Death shadow and trample

[Co2]

Hello,

{Death's shadow} made some "camera time" this weekend.
The guy with the deck stated that people were attacking him with trample creature and he was keeping his shadow. let say opponent attacks with vanilla 9/9 trample and we block with shadow at 7/7 opponnwnt assign 7 to shadow, 2 to us.
Damage resolution happens.
Why shadows survive ? Because of coniously checking life total bringing shadow to 9/9, before a state based action put it into the grave ?

[Rass]

My understanding is before trample can trigger you need to kill the blocker. (Not that it's a triggered ability) so he is already in the graveyard.

[Kaylesh]

My understanding is before trample can trigger you need to kill the blocker. (Not that it's a triggered ability) so he is already in the graveyard.

You need to assign lethal damage, which is not the same. When assigning, you don't take prevention effects into account.

702.19b: 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, but not any abilities or effects that might change the amount of damage that's actually dealt. 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.

As state based actions check for lethal AFTER damage is dealt, and as llama stated the-X/-X is altered accordingly, you'd need to assign enough damage to the shadow to deal lethal in the new situation, if you want to kill it.

Example:
{death shadow} at 1/1, you attack with a 3/3 trample.
You need to deal at least 1 damage to shadow, and can assign the other 2 between shadow and player.
If you assign 2 to the player, by the time state based actions are checked, the shadow is 3/3 and survives. If you assign 2 damage to the shadow, however, it will become a 2/2 with 2 damage marked on it, killing it.

[redwolv]

In other words. Trample allows a creature to assign damage to a player or planes walker but only after all blockers are assigned leathal damage. But you can have a trample creature deal all of its damage to the blockers as if it was a normal not trample creature.

[Co2]

Thanks to everyone, cant give karma yet

[Kaylesh]

Managed to get this question in at Magic the Amateuring podcast, Judgefest 2016. (Episode 177). Around 1:13:00, check out judges struggling on it

[Nymuera]

Managed to get this question in at Magic the Amateuring podcast, Judgefest 2016. (Episode 177). Around 1:13:00, check out judges struggling on it

Great podcast!!! Those two are hilarious!