Flanking + Banding

John Byrd IV

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Apr 23, 1997, 3:00:00 AM4/23/97

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If you band 4 Zhalfirin Crusaders together, using whatever means, any
non-flanking blockers will get -4/-4 as soon as they are declared won't
they?
--
John B.

Ingo Kemper

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Apr 23, 1997, 3:00:00 AM4/23/97

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On 23 Apr 1997 19:13:43 GMT, "John Byrd IV" <john...@earthlink.net>
wrote:

>If you band 4 Zhalfirin Crusaders together, using whatever means, any
>non-flanking blockers will get -4/-4 as soon as they are declared won't
>they?

No. Note that flanking is triggered by _assigning_ blockers. Even if
your whole band of four crusaders is blocked by a creature it still is
_assigned_ to block only one of them and so will only be flanked once.

__ _ __ __ __ __
__/ /_/ \/ /_/____/_ |___Sky...@uni-muenster.de___---===> \
/_/ /_/\_/ |__/ |__/ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ---===>__/

Ingo Warnke

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Apr 24, 1997, 3:00:00 AM4/24/97

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John Byrd IV (john...@earthlink.net) wrote:
: If you band 4 Zhalfirin Crusaders together, using whatever means, any
: non-flanking blockers will get -4/-4 as soon as they are declared won't
: they?

No. You *always* assign a creature to block only *one* attacker. Usually, the
blocker blocks now exactly that attacker. If the attacker was part of a band,
the banding rules say that the blocker additionally also blcoks the rest of
the band. That doesn't change the fact that the blcoker was *assigned to block*
only one attacker.

Now there are some abilities that depend on the blocking situation. Some of
those care only about who *blocks* what (like the stoning ability of the
Thicket Basilisk). Others care about who was *assigned to block* what. Flanking
is such an ability.

In your example, a blocker (say a Mesa Pegasus) is assigned to block *one*
of the Crusaders. The banding rules say that he now also blocks the other
members of the band. But a creature with flanking is not interested in who
blocks it, it is only interested in who was assigned to block it. So only
the flanking ability of one Crusader kicks in, namely the Crusader that the
Pegasus was assigned to block.

Ingo Warnke
is only interested in who was a

Mike Marcelais

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Apr 24, 1997, 3:00:00 AM4/24/97

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John Byrd IV <john...@earthlink.net> wrote in article
<01bc4f59$c3f18400$af23...@johnbyrd.earthlink.net>...

> If you band 4 Zhalfirin Crusaders together, using whatever means, any
> non-flanking blockers will get -4/-4 as soon as they are declared won't
> they?

Nope. The flanking penalty is only applied to the defender if he is
_assigned_ to block a creature. When a creature blocks a band, it blocks
every member of the band, but it was only _assigned_ to block one of the
members.

Banding the Crusaders together like that just insures that there is no way to
block the band without getting a -1/-1 from someone, but the defender won't
get the penalties from the other creatures.

[Two-Headed Giants, Blaze of Glory, and Yare not withstanding of course...]

Joachim Tabaczek

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Apr 24, 1997, 3:00:00 AM4/24/97

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In article <01bc4f59$c3f18400$af23...@johnbyrd.earthlink.net>, "John Byrd IV" <john...@earthlink.net> writes:
|> If you band 4 Zhalfirin Crusaders together, using whatever means, any
|> non-flanking blockers will get -4/-4 as soon as they are declared won't
|> they?

No. A defender [other than a Two-Headed Giant or something with Yare
on it] can be _assigned_ to block only one of the Crusaders. Banding
will then force all the other Crusaders to stop and become blocked
as well, but flanking cares only about blocking _assignments_. So
any non-flanking creature blocking this band will get -1/-1 until end
of turn.

Joachim

David DeLaney

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Apr 25, 1997, 3:00:00 AM4/25/97

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"John Byrd IV" <john...@earthlink.net> writes:
>If you band 4 Zhalfirin Crusaders together, using whatever means, any
>non-flanking blockers will get -4/-4 as soon as they are declared won't
>they?

Nope. Not unless they somehow get the ability to be assigned to block all
four of the attackers at once; at present, only Blaze of Glory can do this.

See, flanking checks for what is -assigned to- block what, not what actually
_ends up_ blocking what. Banding can make things end up blocking attackers
that they were never assigned to block.

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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http://enigma.phys.utk.edu/~dbd/ - net.legends FAQ / I WUV you in all CAPS! --K.