totally true re: “who” are these people that are struggling w/ invisible damage? i mean, is it so hard to just ask your opp’ “hey, how much damage is on that vanquisher again?” lol.

re: computer systems. hadn’t really considered that. very true; probably releases a lot of processing/querying. for modo that could mean a significant decrease in server load; whereas for something like “duals” it could streamline the amount of code needed to write. but part of me wonders how much more complicated mtg is compared to halo or counterstrike. i mean, those have gravity engines, all kinds of different inputs hitting the system, etc…

WoTC says they removed the ability to split damage because that causes “invisible information” for the rest of the turn, that is, you have to remember which creatures have how much damage on them until the damage wears off.
However, this still occurs with any other damage source, providing it doesn’t kill the creature, so even if this IS the reason, it’s only a mitigating factor and not a solution. Personally, I believe it is a response to the computer products, as it’s a lot easier to force damage assignment than it is to let the player choose. I just preferred being able to choose. To me, it is similar to the duels of the planeswalkers game, which taps your mana for you according to its own internal logic. That, by itself, is enough to keep me from buying this game. I mean, if you can infallibly tell what I want to do, why am *I* playing the game? If not, why are you trying? Whoever it is that cannot figure out how damage works currently, please start playing poker instead, and let me know where.

Number One
Complaint: Things can vanish and still have their activated ability hit, combat damage should be the same.

Logic: Vanishing mid ‘claw swipe’ and vanishing after letting loose a fireball are completely different.

You can’t swipe at someone with a claw, vanish, and still have your claw hit them. The same is true for charging with your rhinocerous horn, giant fist, wurm’s mouth ready to chomp down, etc. Even if you take the weapon stance, when you swing at something with a baseball bat and let go just before hitting the momentum left without your continued pressure is minimal (not to mention it’s likely to shoot off in a different direction completely anyway).

Shooting out a fireball, a lightning bolt, or an arrow (I imagine archers’ activated abilities as bow work, and their combat damage as driving the arrow into the enemy physically the way the elf does both in Lord of the Rings), isn’t going to follow the same rules – you vanishing doesn’t make the arrow suddenly drop out of the sky or the fireball disappear.

2) Death touch blatantly breaks the rules.

But it doesn’t. It’s important to note what Br0k3 says above, because it isn’t a stretch, it’s as logical as you can get: The rule for assigning damage is pretty much: ignoring things like regeneration, damage prevention, ‘indestructible’, etc, you need to assign enough damage to destroy the first creature before assigning damage to the second, and so on.

If a creature has death touch, 1 damage is enough to destroy each creature, so it’s natural that you’d be moving on after that.

Not everything in MtG is logical (it wouldn’t good if it was)… but there’s no point arguing against things that are.

It actually does make sense as I was reading someone explaining like this: You have to kill each creature in the line of blockers. Well now that deathtouch is a static ability, 1 damage = killed creature. So you are allowed to assign only 1 damage to the 1st blocker, then 1 to the 2nd and so on because you are assigning lethal still.