Permeating Mass does not work as it should
When Permeating Mass is on the battlefield and a spell (generally a sorcery) with the 'fight' mechanic is used, Permeating Mass' ability does not trigger, regardless of opponents power/toughness. I have looked at the rulings for Permeating Mass and as far as I can tell, there is nothing in the rules that would make this the case. In point of fact this is a common strategy for Permeating Mass IRK matches and deeply undercuts the cards utility and usefulness in MTG Arena. I seriously hope it's just a bug and not a silly obscure rule.
Lundrumguffa#47054
shared this idea
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Rezzahan#77802
commented
A fight is not combat, and damage caused by a fight is never combat damage. Combat damage is only the damage dealt by attacking and blocking creatures during the turn based action of dealing combat damage in the combat damage step. ANY OTHER DAMAGE is not combat damage.
If an interaction such as you described is being used in paper magic, the player does not adhere to the rules of Magic. They are cheating. Arena handles this correctly (there is nothing to handle, since there is no trigger), your paper Magic group does not.
From the Comp rules glossary:
Combat Damage
Damage dealt during the combat damage step by attacking creatures and blocking creatures as a
consequence of combat. See rule 510, “Combat Damage Step.”And from the rules for fight:
701.12d The damage dealt when a creature fights isn’t combat damage.