Eternal Thirst + Deathtouch doesn't grant additional damage?
Asked by Lord_Olga 1 month ago
Just making sure this works the way I think it does. Say I have a deathtouch creature with Eternal Thirst on it attacking and it gets blocked by multiple creatures. Since I have deathtouch, I can assign 1 damage to each blocker for fatal. As each creature dies during the damage step the deathtouch creature will get +1/+1, which gives it more damage to deal than it had before, as well as more toughness to survive the damage being dealt to it. However, I can't actually assign the new power to damage more blockers, as I have already declared where my damage is being dealt. The additional damage will go unassigned. Is this correct?
Rhadamanthus says... #2
When the blocking creatures die you're already well past the point where damage has been assigned and dealt. This means it's too late for the +1/+1 counters from Eternal Thirst to affect the the attacker's power or toughness for determining the effects of damage. The attacker won't deal any extra damage and it will also die if it took lethal damage before the +1/+1 counters went on (i.e. if the attacker is 5/5 and gets blocked by 3 2/2s and there's no first/double strike involved then all the creatures will die together).
April 8, 2024 5:36 p.m.
Gidgetimer riiight, MTGO has me forgetting damage isnt dealt one at a time hahaha
April 8, 2024 7:50 p.m.
Rhadamanthus says... #4
Lord_Olga: Since it's clear you got a satisfactory answer to your question and there don't seem to be any more follow-ups or corrections that need to be made, I marked it as the "Accepted answer" so this topic can move out of the list of unanswered questions. In the future you can take care of this yourself using the "Mark as Answer" button on the response that you feel is the most helpful answer to your question.
Gidgetimer says... Accepted answer #1
It is correct that you will not get to assign more damage damage than the creature had power at the beginning of the combat damage step.
Your reasoning, however; is a bit wrong. You assign damage from your attackers and the blocking player(s) assign the damage from their blockers. Then all combat damage is dealt simultaneously. The game will try to then give you priority, which means that SBAs will be checked and triggers put on the stack until there are no more SBAs performed or triggers put on the stack. When the first round of SBAs are checked all of your opponents creatures (without indestructible) that were dealt damage by a source with deathtouch will die, as will the enchanted creature if your opponent dealt enough damage to it to kill it. The ability granted by Eternal Thirst will then trigger and will be put on the stack once an SBA check is completed without any SBA being performed. Then there is a round of priority before each trigger resolves putting counters on the enchanted creature (if it is still alive). As you can see there may not be much actual time between damage assignment and getting the counters. But there is a tremendous amount that has happened in terms of game actions and it is well past damage assignment by the time the counters are added.
510.1. First, the active player announces how each attacking creature assigns its combat damage, then the defending player announces how each blocking creature assigns its combat damage. This turn-based action doesn’t use the stack. A player assigns a creature’s combat damage according to the following rules:...
510.2. Second, all combat damage that’s been assigned is dealt simultaneously. This turn-based action doesn’t use the stack. No player has the chance to cast spells or activate abilities between the time combat damage is assigned and the time it’s dealt.
510.3. Third, the active player gets priority. (See rule 117, “Timing and Priority.”)
April 8, 2024 5:32 p.m.