trample + deathtouch
Asked by thewyzman 9 years ago
A question came up regarding the stacking of these two states, deathtouch and trample. I looked up 702.19b for trample and it states:
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.
If I'm attacking with an Archweaver (trample) with Bow of Nylea (deathtouch), and my opponent blocks with Canyon Minotaur , two scenarios play out in my mind; Which one is correct?
1) Spider deals 5, minotaur blocks 3, trample carries over the remaining 2 to the player.
2) Spider's controller chooses to assign 1 damage to the minotaur (lethal with deathtouch), then chooses to assign the remaining 4 to the player, citing trample effects.
I believe this argument is taking place in this deck's page, unless I am misreading or misinterpreting.
I always assumed a creature automatically deals all its power to a blocker's toughness. I guess I never considered assigning however much damage you want.
July 28, 2014 8:51 a.m.
Absinthman says... #3
You can't normally assign as much damage as you want. You must assign at least what's lethal (or more) in olrder to proceed to the next creature in the damage assignment order (or player). In this scenario, deathtouch makes 1 point of damage lethal, and that's why you don't need to assign more. Another case when something similar happens, is if the blocking crature has already some damage marked on it from previous interactions during that turn. For example, if the blocking minotaur had been dealt 2 damage from Shock earlier that turn, you would only need to assign that 1 remaining point of damage (even without deathtouch) in order to deal the rest to the defending player.
Absinthman says... Accepted answer #1
Your second scenario is correct. The answer lies in the rule you quoted. The minotaur must first be assigned lethal damage, but with deathtouch, 1 point of damage is already lethal.
July 28, 2014 8:16 a.m.