Unraveling Trample: A Comprehensive Guide to Overrun Your Opponents in Magic: The Gathering

Trample is a keyword ability in Magic: The Gathering that dramatically impacts how combat damage is assigned. In essence, trample allows an attacking creature to deal any excess damage to the player, planeswalker, or battle it’s attacking, even if it’s blocked. This means you don’t necessarily need to clear the path to inflict damage directly; you can crush through blockers and still hit your opponent! The attacking player first assigns damage to the blocking creatures. 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.

Diving Deeper into Trample Mechanics

Trample fundamentally alters the rules of the Combat Damage Step. Without trample, a blocked attacker’s damage is essentially absorbed by the blocker(s). With trample, the story changes. The attacking player must assign lethal damage to each blocking creature before any damage can “trample” over. However, “lethal damage” doesn’t necessarily mean the creature must die. It simply means assigning enough damage to destroy a creature with that toughness; so if damage prevention is in place, then you only have to assign what would have been lethal, but would be prevented.

Trample is primarily found in green on the color wheel, reflecting green’s focus on overwhelming strength and natural power. Red also sees a growing share of trample effects, representing its aggressive and direct approach to combat. Knowing where trample is most prevalent can greatly influence your deck-building and strategic decisions.

How Damage Assignment Works with Trample

Understanding how to assign damage with trample is critical to maximizing its effectiveness. Here’s the step-by-step process:

1. Declare Blockers: The defending player declares which creatures are blocking the attacking creature with trample.
2. Assign Lethal Damage: The attacking player assigns damage to the blocking creatures. You must assign at least lethal damage to each blocker before you can assign any damage to the defending player, planeswalker, or battle.
3. Allocate Remaining Damage: If the attacking creature’s power exceeds the total toughness of the blocking creatures (after accounting for lethal damage assignment), the remaining damage is “trampled” over to the defending player, planeswalker, or battle. The attacking player decides how to allocate this remaining damage.

Example: Let’s say you attack with a 5/5 creature with trample, and your opponent blocks with a 2/2 creature. You must assign 2 damage to the blocking creature, dealing the lethal amount of damage to it. You can then assign the remaining 3 damage to your opponent.

Strategic Implications of Trample

Trample’s strategic importance lies in its ability to bypass defenses and apply pressure directly to the opponent. It forces opponents to make difficult choices about blocking, especially when facing creatures with high power. A well-timed trample attack can quickly deplete an opponent’s life total or remove key planeswalkers from the board.

Trample FAQs: Your Burning Questions Answered

Here are some frequently asked questions about trample to further clarify its nuances and interactions with other game mechanics.

1. Does trample go through indestructible? Yes, in a way. You only need to assign lethal damage to the indestructible creature. The excess damage then tramples over to the defending player or planeswalker. An indestructible creature can’t be destroyed by combat damage, but you only need to assign lethal-equivalent damage to that creature and then the excess damage can be assigned to the blocking player.

2. Does trample go over power or toughness? Assuming the attacker has higher power than the blocker’s toughness, then yes, you can trample over for damage to the defending player. You just have to assign enough damage that would have killed the blocker, the fact that it’s prevented is irrelevant.

3. Does Deathtouch stop trample? No. Deathtouch simply means that any amount of damage a creature deals to another creature is considered lethal damage. So, if a creature with Deathtouch blocks a trampling creature, the attacking player only needs to assign 1 damage to the blocker. The rest can trample over. Both creatures die.

4. Does trample roll over protection? Yes. If you attack with a 7/7 green creature with trample, and they block with a 2/2 protection from green creature, it will assign damage equal to that creature’s toughness (2) to the creature, and the other 5 will trample over to the player. Protection prevents damage, targeting, enchanting/equipping (if the source has the quality the permanent is protected from), and blocking. But you still need to assign lethal damage.

5. Does trample work when fighting? No. Trample matters only for combat damage, so it would not. Trample is a keyword ability that only applies during the combat damage step.

6. How does prevent damage work with trample? With trample, you have to assign what would be lethal damage to all creatures blocking it before you can start assigning damage to the defending player. You assign as if no prevent effect was in play, only to have the damage be prevented.

7. How does trample and Deathtouch work? If an attacking creature with deathtouch and trample becomes blocked, the attacking creature first assigns damage to the creature(s) blocking it. Because of deathtouch, you only have to assign 1 damage to kill the creature, and then the excess tramples over.

8. Does trample count as a counter? Yes, the keywords that a keyword counter can be are flying, first strike, double strike, deathtouch, haste, hexproof, indestructible, lifelink, menace, reach, shadow, trample, and vigilance, as well as any variants of those keywords.

9. What magic card gives all creatures trample? There are few better cards for giving your army trample than Akroma’s Memorial. This artifact has a blanket ability that grants all your creatures trample, as well as flying, first strike, haste, vigilance, and protection from red and black.

10. Does trample go through fog? Yes, if you play Fog Bank it will be able to block the next (opponent’s) turn, but when a creature with trample is blocked by Fog Bank, it only needs to assign 2 damage (Fog Bank’s toughness) to Fog Bank, and the rest will still ‘trample over’ to you.

11. Does double strike trample over? No, double strike lets your creature deal damage as if it had first strike and then again in the regular damage step. If said creature deals extra damage, then that damage just vanishes. The one exception is if the creature has trample.

12. Does double strike damage trample? In addition, all creatures with double strike assign combat damage again in the second step. If a creature has both double strike and trample, the combat damage it assigned during the first combat damage step will be considered when determining how much damage can trample through in the second combat damage step.

13. Can you sacrifice a blocking creature with trample? You can block, and then still in the declare blockers step, sacrifice it. The attacker will remain blocked and won’t assign combat damage to the player or planeswalker it’s attacking unless it has trample or a similar ability. The creature you sacrificed won’t be there to deal combat damage either though.

14. Do shield counters stop trample? Shield counters provide no extra protection against trample. The trampler still has to assign lethal damage to all blockers before assigning damage to the defending player, but this isn’t affected by shield counters in any way.

15. Does prevent combat damage stop trample? Yes. You only have to assign damage to a defending creature equal to the creature’s toughness; it doesn’t matter if the damage will be prevented.

Conclusion

Trample is a potent ability that can significantly impact gameplay in Magic: The Gathering. Mastering its intricacies, understanding its interactions with other abilities, and leveraging it strategically are key to achieving victory.

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