Rules Reguarding Combat Phases and Damage Calculation Involving Planeswalkers

[Miss_Serra]

Okay, My Fiancee and I have been arguing for sometime about this and I can't find any rules that specify so here is the problem:

He'll declare his Attackers
I'm at a decent life total so I decide to take the damage,
upon my not declaring blockers he targets my Planeswalker.
Here lies the problem, I believe when declaring attackers you must also
declare your target. Seeing as there are two targets that can take any
damage if no blockers are declared.

He disagrees stating that when you attack the idea being
to trick your opponent into not declaring blockers and allocate any
damage afterward. As so to his the Walker directly.

Now, this is a cause for great confusion around my table and I just need this figured out. Can anyone help clarify?

[yggdrasil]

Please don't use the word target to describe this. Target has a very specific meaning in Magic, and this is not it. What you mean is simply chose. And you're right with it. He has to chose what he attacks for each creature while declaring it as an attacker.



He disagrees stating that when you attack the idea being
to trick your opponent into not declaring blockers and allocate any
damage afterward. As so to his the Walker directly.

No. He mixes this up with the redirection of noncombat ("direct") damage. Here you just target your opponent with a Lightning Bolt, then, when the Bolt resolves, you chose whether to redirect all the damage to a Planeswalker that opponent controls or not.

[Valtrix]

'Cause I like rules:



306.8. If noncombat damage would be dealt to a player by a source controlled by an opponent, that opponent may have that source deal that damage to a planeswalker the first player controls instead. This is a redirection effect (see rule 613.9) and is subject to the normal rules for ordering replacement effects (see rule 615). The opponent chooses whether to redirect the damage as the redirection effect is applied.

508. Declare Attackers Step

508.1a The active player chooses which creatures that he or she controls, if any, will attack. The chosen creatures must be untapped, and each one must either have haste or have been controlled by the active player continuously since the turn began.

508.1b If the defending player controls any planeswalkers, or the game allows the active player to attack multiple other players, the active player announces which player or planeswalker each of the chosen creatures is attacking.

[Miss_Serra]

Where did you get an actual list of the MTG rules is there a url if so I'd love to have it...

[Shanghi Knights]

http://wizards.com/Magic/TCG/Resources.aspx?x=magic/rules

click on comprehensive rules tabs

[cdr]

Check out the sticky: http://www.mtgthesource.com/forums/showthread.php?t=5268