How does double strike work?
Asked by torterrapizza 11 years ago
Does double strike deal damage to a creature and then deal damage to the creature's controller like trample; or does it double activated abilities when damage is dealt without being blocked like "When ___ deals combat damage to a player, that player discards the top five cards of his or her library"? Will it also deal double combat damage to a player without being blocked?
double strike deals combat damage twice. It deals first strike damage and normal damage. First strike does not cause a creature to hit a blocker and the player unless the creature has trample or another ability which states it can.
So yes it does double the the 'when deals combat damage...."
March 2, 2014 9:11 p.m.
Blackblade says... #3
basically a double strike creature gets to deal it's combat damage twice, once before the other creature has a chance to strike, and then the second during the normal combat damage step. hope this example clears it up.
Dragon Tyrant
attacks and is blocked by Abyssal Persecutor
.
the tyrant because it has double strike will deal its 6 points of combat damage first before the persecutor has its chance to strike. the Persecutor will die before it even got the chance to deal its combat damage to the dragon, and because Dragon Tyrant
has trample it will deal 6 points to the defending player.
Does this help or need another example?
March 2, 2014 9:16 p.m.
torterrapizza says... #4
Thanks guys. I understand Double-Strike a lot better.
Epochalyptik says... Accepted answer #1
An activated ability is an ability that is written in the form "[cost]: [effect]." You're describing a triggered ability, which is written in the form "[At/When/Whenever] [condition], [effect]."
Double strike simply means the creature deals combat damage in two subsequent combat damage steps. The regular rules still apply to creatures with double strike. If a creature is blocked, it remains blocked for the rest of combat. It will only deal combat damage to a player or planeswalker if it has trample.
Because there are two instances of combat damage, abilities that trigger when something deals combat damage will trigger for each strike.
March 2, 2014 9:07 p.m.