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I am a bit unclear about how trample and lifelink work together and hopefully someone can help me understand. Let's say I attack with a 6/6 creature with trample and lifelink and the AI blocks with a 3/3 creature. The blocker takes 3 damage and I gain 3 life. Trample then should do 3 damage to the AI right? And I would gain 3 more life, for a total of 6 damage/6 life from my 6/6 creature?

At least that is how I understand it. But instead when this happened in a game I gained 3 life, then 6 life from two separate events on the stack. So now I am not sure which way is correct.

I wouldn't be surprised if Forge is wrong... It SHOULD be based on total damage done, which is 6. In fact, the trample part doesn't make a difference, the 3/3 took 6 damage, so you should still gain 6 life. The life gain should be based on actual damage, so a "prevent the next # damage) effect would change the life gain.

another example: a 3/3 lifelinked double striker blocks a regular 1/3: you gain 3 life. If it was 1/4, you'd gain 6 life. (damage isn't dealt if the blocker has left combat)

Rob Cashwalker wrote:In fact, the trample part doesn't make a difference, the 3/3 took 6 damage, so you should still gain 6 life.

Trample does make a difference - imagine the 3/3 blocker has protection from the 6/6 attacker. Then, if you assign 3 damage to the blocker and 3 to the player, only the three damage assigned to the blocker is prevented, and you gain three life. Regardless, Forge needs some work on lifelink - though it does pretty well despite its imperfections.

Trample damage can't be assigned to the player until lethal damage has been assigned to all blocking creatures. If the blocking creature has protection, then lethal damage can't be assigned.

Rob Cashwalker wrote:Trample damage can't be assigned to the player until lethal damage has been assigned to all blocking creatures. If the blocking creature has protection, then lethal damage can't be assigned.

This isn't correct. Lethal damage is how much damage it would take to destroy a creature accounting for previous damage, but not accounting for protection.

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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 that’s being assigned during the same combat damage step, [b]but not any abilities or effects that might change the amount of damage that’s actually dealt[/b]. 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.

Ex:    A 6/6 green creature with trample is blocked by a 2/2 creature with protection from green. The attacking creature’s controller must assign at least 2 damage to the blocker, even though that damage will be prevented by the blocker’s protection ability. The attacking creature’s controller can divide the rest of the damage as he or she chooses between the blocking creature and the defending player.


Thanks. There have been a couple games I should have won at FNM in this case....