How does [Arcbond] work here?

Asked by voromir 9 years ago

I have 5 1/1 goblins and 3 open mana. My opponent has 2 Siege Rhinos and a Courser of Kruphix. He attacks with everything. I block with 1 goblin on one of the Siege Rhinos 3 on the other and the last one on the Courser of Kruphix. I then cast Arcbond on the single Goblin blocking a Siege Rhino. So all creatures and players take 4. Do the Siege Rhinos have to assign damage to my goblins or do I take 12? And this should kill all creatures since my goblins will assign 1 and 3 to the Siege Rhinos as well?

voromir says... #1

nevermind stupid trample

April 13, 2015 7:15 p.m.

Epochalyptik says... Accepted answer #2

Because damage isn't dealt until the combat damage step, and because Arcbond's delayed triggered ability doesn't trigger until damage is dealt, combat damage assignments won't factor in Arcbond's DTA.

Now, Siege Rhino has trample, which means that if it can assign lethal damage to all of its blockers, then it can assign the rest of its combat damage to the defending player. Your Goblin tokens are 1/1, so Siege Rhino only has to assign 1 damage to each of its blockers before it can assign the rest to you.

Of course, this means that Arcbond's DTA will trigger for 1 damage rather than 4. It doesn't do you much good, as you'd deal a total of 2 damage (1 combat, 1 noncombat) to the solo-blocked Siege Rhino, 4 damage (3 combat, 1 noncombat) to the triple-blocked Siege Rhino, and 2 damage (1 combat, 1 noncombat) to the Courser of Kruphix. None of the attacking creatures would die, and all of your creatures would die.

The best trade you can get would be to solo-block the Courser of Kruphix, triple-block one Siege Rhino, solo-block the last Siege Rhino, and cast Arcbond on the token blocking Courser of Kruphix. You can get one Siege Rhino with that.

April 13, 2015 7:21 p.m.

Epochalyptik says... #3

Well, my last statement isn't actually true. You could quint-block one Siege Rhino and cast Arcbond on that Siege Rhino to wipe the field. You'd take 12 total, but the field would be gone.

April 13, 2015 7:25 p.m.