How does trample damage work will multiple blockers?

Asked by Surtr 14 years ago

How does trample damage work will multiple blockers? My friend says that he can just deal his damage to one of the blockers and have the rest trample over to me. I say he has to deal enough damage to kill all the blockers then what ever is left is dealt to me/planeswalker.

For example, lets say he has a <> and I decide to block with 6 1/1 creatures. He claims that he can just deal 1 damage to one of them and the rest of the damage (7) will trample. Personally, I think only 2 will be trampled over and all of my tokens will die in the process.

Also, who decides blocking order for multiple blockers? (if such a thing even exists)

Thanks for the help guys.

Surtr says... #1

Crap. I meant to put Terra Stomper in the brackets @_@. Sorry about that.

March 29, 2011 8:04 p.m.

Tezz says... Accepted answer #2

You're right

When a creature with Trample is blocked it must divide it's attack dealing enough lethal damage to one blocker to move to the next blocker and so on. When all blockers have been dealt lethal damage the attacking creature deals the remainder of it's attack the the defending player/planeswalker, in this case only 2 damage would trample over.

702.17b The controller of an attacking creature with trample first assigns damage to the creature(s) blocking it. Once all those blocking creatures are assigned lethal damage, any remaining damage is assigned as its controller chooses among those blocking creatures and the player or planeswalker the creature is attacking. When checking for assigned lethal damage, take into account damage already marked on the creature and damage from other creatures thats being assigned during the same combat damage step, but not any abilities or effects that might change the amount of damage thats actually dealt. The attacking creatures controller need not assign lethal damage to all those blocking creatures but in that case cant assign any damage to the player or planeswalker its attacking.

And the order the attacking creature attacks the blockers it's chosen by it's controller.

510.1. First, the active player announces how each attacking creature assigns its combat damage, then the defending player announces how each blocking creature assigns its combat damage. This turnbased action doesnt use the stack. A player assigns a creatures combat damage according to the following rules

March 29, 2011 8:14 p.m.

mafteechr says... #3

He must assign lethal damage to all blocking creatures first.

702.17b The controller of an attacking creature with trample first assigns damage to the creature(s) blocking it. Once all those blocking creatures are assigned lethal damage, any remaining damage is assigned as its controller chooses among those blocking creatures and the player or planeswalker the creature is attacking. When checking for assigned lethal damage, take into account damage already marked on the creature and damage from other creatures thats being assigned during the same combat damage step, but not any abilities or effects that might change the amount of damage thats actually dealt. The attacking creatures controller need not assign lethal damage to all those blocking creatures but in that case cant assign any damage to the player or planeswalker its attacking.

March 29, 2011 8:15 p.m.

Tezz says... #4

In case you have a creature that can block multiple attackers (eg: Two-Headed Dragon ), then you get to choose how he distributes his blocking damage.

March 29, 2011 8:18 p.m.

π_is_the_word says... #5

I wish I had finished dinner earlier, I just spent the entire day learning the ins and outs of trample. Oh well =/

March 29, 2011 8:22 p.m.

Surtr says... #6

Thanks everyone. This will definitely help out all the confusion we have for trample.

March 29, 2011 8:52 p.m.