First strike vs Double Strike w/ Trample
Asked by MarkerD 11 years ago
In a game recently I ran into an issue were my Narwhal blocked a Brawn after an opponent cast Armed on it. How much damage do I take in this scenario? The ruling that we came to was that I took the whole 8 damage but I'm not sure that's right
Rhadamanthus says... #2
A creature with trample has to assign at least lethal damage to the blocker before any damage can be assigned to the defending player. In the first strike damage step, your opponent can assign 2 damage to Narwhal and 2 to you. Then 4 damage gets assigned to you in the regular combat damage step (because there's no blocker anymore and Brawn has trample). You take a total of 6.
May 19, 2014 8:02 p.m.
Alright, so in this situation Brawn was a 4/4 with double strike and trample. The fact that it gained it from Armed is irrelevant to the math, so whenever I saw Brawn here assume I mean this buffed one. Narwhal is a 2/2 with first strike and another ability irrelevant to this situation.
Paraphrasing: Double strike means that the creature deals damage once when creatures with first strike do and once when other creatures do. Trample means that if all blocking creatures have been assigned lethal damage, additional damage can be dealt to the defending player.
When Brawn attacks and you block with Narwhal: During the first strike combat step, Narwhal will assign 2 damage to Brawn. Brawn has to assign at least 2 damage to Narwhal (enough so that it is lethal damage), and the rest is dealt to you. Although more than 2 damage can be assigned to the Narwhal, this typically isn't necessary. The damage gets dealt; Brawn takes 2, Narwhal takes 2 and dies, and you take 2. Now, in the "normal" combat damage step, Narwhal is dead, so Brawn assigns all 4 of its damage to you. In total by the end of combat, Brawn has taken 2 damage, the Narwhal has died, and you have taken 6, not 8.
PocoDeTaco says... #1
Pretty sure that you would wind up taking 6 damage, as your opponent's creature is now a 4/4. First there is the first strike phase where 2 damage would be assigned to the blocker, and then the other 2 would trample over and be assigned to you. Now during regular combat the defending creature has already been assigned lethal damage and as such all 4 damage will be assigned to the player.
May 19, 2014 7:59 p.m.