Can Flash Foliage block a creature with flying?

Well, let's see:

Flash Foliage                   2G                      Instant
 Play ~ only during combat after blockers are declared. / Put a 1/1 green
 Saproling creature token into play blocking target creature attacking you.
 Draw a card.

This doesn't say "blocking target creature attacking you that it would have
been legal for the Saproling to be declared as a blocker for". The rules in
section 500 only apply to _declaring_ attackers or blockers, not to causing
attackers or blockers to appear out of nowhere already attacking/blocking.
And evasion abilities only apply to actually declaring blockers... so having
a creature appear in play blocking another creature, or be told directly by
an effect to block another creature, doesn't take into account whether the
block WOULD HAVE BEEN legal if it had occurred through _declaring_ blockers.

Short form: Yes, it can, because Flash Foliage doesn't bother to check, in
any way, whether it would have _been_ legal for a 1/1 green Saproling creature
token to be _declared as_ a blocker for that attacking creature. It just makes
a 1/1 green Saproling creature token that's blocking the given attacker.

Other examples: Flash Foliage's Saproling can block an unblocked attacker that
says "can't be blocked except by two or more creatures", or one with protection
from green, or even one that says 'can't be blocked'.

Dave
--
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It's not the clock that slows the hour  The definition's plain for anyone to see
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        Nitpick:  Flash Foliage targets the attacking creature, so it can't
really be used on a creature with protection from Green.  However, it
could still be used on a creature with protection from Saprolings.

--Brent M

Lucraneo <lucra...@yahoo.com> sent:

Well, technically no, but what you mean is can the token that it makes
block a creature with flying:

  Flash Foliage  {2}{G}  Instant
/ Play Flash Foliage only during combat after blockers are declared.
/ Put a 1/1 green Saproling creature token into play blocking target
  creature attacking you.
/ Draw a card.

The only targeting restriction is that the creature you target has to
be attacking, and attacking you.

Rules about legal attacks and blocks usually control the declaration of
attackers and blockers in the relevant steps of combat.  They don't
restrict other ways of making attacking or blocking creatures.  In this
case, there's a rule that says if the attacking creature has flying,
you can't declare a creature to block it unless the blocking creature
has flying or reach.

You're not declaring Flash Foliage's token as a blocker, however.  
Instead, Flash Foliage is putting the creature into play already
blocking.  You sidestep all the checks that you'd normally make
for declaring blockers.

So, long story short, yes, the Flash Foliage token can block a creature
with flying, the turn it gets put into play.  Of course, next turn
it'll have to be declared as a blocker in the usual way (assuming it's
still alive).

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