Fight

Fight is a keyword action introduced in Innistrad. The word appears in a phrase like "[Cardname] fights target creature." and it means that both creatures deal damage equal to their Power to each other. Cards using fight appear primary in green and secondary in red. They carry the flavor of an altercation.

Description
Fight is similar to the mechanic originally introduced with the Land Arena, though slightly altered. A few old cards (including Arena) with the same functionality received updated Oracle wording using the new terminology. Cards with similar, but not identical, functionality do not use the word "fight".

Cards that care about fighting

 * Foe-Razer Regent - adds +1/+1 counters
 * Neyith of the Dire Hunt - draws cards

Rulings

 * The damage is dealt simultaneously, and it is dealt by the creatures themselves, so abilities like deathtouch, lifelink, and infect will work as normal.
 * Damage dealt while fighting is not combat damage, so abilities like first strike or Double strike won't have any effect.
 * Fighting itself does not cause the creatures to become tapped.
 * Only creatures can fight.
 * No more than two creatures can fight.
 * If a creature somehow fights itself, it will deal damage to itself equal to its power twice simultaneously. This is different from cards that cause a creature deal damage to itself, such as Solar Blaze.

Fighting cards before the keyword action

 * Arena from a special book promotion and Time Spiral
 * Triangle of War from Visions
 * Contested Cliffs from Onslaught
 * Magus of the Arena from Planar Chaos
 * Rivals' Duel</c> from Morningtide

Some cards have abilities similar, but not identical, to fight and have not received errata:


 * Cyclops Gladiator</c> from Magic 2011
 * Durkwood Tracker</c> from Time Spiral
 * Gargantuan Gorilla</c> from Alliances
 * Karplusan Yeti</c> from Ice Age
 * Predatory Urge</c> from Zendikar
 * Stalking Yeti</c> from Coldsnap
 * Tahngarth, Talruum Hero</c> from Planeshift
 * Tracker</c> from The Dark
 * Vein Drinker</c> from Shards of Alara

Bite
Green needed answers to creatures, but R&D wanted to make sure the solution to creatures involves creatures. Fight was the first step in that direction. The next step, as first seen in Oath of the Gatewatch, was one-sided fighting for green, which was later dubbed "bite" by R&D