Opponent's commander damage

[JaxxLevia]

If I steal an opponent's commander and deal combat damage to him/her with it, does that count as normal damage only or does he/she receive commander damage somehow? I doubt it, but I want to be 100% sure.

[Gorzo]

If I steal an opponent's commander and deal combat damage to him/her with it, does that count as normal damage only or does he/she receive commander damage somehow? I doubt it, but I want to be 100% sure.

Commander damage counts as both regular damage and commander damage. So if you hit someone at 40 life with a commander of 5 power, his life total takes normal damage down to 35. He also tracks separately that he has received 5 damage from that particular commander. If a player accumulates 21 damage from any ONE individual commander, he/she loses the game.

That being said, if you steal someone else's commander and hit them with it, they take the normal damage, and their own commander damage is tracked as a separate commander hitting them.  For example, if you hit him with 10 from your commander and 11 with his own stolen commander, it does not = 21 commander damage, you have to get to 21 with 1 or the other.

[JaxxLevia]

Ah of course, so I would need to be in control of opponent's commander long enough to have it deal 21 combat damage to him/her. That does seem like the obvious answer now that I think about it, but thank you for clarifying.

[Gorzo]

Yup, and don't worry, some commanders are more than capable of doing that 21 in a single hit. {Act of Treason} on that {Kresh, the Bloodbraided} commander after he sac'd a bunch of guys to put a ton of counters on him? Oops!