Trample vs Fog Bank
General forum
Posted on Aug. 21, 2012, 3:46 p.m. by ravengamer93
I just went to a draft and grabbed out 4 Fog Bank and 3 Deadly Recluse for defence in my g/u deck. but somebody brought out trample on the first game and i had 2 fogs out. i called the judge and he said the damage went over. then i looked closer at tramples effect and it says the damage only goes over if the damage dealt to the creature is lethal. so did that judge make a bad call?
NobodyPicksBulbasaur says... #3
When assigning combat damage with a creature with Trample, you simply need to assign lethal damage to the blocking creature(s). The rest gets assigned to to the defending player.
"Lethal" damage is generally just the blocking creature's toughness. In Fog Bank 's case, lethal damage is 2, because it has 2 toughness.
When assigning damage, you are not actually dealing damage (yet). You are simply declaring where you intend your damage to go. Therefore, when you assign 2 damage to a Fog Bank , you have assigned "lethal" damage, because that would generally be enough to kill it. You can then assign the rest of your trample damage to the defending player.
The fact that, once damage is actually dealt, the Fog Bank prevents the damage done to itself does not affect the Trample damage, which has already been assigned to a player.
August 21, 2012 4:09 p.m.
Rhadamanthus says... #4
The judge made the correct call. With trample, you assign at least lethal damage to all the blocking creatures and then the rest to the player. Lethal damage is defined as damage equal to a creature's toughness minus any damage already marked on it, or at least 1 damage from a source with deathtouch. If your Fog Bank blocks a 4/4 trampling Prized Elephant , your opponent can have the Elephant assign 2 damage to Fog Bank and 2 damage to you. When that damage is actually dealt, Fog Bank 's ability prevents it.
August 21, 2012 4:10 p.m.
similarly, if a creature has deathtouch and trample, you need only assign 1 point, then trample the rest regardless of toughness.
August 21, 2012 4:55 p.m.
You only have to assign enough damage that WOULD be lethal to Trample over. This assignment of damage doesn't take into consideration any replacements effects or damage prevention.
August 21, 2012 4:57 p.m.
bxromeo8586 says... #9
Wow, that's news to me! I've been screwed in the other aspect of that. I swung with a Primeval Titan and he blocked with Fog Bank . I actually thought the damage would still go through, but he said it didn't. I believed him only because I've only been playing MTG for just under 2 years. This was at my local store and every time I played this person I thought I couldn't do trample damage to him once he cast Fog Bank .
ianponting says... #2
Trample (If this creature would assign enough damage to its blockers to destroy them, you may have it assign the rest of its damage to defending player or planeswalker.)
I would assume that because Fog Bank states "prevent all combat damage that would be dealt to...", the creature would never deal enough damage to destroy it, meaning there is no extra damage to reassign. So to answer your question: yes, I think he made a bad call.
August 21, 2012 3:54 p.m.