Last strike

Last strike is a static ability featured in Unstable.

Description
Last strike means it happens after normal damage, just the opposite of First strike. It is flavorful downside.

Mark Rosewater created it to allow the Triple strike mechanic be a thing. He knows that there are some tricky ways to circumvent the rules to make last strike work and he says those ways also make triple strike work.

History
Long before the keywording, there were some cards that attempted to portray the idea of anti-first-strike - Mammoth Harness, Goblin Flotilla, and Spitting Slug. The idea was to give their opposing combatant first strike, which is close to but not exactly how Last Strike would work.

Rosewater tried to put Last Strike into Future Sight on a future-shifted card and was stopped by the Magic rules Manager at the time, Mark Gottlieb,  due to rule rewriting issues. Back during Future Sight set design, it was not worth the rules rewriting it would require just to create one or two cards.

Until Unstable, it was not clear in what color Last Strike would appear. Even after its release in Unstable, Mark Rosewater believes it is unlikely that Last strike (and Triple strike) will get into black border.

Trivia

 * If you give Extremely Slow Zombie first strike, it will it deal first and last strike damage (but not regular). This is called "Split Strike" by Mark Rosewater.
 * His name for last strike + normal strike is "Molasses Strike".