I think this is the next deck I'm actually looking at throwing together. I don't have a lot of the cards I need for it right now, so I might have to make some hardcore changes to, which honestly, have already been suggested. Such as dropping the Grand Architect .

Any ideas what I should put in it's place? I've got two Liliana of the Veil s I can toss into the deck. Maybe two more card:Black Sun's Zenith for amazing board control?

djgunn, I am just curious, but do you have a link to the article about the interactions between death touch and trample you mentioned above?

I'm having trouble finding the article that I read on wizard's website, so instead, I'm just digging through the comprehensive rules.

702.2b Any nonzero amount of combat damage assigned to a creature by a source with deathtouch is considered to be lethal damage, regardless of that creatures toughness. See rules 510.1cd.

Here's those two rules that 702.2b references at the end

510.1c A blocked creature assigns its combat damage to the creatures blocking it. If no creatures are currently blocking it (if, for example, they were destroyed or removed from combat), it assigns no combat damage. If exactly one creature is blocking it, it assigns all its combat damage to that creature. If two or more creatures are blocking it, it assigns its combat damage to those creatures according to the damage assignment order announced for it. This may allow the blocked creature to divide its combat damage. However, it cant assign combat damage to a creature thats blocking it unless, when combat damage assignments are complete, each creature that precedes that blocking creature in its order is assigned lethal damage. When checking for assigned lethal damage, take into account damage already marked on the creature and damage from other creatures thats being assigned during the same combat damage step, but not any abilities or effects that might change the amount of damage thats actually dealt. An amount of damage thats greater than a creatures lethal damage may be assigned to it.

510.1d A blocking creature assigns combat damage to the creatures its blocking. If it isnt currently blocking any creatures (if, for example, they were destroyed or removed from combat), it assigns no combat damage. If its blocking exactly one creature, it assigns all its combat damage to that creature. If its blocking two or more creatures, it assigns its combat damage to those creatures according to the damage assignment order announced for it. This may allow the blocking creature to divide its combat damage. However, it cant assign combat damage to a creature that its blocking unless, when combat damage assignments are complete, each creature that precedes that blocked creature is assigned lethal damage. When checking for assigned lethal damage, take into account damage already marked on the creature and damage from other creatures thats being assigned during the same combat damage step, but not any abilities or effects that might change the amount of damage thats actually dealt. An amount of damage thats greater than a creatures lethal damage may be assigned to it

And here's the rule regarding trample

702.18b The controller of an attacking creature with trample first assigns damage to the creature(s) blocking it. Once all those blocking creatures are assigned lethal damage, any remaining damage is assigned as its controller chooses among those blocking creatures and the player or planeswalker the creature is attacking. When checking for assigned lethal damage, take into account damage already marked on the creature and damage from other creatures thats being assigned during the same combat damage step, but not any abilities or effects that might change the amount of damage thats actually dealt. The attacking creatures controller need not assign lethal damage to all those blocking creatures but in that case cant assign any damage to the player or planeswalker its attacking.

I put areas of note in those blocks of text in italics to make them easier to pick out. In summary:

1 point of damage from a creature with deathtouch is lethal damage, which if a creature gets gang blocked, allows you to hit each of it's blockers for one damage, instead of damage equal to toughness then next blocker.

Trample means, once you've dealt lethal damage to all blockers, you can assign the rest of the damage to the defending player (or planeswalker).

Since 1 point of deathtouch damage is lethal, it's all I need to trample over.

Do you have a ruling on death touch that classifies it as lethal? I thought the wording was at the end of combat, which is after the damage step right? Wait never mind, I just saw the text in the m12 onyx mage in your deck. That does look like it should be lethal. Ok, so great job with the mechanic there, that actually is a really useful ruling to know.

Yeah, I have a feeling it's going to surprise a lot of people.

@burkek, that is the way that deathtouch used to work, but it was kind of dumb, for example you would have to regenerate a creature twice, because it would die, and then at the end of combat it would die again. This is the new rule for deathtouch, as of M10

@burkek, that is the way that deathtouch used to work, but it was kind of dumb, for example you would have to regenerate a creature twice, because it would die, and then at the end of combat it would die again. This is the new rule for deathtouch, as of M10