how does blocking work?
Asked by supernick 14 years ago
my friend swings with a Leatherback Baloth . i stack block with some 3/3s (someone pick a do nothing 3/3 or even some 2/2s). baloth deals 4, and my guys deal 6. how does the block work? do my guys single file block? like guy A takes the 4 and deals 3, then guy b comes in and kills it? or do they block as a wall? like they stand side by side?
off point my friend gave this example: "if i punch you, joe and mike arent going to come after me until your hit, im not swinging both arms for area hit, im hitting you then joe and mike hit me. if i had trample then i would punch through your face and hit joe."
Combat damage to multiple creatures is dealt on the principle of 'lethal damage'. When you declare multiple blockers to a single attacking creature, say a Canyon Minotaur and a runeclaw-bears blocking this Leatherback Baloth , the attacking player decides in which order they are dealt damage. 3 damage would be dealt to the Minotaur (assuming your opponent chose him to take tha damage first) then the remaining 1 damage would be dealt to the Bears. At the same time, both of your creatures deal damage equal to their power to the creature they're in combat with, a total of 5 damage to the Baloth.
So yes, your creatures effectively block single file. If your friend wants a better analogy, think of a creature's power as the number of punches it can throw each combat, and the toughness as the number of punches it takes for a defending creature to fall over and start crying. Creatures can only be made to block as a wall (sort of) with the old ability Banding, which meant you could make creatures do combat as a single creature and divide damage between them as you see fit.
Side note: Trample only applies if the attacking creature can deal lethal damage to ALL creatures blocking it, then it's remaining power is dealt as damage to the defending player.
November 16, 2010 9:39 p.m.
Sorry, Runeclaw Bear , not Bears. Preview button is there for a reason =|
November 16, 2010 9:49 p.m.
Siegfried has it right but the wording is a little confusing imho.
Basically when there are no special modifiers like trample, first strike, double strike, etc... the attacking player declares how they will assign their creature's damage then the defending player declares how they will assign their creature's damage and finally all the damage is dealt at the same time.
If creature A is 4/5 and attacking and creatures B (3/3) and C (2/2) are declared as blocking creature A then the controller of A decides how he will divide the 4 damage among creature B and C. He can put all 4 damage on one, or 2 damage on each, etc...
Then the controller of creature B and C decides how they will assign damage. But since there is only one target for them they automatically assign all of their damage to A.
After that all creatures simultaneously deal their damage.
November 16, 2010 10:36 p.m.
Much clearer, thank you Eyehate. You aren't completely free to divide damage as you wish though, you have to assign a lethal amount of damage to the first creature blocking yours (defined as that creature's toughness minus any damage already taken that turn) before assigning damage to the next creature. For example, if it was 2 Canyon Minotaur s blocking instead, untouched so far that turn, you would not be able to assign 2 damage to each with your Baloth. One has to be assigned lethal damage (in this case 3) before the other could have any damage assigned to it.
November 16, 2010 10:43 p.m.
Jarrod_0067 says... #6
Rule 509.2 states: "...for each attacking creature that's become blocked, the active player announces that creature's damage assignment order, which consists of the creatures blocking it in an order of that player's choice. (During the combat damage step, an attacking creature can't assign combat damage to a creature that's blocking it unless each creature ahead of that blocking creature in its order is assigned lethal damage.) This turn-based action doesn't use the stack. Example: Craw Wurm is blocked by Llanowar Elves , Runeclaw Bear , and Serra Angel . The Craw Wurm 's controller announces the Craw Wurm 's damage assignment order as Serra Angel , then Runeclaw Bear , then Llanowar Elves .
Effectively, the 6/4 worm's controller chooses to deal 4 damage to the 4/4 angel, 2 damage to the 2/2 bear and 0 damage to the 1/1 elf in that order. Note, the attacker must kill the first creature before moving on. Lethal damage is anything enough to destroy it, for example: to kill a 4/4 angel, the attacking creature needs to deal 4 points of damage to it, or 1 point of damage with deathtouch.
So, you declare your 2/2 Runeclaw Bear and 3/3 Canyon Minotaur as blockers. Your opponent then chooses to deal 3 damage to your 3/3 minotaur and 1 damage to your 2/2 bear. Your creatures then assign their damage to the 4/5 Leatherback Baloth , a total of 6. Combat damage resolves at the same time (with the exception of first strike) so it happens as follows:
November 17, 2010 1:05 a.m.
Jarrod_0067 says... #7
Baloth: 3 damage to minotaur, 1 to bear
Minotaur: 3 damage to baloth
Bear: 2 damage to baloth
Baloth P/T = 4/-1 Minotaur P/T = 3/0 Bear P/T = 2/1
Baloth and minotaur die, damage marked on the bear remains until the cleanup step, meaning effectively its a 2/1 until the end of turn. At that point it becomes a 2/2 again.
November 17, 2010 1:10 a.m.
"if i had trample then i would punch through your face and hit joe"
I wish I had trample so I could punch through people's faces. I think I just have Level Up though.
FallenAngel says... #1
You deal the damage and he deals the damage you kill Him and he gets to choose one of your creatures to deal his damage to if he had trample he could hit one 2/2 then hit the next and kill both.
November 16, 2010 9:33 p.m.