Can Defensive Formation assign combat damage that cannot be blocked?
Asked by scott3912 10 years ago
Say i have a 2/2 unblockable that attacks, can the card defensive formation interact with the combat damage?
What normally happens is that the attacking player assigns their damage assignment order among the blockers, and has to assign lethal damage to one creature before moving on to assign damage to the next creature.
Defensive Formation gives the choice of damage assignment to the blocker, and also allows you to divide the damage any way, instead of following an assignment order.
So if they attack with a 6/6 and you block with say, a 1/1, 5/5 and a 1/3, they would normally get to choose the damage assignment order (probably the 5/5, then 1/1, then 1/3 so they can kill two creatures) but with Defensive Formation you could instead have their 6/6 deal 4 damage to the 5/5 and 2 damage to the 1/3 and thus keep all your blockers alive.
Devonin says... #1
Please link the cards in your question.
Defensive Formation
The oracle text of that spell reads
"Rather than the attacking player, you assign the combat damage of each creature attacking you. You can divide that creature's combat damage as you choose among any of the creatures blocking it."
What it means is that you can assign damage any way you want, without having to follow the normal damage assignment rules. If they don't block, there's not really any interaction with this card, since all of the damage is being dealt to the player as the only possible option.
September 24, 2014 6:16 p.m.