Trampling Clerics
Asked by 7MM3 7 years ago
I was going to necro an already answered question as it raised my own question, but figured it would be frowned upon.
Defender has a Daunting Defender on the field, plus one other 1/1 cleric. They are attacked by a 2/2 with Trample. They declare the 1/1 as a blocker. This would normally result in the blocking creature taking 1 damage, which is prevented so the creature lives, and the extra 1 would hit the player.
In this situation, can the attacker choose to assign all the damage to the blocking creature, or does the "extra" damage have to go over?
Is Trample a May or a Must? I took a quick peek at comprehensive rules, and I would assume the answer is must, but it use's the words "can assign" multiple times, which is confusing.
It's a may-ish. From the comp rules:
702.19b 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.
June 2, 2016 9:09 p.m.
Rules quotes:
509.2. Second, for each attacking creature thats become blocked, the active player announces that creatures damage assignment order, which consists of the creatures blocking it in an order of that players choice. (During the combat damage step, an attacking creature cant assign combat damage to a creature thats blocking it unless each creature ahead of that blocking creature in its order is assigned lethal damage.) This turn-based action doesnt use the stack.
702.19b. 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 that's being assigned during the same combat damage step, but not any abilities or effects that might change the amount of damage that's actually dealt. The attacking creature's controller need not assign lethal damage to all those blocking creatures but in that case can't assign any damage to the player or planeswalker it's attacking.
BlueScope says... Accepted answer #1
You can assign each blocking creature any amount of damage. If your attacking creature does more damage than you assigned to the first creature (and you assigned at least lethal damage to the first creature), you continue assigning damage to the second creature, and so on. If after assigning at-least-lethal damage to all blocking creatures, and your creature has trample, you assign the rest of the damage to the player.
So yeah, you can assign 2 damage to the 1/1, 1 of which will be prevented.
June 2, 2016 9:05 p.m.