Magic 101
Asked by cryptichorror 13 years ago
I'm almost embarrassed to ask this, but a situation came up while playing a casual game today. I had one of those brain fart moments, where even though I've played this situation 1000 times, without thinking about it, this time someone questioned the ruling, and I'm started second guessing.
Anyway, the situation was, I attacked with Grave Titan. He blocked with both Phyrexian Hydra (currently -2/-2) and Viridian Corrupter. I said, that regardless of the order I assign damage, all three creatures were going to die. He thought my Grave Titan needed Trample in order to assign damage to the second blocker.
Again, embarrassed for having to ask, but that's what this forum is for, right?
Arachnarchist says... #2
Oh, and just to add onto that, "lethal damage" simply means damage equal to the creatures toughness. Indestructibility and protection do not change the "lethal damage".
March 22, 2012 2:24 p.m.
No, not all 3 creatures will die.
Grave Titan will be assigned 5 damage from Phyrexian Hydra and 2 damage from Viridian Corrupter, and so Grave Titan will die.
Viridian Corrupter only needs to be dealt 1 damage from Grave Titan since it has deathtouch. Thus, Viridian Corrupter dies.
Phyrexian Hydra will prevent any damage done to it. Thus, any amount of damage from Grave Titan will be prevented. Even though Grave Titan has deathtouch, Phyrexian Hydra is dealt zero damage, and will live.
March 22, 2012 2:32 p.m.
cryptichorror says... #4
The Phyrexian Hydra was at -2/-2 already, i.e. 5/5. If I assign damage to the Viridian Corrupter first, that's 1 damage to it, and then 5 damage to the Hydra. That 5 damage would be prevented, and he would instead recieve 5x -1/-1 counters, making him a 0/0.
March 22, 2012 2:37 p.m.
Good call. I decided to only read the first part of it's ability.
Selective reading fail!
In that case, you are correct, they will all die.
March 22, 2012 2:39 p.m.
cryptichorror says... #6
Also, if I assigned damage to the hydra first, I suppose I could still choose to deal 5 to it, then 1 to the corrupter. The rule says you can't assign damage to a blocking creature until you have dealt "leathal" damage to each preceding creature in damage assignment order, but doesn't state that you can't choose to assign more than that. In this case, the hydra would still prevent the 5 damage and get 5x -1/-1 counters, and the corrupter would get 1 deathtouch damage. End result...all things die.
March 22, 2012 2:41 p.m.
Deathtouch doesn't allow creatures to ignore the lethal damage rule.
They simply deal 'lethal damage' with 1 damage.
In this case, you could choose to assign 1 damage to the Hydra if you wanted to, as damage assignment does not take into account any abilities that prevent damage. (This is why you must still assign 2 damage to a White Knight when it blocks a Trampling black creature.)
March 22, 2012 5:33 p.m.
cryptichorror says... #8
But, I CAN assign more than 1 to the hydra if I choose, correct?
Arachnarchist says... Accepted answer #1
When blocked by multiple creatures, the attacking creature must deal lethal damage to each blocker to move on to the next. Trample only matters if a creature has already dealt lethal damage to all of the creatures blocking it, with trample a creature can assign remaining damage to the player or planeswalker it was attacking.
However deathtouch (which Grave Titan
has) actually allows a creature to ignore the lethal damage restriction, so even a 2/2 creature with deathtouch can kill two blockers.
In other words, you were right, but you actually had more than enough damage to kill both.
March 22, 2012 2:22 p.m.