Deathtouch interaction
Asked by acbooster 12 years ago
I was playing a game today and my friend was using his deathtouch deck. He had the Viridian Longbow attached to one of his deathtouch creatures. I played a creature from my hand, and he tapped the creature to deal the 1 damage to my creature. He said deathtouch would take effect, but I said it wouldn't since the rules state that deathtouch only applies to combat damage.
So the question is: If a creature with deathtouch taps to use Viridian Longbow to damage a creature, does deathtouch take effect?
Ok, it confused me since rule 702.2b specifically refers to combat damage.
January 24, 2013 6:17 p.m.
702.2b is in there for a different reason. Consider the rules for trample, which basically say that as long as you assign "lethal damage" to all blocking creatures the rest may be assigned to the defending player.
If you had an attacking Duskdale Wurm and someone blocked it with a Wall of Denial , no damage would go through because you did not assign lethal damage to the wall. If, in the same scenario, you cast Necrobite on your Duskdale Wurm after blockers are declared but before combat damage is assigned. You would be able to assign 1 damage to the Wall of Denial , because 702.2b says that would be "lethal damage," and then assign the other 6 trample damage to your opponent.
There are other scenarios where this particular rule would be important but I just wanted to show you that the important part of this ruling has to do with deathtouch and "lethal damage" rather than having to deal with combat damage as a whole.
January 24, 2013 6:42 p.m.
So in that above scenario, can you choose to assign one damage to wall of denial (destroying it because of deathtouch), and assign the 6 other damage to the player thanks to trample?
Kirtanian says... Accepted answer #1
Unfortunately for you, the rules do not say that deathtouch only applies to combat damage. Here is the important bit from the Rulebook:
704.5h If a creature has toughness greater than 0, and its been dealt damage by a source with deathtouch since the last time state-based actions were checked, that creature is destroyed. Regeneration can replace this event.
Note the part I bolded says "damage" not "combat damage." That was a legal play by your opponent and your creature would die.
January 24, 2013 6:14 p.m.