The Combat Phase in Magic: the Gathering is fundamentally a socially acceptable knife fight adjudicated by an eldritch parliament of invisible mages. It goes so far beyond turning creatures sideways. This filthy Gruul propaganda is intended to lure you into complacency. Combat is the single most complex element of Magic: the Gathering in its entirety. I would debate, even beyond the idea of the stack. Combat is a chain of timestamped declarations, state-based checks, layers, modifications, hidden information exchanges, replacement effects, and priority windows held together by a metaphysical agreement to skip over certain aspects so long as no ones cards care in that particular moment. Allow me to explain. Combat consists of 5 Steps, effectively, sub-phases. 1. Beginning of Combat. 2. Declare Attackers. 3. Declare Blockers. 4. Combat Damage. 5. End of Combat. Already, many players and would-be enjoyers are lost. This is expected. The Beginning of Combat step exists so that there is a window between the Main Phase and Attackers being turned sideways. It is the best, and last, place to prevent those pesky "When [THIS CARD] Attacks" effects and other triggers. Then, you may declare attackers based on the following attributes: Summoning Sickness Attack Restrictions Attack Requirements Costs to Attack Who or what may legally be attacked Whether creatures are tapped Whether creatures are phased out All attackers are simultaneously declared. Effects are determined in the order their owner prefers to place them on the stack. You can not declare one for reactions or theatrics. You can not "simply miss" declaring an attack. Once attackers are declared, the aforementioned effects are determined from "Triggered Abilities." The stack is used to "stack" these abilities in a form of resolution. The stack is an abstract zone where the true battles of Magic: the Gathering are won by the proactive or reactive player. Priority then rotates around the table. Priority is permission from the universe to do something. If every player passes priority consecutively, the game advances. If even one person decides they would like to become difficult, the stack grows larger and civilization collapses for several minutes. Then we reach Declare Blockers. Historically, this step was already absurd. Now, after the Foundations combat update, it has become even stranger. Damage assignment order no longer exists. This means if a creature is blocked by multiple creatures, the attacking player no longer establishes some neat little “first this dies, then this one” queue. No. The attacker simply distributes damage however they please during combat damage itself. Which means blocking has become partially psychological warfare. You no longer know exactly how your opponent intends to distribute damage until the moment of impact. Then, after damage is established, trample is determined as runoff damage. Trample is a keyword that allows you to assign excess damage pass lethal damage to your opponents. A creature with deathtouch only ever needs to assign one damage to deal "lethal" damage. Combat damage is always dealt simultaneously with the exception of First Strike/Double Strike/ Illegal Triple/Last Strike damage. We now observe the layers of damage. Continuous effects are applied in a strict hierarchy. Power/toughness modifications alone have multiple sublayers. Consider: Base setting effects Counters Static buffs Switches Characteristic-defining abilities Dependency interactions Timestamps. There is also priority at the combat damage step after damage is determined. This allows unique abilities such as ninjitsu, flickering, and so forth. Before the damage is dealt, of course. But it is within the step. The final note is that combat damage does not use the aforementioned stack. This is a mercy, as it "used to" before the current idea of the stack was manifested. Then, finally, the End of Combat clean-up step. Nothing happens except a transition out of combat and triggered abilities.
I would argue Layer 7 interactions are more complex than combat. But this is acceptable.
Literally mentioned inside of the post, Rose!
Oh, I saw it, don't worry.