step essentially my phase anyway? Piece of ♥♥♥♥.

[暁のヨナ]

The game doesn't automatically pause while you are targeting an instant, make sure to pause before trying to cast something to ensure you have time.

[Gryfn]

Originally posted by smokytehbear:

Lost a match (the last one I'll play for at least a long time) earlier today because I couldn't flash out Hixus. "You can't play cards during the declare blockers step." or some ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ like that. Apparently I was supposed to play him during the "attack" phase and I waited too long. Isn't the declare blockers step essentially my phase anyway? Piece of ♥♥♥♥.

You can cast instants or activate abilities after blockers have been declared, but before combat damage has been dealt. I can do it, but the timing is kinda fiddly and if you don't concentrate, it's really easy to miss that window. It's way easier in MTGO to cast instants and activated abilities during that step as you can just set automatic "stops" in MTGO.

[GarbageCollector]

Originally posted by griffin_230:

Originally posted by smokytehbear:

Lost a match (the last one I'll play for at least a long time) earlier today because I couldn't flash out Hixus. "You can't play cards during the declare blockers step." or some ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ like that. Apparently I was supposed to play him during the "attack" phase and I waited too long. Isn't the declare blockers step essentially my phase anyway? Piece of ♥♥♥♥.

You can cast instants or activate abilities after blockers have been declared, but before combat damage has been dealt. I can do it, but the timing is kinda fiddly and if you don't concentrate, it's really easy to miss that window. It's way easier in MTGO to cast instants and activated abilities during that step as you can just set automatic "stops" in MTGO.

The idea was BEFORE blockers were declared so the 4/4 I have in my hand can stomp one of his two guys, have me not lose the game, and win on the next turn. Little did I know that in order to pull off this relatively simple trick (casting a creature with flash, that's really all it was) I had to do this during the "attack" step. Oops. Oh well.

[暁のヨナ]

Yeah, once the declare blockers step is started, you can not cast spells until blockers have been declared. Sucks that you had to find out this way, but at least you know now :)

[Ginjjii]

yah the white creature that has the ability to tap a creature, it wont let me use this effect at before the enemies attack phase!

[Gryfn]

Originally posted by smokytehbear:

Originally posted by griffin_230:

You can cast instants or activate abilities after blockers have been declared, but before combat damage has been dealt. I can do it, but the timing is kinda fiddly and if you don't concentrate, it's really easy to miss that window. It's way easier in MTGO to cast instants and activated abilities during that step as you can just set automatic "stops" in MTGO.

The idea was BEFORE blockers were declared so the 4/4 I have in my hand can stomp one of his two guys, have me not lose the game, and win on the next turn. Little did I know that in order to pull off this relatively simple trick (casting a creature with flash, that's really all it was) I had to do this during the "attack" step. Oops. Oh well.

Ah, I see what you mean now. As soon as you see the opponent attack, smash down on that spacebar! Lol, yeah I'm not a huge fan of Duels' timer system. I definitely prefer the ability to set "stops" in MTGO.

[GarbageCollector]

Originally posted by Dradoh:

yah the white creature that has the ability to tap a creature, it wont let me use this effect at before the enemies attack phase!

In real magic, your opponent will prompt you by saying "combat?" that he's going to declare attackers. If he doesn't, you just say "before attackers are declared" and do your thing. It's clunky as hell on this game because it tries to help everyone out by skipping steps and such, instead of a very simple fix of just having you acknowledge the starts and ends of steps.

[暁のヨナ]

Originally posted by smokytehbear:

In real magic, your opponent will prompt you by saying "combat?" that he's going to declare attackers. If he doesn't, you just say "before attackers are declared" and do your thing. It's clunky as hell on this game because it tries to help everyone out by skipping steps and such, instead of a very simple fix of just having you acknowledge the starts and ends of steps.

It's doing this to take out "unneccessary" complexity of the game and make it as newb friendly as possible.

[Roz1281]

Originally posted by smokytehbear:

Little did I know that in order to pull off this relatively simple trick (casting a creature with flash, that's really all it was) I had to do this during the "attack" step. Oops. Oh well.

to be fair that's how it is in real magic. You'd have to flash it in after your opponent declares attackers, but before the block step if you wanted to block with it.

[Rhym]

Now you've learned. There is a small break after each step (look for the cycling of the timer wheel thing) in which you can (pause! and) play instants. Once you know what to look for you won't make the same mistake again.

MtG wasn't made to be played on a computer, thats why you still see things like this. If it was designed from the ground up for a digital platform it would probably be far less clunky, but the paper rules being what they are this is how it has to be.

*edit* and if you weren't aware, tab is continue/etc and space is pause.

[michL57]

hit stop timer, or press space that does the same thing by default.

[Roz1281]

I wish they'd add the end of combat step, sometimes I want to block a creature to kill it, then force them to sac the remaining one with Celestial flare

[GarbageCollector]

Originally posted by Roz1281:

Originally posted by smokytehbear:

Little did I know that in order to pull off this relatively simple trick (casting a creature with flash, that's really all it was) I had to do this during the "attack" step. Oops. Oh well.

to be fair that's how it is in real magic. You'd have to flash it in after your opponent declares attackers, but before the block step if you wanted to block with it.

I'll assume you're right, as I didn't know this was a thing. Regardless, this would never ever happen in the real game as it's partly my agreement that we're moving to the declare blockers step.