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Rules AnswersCombat & Damage

Does trample damage carry over to the defending player if all blockers have indestructible?

Short answer
Yes. With indestructible blockers, you must still assign lethal damage to each blocker first, but excess damage tramples over to the defending player.

Trample requires the attacking creature's controller to assign at least "lethal damage" to each blocking creature before any excess can be assigned to the defending player (CR 702.19b). Lethal damage is defined as damage equal to the blocker's toughness, minus any damage already marked on it (CR 702.19c).

The critical interaction here is that indestructible does not change what counts as lethal damage for trample purposes. CR 702.19c explicitly states that for assigning trample damage, lethal damage is still calculated as damage equal to or greater than the creature's toughness — the fact that indestructible prevents the creature from being destroyed by that damage is irrelevant to the assignment calculation.

So you must assign at least toughness-worth of damage to each indestructible blocker, but any remaining power beyond that total can be assigned to the defending player as trample damage. The indestructible blockers will survive, but the defending player still takes the excess.

Example: You attack with an 8/8 trampler. Your opponent blocks with an indestructible 3/3. You must assign at least 3 damage to the 3/3, and may assign the remaining 5 damage to the defending player. The 3/3 survives (indestructible), but the player takes 5 damage.

HIGH confidence CR 702.19b CR 702.19c
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