Quick questions on Trample
Asked by ColdCrush 13 years ago
1.) If a 7/7 creature with trample gets blocked by a 2/4 creature and a 4/6 creature. Now in my understanding of trample this would make it so the 7/7 could only kill one creature correct? While if it was a 7/7 with no abilities it would kill both? Hence a sort of drawback with trample?
2.) If a 7/7 with trample gets blocked by a 7/4 with no abilities, would the creature with trample still deal 3 damage to a planeswalker or player? Or is its remainder damage negated by its death?
Thank you in advance for your quick reply!
rckclimber777 says... #2
1- Trample states that you must assign lethal damage to all blocking creatures before dealing damage to the player. There is NO drawback however to trample. In your example, the creature will not be able to kill both creatures as it can only deal a total of 7 damage, trample or no trample. Thus you can choose to kill the 4/6 or the 2/4 leaving damage left over to deal to the other. This is true for both a trampling 7/7 and a non trampling 7/7.
2- With the exception of first strike and double strike all combat damage is delivered at the same time and then effects from that damage take place (i.e. death). So in your case. The trampling 7/7 creature assigns 4 damage to the creature blocking it and 3 to the player and has 7 assigned to itself. Damage resolves. Both creatures die and your opponent loses 3 life.
If first strike or double strike were present there would be an additional combat damage step, thus there would be a chance for your creature to die before ever delivering its damage.
December 16, 2011 11:21 a.m.
KrazyCaley says... #3
Both above answers are correct, but I am wondering why the questioner thought that having trample would prevent the creature from killing both blockers in case 1, while a non-trampler would, when actually neither creature would be able.
December 16, 2011 7:50 p.m.
That would be my mistake then, I was told long ago that if a creature is blocked by two or more it still deals its power to both, not divided. But the person who taught me how to play actually had a lot of rules wrong, so it is no surprise to me that he messed up that rule too. My mistake but thank you both!
December 16, 2011 9:47 p.m.
KrazyCaley says... #5
Ah, gotcha. Yeah, it only deals its damage once, and it has to deal lethal damage to one blocker before moving to another (unless it has deathtouch). Keep the questions comin'!
ThiagoMaia says... Accepted answer #1
1- The trample ability doesn't affect the damage assignment order. After the declaration of blockers you must chose the order on which your creature deals the damage to it's blockers, whether it has trample or not. So you would chose the order, and then the creature would have to assign lethal damage to each blocker before damaging the next. On your example, if you chose to deal damage to the 2/4 first, there would only be 3 damage left to be dealt to the 4/6.
2- All non-first strike/double strike combat damage is dealt at the same time, so at the same time your creature would deal 3 damage to the defending player, it would receive lethal damage, and then be put into a graveyard.
December 16, 2011 9:09 a.m.