The Mage’s Touch in Close Combat

The Mage’s Touch in Close Combat is a set of rules found on the left sidebar of page 8 of Classic: Magic.
The first paragraph is pretty standard where stepping into close combat and trying to touch is an attack. This is the policy which appears to be present in 4e.
The 2nd paragraph is more unique. If starting in close combat, touch is AUTOMATIC (not an attack, perhaps not even a combat roll?) as long as the mage's hands aren't grappled.
This was only allowed for "zero time" spells because close combat made concentration impossible.
Zero-time spells no longer exist in 4E because the "if this would reduce casting time to less than a second, it takes effectively no time" rule was removed. 1 second is the minimum casting time.
category:rules