Having trouble activating abilities during block step

[Argo]

Hi, I've been playing with forge a few months, I got most of it down, but I still run into an issue
that I am unsure how to deal with. I did a for search for the issue first I found no discussions. Creature's with activated mana abilities such as, blight mamba's "pay 1 forest 1 colorless to regenerate". During my declare blockers step, these creature's abilities should be able to activate at instant speed, yet when I click on a creature to activate the ability all I can do is declare the creature a blocker and it is assigned combat damage and I am un-able to use the creature's ability. In some instances I am able to activate abilities before my opponents declare attackers step to circumvent this issue, but I find it quite annoying to deal with, especially with abilities such as regenerate where I would rather use them on reaction to a creature taking combat damage.

I'm not sure if I'm missing something but this is the experience I've run into, not sure if it's a limitation, a bug, or I'm doing something wrong with the interface.

For reference I'm playing on a window's 10 laptop.

Any help with this issue is appreciated, thanks!

[CptKird]

Hi, I'm guessing you already discovered phase toggles?

Red means auto yield, without a chance to activate abilities whenever you like, you give up priority for most game events/phases, except declare blockers.

The toggle settings from the screenshot above should suffice for most matches, if you need to do things during upkeep toggle "UP" to green by clicking on it.

If it's not toggle auto yields, you might be trying to activate your mambas regeneration during declare attackers or blockers step. That's not possible. You need to "OK" the current declare phase before any player might activate abilities or play instants again.

K.

[Argo]

Hm, seems like there is some kind of toggle tool on the interface to activate creature abilities during a attack / block phase then?

it's also sounding like some kind of limitation of Forge because standard MTG creature abilities should be activated at instant speed even durring attack / block phases, and like I said I try and click on a creature to activate a "regenerate" ability, I only get the option to assign it as a blocker, then it immediately takes combat damage not allowing me to activate it's regenerate cost.

I'll try and pay attention to the color of the phase.

[Argo]

in this scenario I'm trying to activate my commander's 1 forest 1 Island ability to give a snake +2 +2, I am unable to respond to the attacking creature and activate the ability as all I can do is declare the blocker, If I were to hit "ok" the creature's combat damage would be immediately dealt. I have no window or option between declare attacker and delcare blocker to activate my creature's ability. Seems like there needs to be a UI change to allow for instant speed responses during DA, and DB.

[CptKird]

Well, from the screenshot I gather the auto yield color of phase toggles is green in that skin you chose?

That means you auto yielded the complete declare blockers step!

I'll do an example combat round (the main steps only, given that none of the combat phase toggles are set to auto yield/red < default skin!!!):

- M1 is ended by "OK"

- BC begins. Here, either side has time to activate as many abilities as can be paid. Combat activated effects trigger and that phase is ended by "OK"

- DA begins. Now, the first thing to do is to declare 0 to X attackers. Then, after clicking "OK" notice the phases won't progress! Now each side has time to activate abilities to their hearts content again. Also end the DA phase by clicking "OK".

- DB begins. Again, the first thing to do is to declare 0 to X legal blockers. You might have guessed it, after clicking "OK" once more, while still being in DB phase, regenerate/pump/concede away. Ending this phase requires another "OK".

- FS begins. First strike/Double strike damage is applied immediately. Anything that's dead now, goes to the graveyard. You can actually play instants and activate abilities after this, before CD starts! "OK".

- CD starts. Now, normal combat damage is dealt, the same principles apply as in FS. Again, you can play spells/activate abilities after the "send to graveyard" is done. "OK"

- EC begins and again gives both players the opportunity to cast instants/activate abilities. Also "end of combat" effects trigger. The end of phase EC is also a trigger but concludes combat.

Again, this is with all phase toggles set to manual (which is green in the default skin).
But I think it might be better to do this at least once, with all toggles set to manual, until you are confident to chose the correct phases to auto yield

Hope that clears things up a bit.
K.

[Argo]

I did FINALLY figure it out but, It's not intuitive, this option should be enabled by default, I probably should have read the instructions better buuuuuut ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[CptKird]

Nice

Which option?
By default, DB is set to manual, so, you should've been able to regenerate out of the box.

The default auto phase toggles, in my opinion, are set a bit too liberally, but they allow for quicker turns and actually stop for declare attackers/blockers!

But yea, that speed gain is causing confusion with new Forge users, when it's not stopping for interaction besides declaring creatures ;(

Glad you got it sorted, though!
Have fun
K.