MTG Salvation

This is a post to clarify and assure people that if you thought Trample works different than it used to, and people are telling you that it was always this "new way", I'm here to prove that Trample used to play different. (While this might be seen as a necropost, it will truly help others that think they are crazy.)
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Trample. Ah, what a wonderful ability. I have played with it since Revised. So I was shocked when my son told me that, when my creature was blocked by two defenders, I could not assign all the trample damage to a single creature. What does he mean? I was playing trample wrong? In order to prove him wrong we both looked it up. I was shocked to find out that I have to assign lethal trample damage to every blocking creature before it overflows to the player. When did this happen??? I was stunned.

Every online post says Trample has always been ruled way. Even the OP in the following thread was shocked about the same thing in 2015. But no one ever gave proof that he and I were ever correct.
mtgsalvation.com...magic-rulings-archives/593423-rules-change-trample

I journeyed down to my bookshelf. I moved the Dragonlance paperbacks aside and straightened the leaning D&D books to pull out my beloved and thoroughly read 1994 "Magic the Gathering: Players Pocket Guide" On the back it proudly states, "At last, the definitive reference for Magic: the Gathering players". My proof that Trample was able to assign all damage to a single creature is in this single tome.

These are excerpts from the "Magic the Gathering Pocket Players Guide"

Trample pages 83-85
All damage delivered by a creature with the Trample ability is considered Trample damage. If a defending creature takes more Trample damage than is needed to kill it, the excess Trample damage is applied to the defending player. If the poor defending creature find's itself receiving both normal and Trample damage, apply the normal damage first.

Mathias says: If a creature with trample is blocked by two or more defenders, the attacking player can choose to assign all the trample damage to one defending creature; any excess trample damage then gets through to the defending player. The attacking player could also spread the trample damage around over several of the defenders, but if any defending creature takes more trample damage than is necessary to kill it, the excess will spill over onto the defending player.
- {the passage then continues with explanations of blocking creatures with banding, and also creatures with protection from the trampling creatures color.}

If a creature with the trample ability is considered blocked, but the creature blocking it is removed before damage is dealt, then all trample damage is applied to the player.

And

Page 211 FAQ: about Magic the Gathering

Q: Trample: [War Mammoth are a 3/3, with Trample.] OK, now they’re attacking. If they are blocked by two 1/1 Mons's Goblin Raiders, I get to assign the damage, right?

A: Yes, unless there is a banding creature among the goblins.

Q: OK, forget about the banding for a minute. Can I choose to damage only one of the Mons's Goblin Raiders, miss the other one, and let the other two points carry over to my opponents?

A: Yes. You could do the same type of assignment with a non-trampling creature, although the extra damage would not carry over.

So, you seekers of knowledge, are not crazy. This is proof that Trample used to be different. The Old School way. In the day when a player had to calculate for Mana Burn and Banding creatures had to be explained to each competitor, because they just didn't understand it.

Let it be known, I am not fighting the rule, I just wanted clarity that indeed I had played the cards right until the rule changed. Ok, so it changed 20 years ago, but I still played it correctly then. And yes, my son was right. Trample must kill each blocking creature before damage can go to the player. I realized that yet another rule had changed while I had not been paying attention. In that quiet moment of realization, I inwardly smiled with pride as my son kicked my butt for the 928th time.

Your thread is not really a good fit for this forum, which generally deals with current rules, not issues on how the oldest rules in the game worked or how players might have played under those rules. Try posting your thread in the Magic General forum instead.

Yes, it was changed as part of Urza's Saga in 1998.

http://web.archive.org/web/19991008110320/https://www.wizards.com/magic/expert/urzas_saga/uz_rules.asp

(The direct link will probably work once Wizards finishes their server maintenance.)

Quote from peteroupc »

Your thread is not really a good fit for this forum, which generally deals with current rules, not issues on how the oldest rules in the game worked or how players might have played under those rules. Try posting your thread in the Magic General forum instead.

That's fair. I originally posted this here because this is where the OP thread was moved to. Also, when someone is looking for the current rule, this thread still shows what is the current way to deal with Trample damage, and why the person thought it was the other way. =^)

Quote from DragonBard »

Also, when someone is looking for the current rule, this thread still shows what is the current way to deal with Trample damage, and why the person thought it was the other way. =^)

Older threads are rather unreliable when it comes to the rules: Magic moves very fast. Every single year, some rules are changed or deleted, and some new rules get added.
Many cards also receive retro-active modifications: many of those cardboard pieces you hold in hand may actually say something different than what is printed on them! For example, Angry Mob is now a Human (although ALL printed cards read 'mob'), and is thus subject to Human Frailty.
Combat damage is one subject that received many major rules adjustments, along with The Stack, Mulligans and Legendary permanents.

If you wish to keep up with rules evolution, have a weekly look at Magic's official website:
https://magic.wizards.com/en

Or you could read the rulebook yourself, once in a while.
I personnally read it every year.
With only 196 pages to read (once you skip over introduction, titles, glossary and credits), one can read 5 pages a day and be done in 39 days.

Magic rulebooks:
https://magic.wizards.com/en/game-info/gameplay/rules-and-formats/rules?source=MX_Nav2020