Combat damage outside of damage step with Doran, the Siege Tower

Asked by Powerhouse64 9 years ago

If I have Doran, the Siege Tower on the battlefield as well as a Gurzigost, if I pay GG and discard a card from my hand to use Gurzigost's ability, assuming there are no power/toughness modifiers on Gurzigost, how much damage will be dealt to my opponent?

I would initially assume it's 8, as Doran, the Siege Tower causes creatures to assign combat damage equal to their toughness rather than their power, however, Gurzigost's ability says "deal it's combat damage" rather than "deals combat damage."

Does the word "it's" cause the damage dealt by Gurzigost to reflect Gurzigost's power on it's own and deal 6 damage, or does Doran, the Siege Tower's ability see that Gurzigost is dealing combat damage and cause Gurzigost to deal 8 damage insead?

nobu_the_bard says... Accepted answer #1

No, Gurzigost is still dealing combat damage, and Doran, the Siege Tower is going to modify how that damage is dealt. The only complication here is Gurzigost needs to be attacking for his activated ability to matter.

I'd like to note its Oracle text for the activated ability now simply reads "You may have Gurzigost assign its combat damage this turn as though it weren't blocked." to include the possibility of him dealing damage to planeswalkers. That might make how he operates a tiny bit clearer too.

April 8, 2015 1:27 p.m.

Powerhouse64 says... #2

That makes much more sense! Thanks for clearing that up. I thought the activated ability would allow Gurzigost to deal damage without attacking. I thought that was pretty broken as is for GG and a single discard anyways.

April 8, 2015 1:48 p.m.

Epochalyptik says... #3

In reference to the title, I'd like to point out that combat damage is never dealt outside of the combat damage step.

April 8, 2015 2:56 p.m.

Powerhouse64 says... #4

I understand that now. I assumed the activated ability was able to be activated at sorcery speed, which is why I mistakenly assumed that damage could be dealt outside of the combat damage step.

April 8, 2015 4:07 p.m.