Can an attacker decide not to assign damage to blockers?
Asked by TySherwood 9 years ago
Here's the scenario that came up:
Opponent played Armed / Dangerous on a 7/7 creature with lifelink, so he ended up with an 8/8 double-striker being blocked by all of my creatures (a 3/3, 3/4, and 0/1). He assured me he could choose to only assign partial damage in the first hit, just enough to kill the 3/3 and 0/1, then the 2nd hit would kill the 3/4. He did this for two reasons: it made it more difficult for me to take down his creature with instant spells, and it allowed his creature to take a 2nd swing for another 8 points of lifelink. I went with it since we couldn't find anything conclusive with Google, but am still wondering if this is legit. Can a player decide not to assign all points of combat damage to blockers even if it would leave one or more alive when it otherwise wouldn't?
Thanks!
So no they cannont assign partial damage, but they can assign damage to just 2 of the creatues. So say 4 to each the first 2 blockers during the first strike damage step.
pskinn01 says... Accepted answer #1
You declare order of blockers then you can split the damage as you choose, as long as you assign lethal damage to a creature before assigning damage go the next, so your opponent can assign more than lethal damage to 1, so there will still be a creature alive to assign damage during normal damage step.
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.
January 25, 2015 3:36 p.m.