Trample in MTG: Rules, History, and FAQ

Last updated on December 6, 2024

Quartzwood Crasher | Illustration by Antonio José Manzanedo

There are some keywords in Magic that those of us who’ve been playing for years can hardly remember ever not knowing how they work, while newer players may get confused in the details.

Trample is a great example of this, and today I give you an overview of what it is, how it works, and talk about the edge cases that might catch even the most seasoned of players. I also look at some funky stuff we can do with trample creatures.

Let’s get ready to rumble!

What is Trample?

Trample is an ability that let's you deal damage to your opponent if the blocking creature has less toughness than your attacking creature's power.

How Does Trample Work?

Craterhoof Behemoth | Illustration by Chris Rahn

Trample works when your creature gets blocked and allows excess damage to get through. The reminder text reads, Trample (“This creature can deal excess combat damage to the player or planeswalker it's attacking.”

“Excess combat damage” means the damage that would be dealt to the blocking creature beyond what’s required to destroy it.

The History of Trample in MTG

Trample is one of the oldest keywords in Magic, has been around since 1993 and appears on five cards in the very first set, Alpha. It has since been in virtually all sets ever printed, taking a small break from core sets between Sixth Edition and Eighth Edition because designers worried it was too complex for beginners sets.

It was reintroduced in Ninth Edition with new reminder text and has been a staple, and an evergreen mechanic, ever since!

What is Trample Damage?

Trample damage is the damage dealt to the player by an attacking creature after lethal damage has been dealt to all creatures blocking it.

How Much Damage Does Trample Do?

Trample takes the remaining damage after blockers get their lethal damage and sends that much damage to the opponent or planeswalker. When you calculate trample damage, look at the power of the attacking creature and the toughness of the blocking creature.

If you attack with a 4/4 creature with trample and your opponent blocks with a vanilla 1/1, you deal one damage to the blocking creature to destroy it and three to the opponent. If they block with a 2/2, you’d have to deal two damage to the blocking creature and then there’s only two excess damage left over for the opponent. Similarly, if you were instead blocked by a 1/1 and a 2/2, you’d have to deal one damage to the 1/1, two to the 2/2 and you would be left with one damage for the defending player.

Can You Choose Not to Trample?

Trample only says that you have to assign lethal damage to the blocking creature as a minimum in the combat damage step, but you could assign all the damage to the blocking creatures if you want to.

What if the Creature Blocking Trample Dies?

If your attacking creature has trample and the defending creature was removed before combat damage, the total amount of damage is dealt to your opponent. Normally if your attacking creature is blocked, none of the damage would get through, even if the blocking creature died, returned to a hand or was removed from combat.

Does Trample Work When Blocking?

Trample has no effect when blocking, it’s only relevant when the trample creature is attacking.

Can You Block Trample with Multiple Creatures?

Yes, you can block an attacking trample creature with multiple of your own creatures. If you block their 5/5 trampler with a 1/1 and a 2/2, they’ll need to assign lethal damage to both creatures before they can trample you.

Does Trample Stack?

Trample does not stack, and multiple instances of it are redundant. Sometimes you can give a creature multiple instances of trample, like if you had Surrak and Goreclaw on the battlefield, or cast Crash the Ramparts on Colossal Dreadmaw. But, like I said, this is redundant and would have no effect on the damage calculations.

How Does Deathtouch Work with Trample?

Deathtouch is great with trample, a creature with both Trample and Deathtouch only needs to deal one point of damage to the defending creature to destroy it before dealing the rest of the deathtouch/trample creature’s damage to the defending creature.

Because of this combination, R&D seem to avoid printing creatures with both trample and deathtouch naturally. But that doesn’t mean you can’t manage to get this keyword combination with other effects.

Does Trample Beat Indestructible?

Yes, at least in the sense that the additional damage does successfully trample over a blocking creature. An indestructible creature can’t be destroyed by combat damage, but you only need to assign lethal-equivalent damage to that creature and then the excess damage can be assigned to the blocking player.

How Do Protection and Trample Work?

A creature with trample can still assign damage to the player if the creature with protection that is blocking has insufficient toughness to be assigned all of the damage. For example, if you're attacking with a 7/7 trampler into a 2/2 with protection, it will still assign 5 damage to the defending player. This is a pretty common misconception, but don't take my word for it, read up on rule 702.18b!

How Does First Strike with Trample Work?

An attacking creature with first strike and trample deals damage to your opponent's creature before they deal damage to yours, you assign lethal damage to your opponent’s creature, and you deal any excess damage to the opponent. And if you dealt lethal damage then the blocking creature is destroyed and it can’t deal damage back.

If your opponent has a blocker with first strike and your attacking trample creature doesn’t, their creature deals damage first and has the opportunity to destroy yours before it even gets a chance to deal regular or trample damage.

If both have first strike, they both deal damage in the first strike step and it resolves in pretty much the same was as if neither did.

Does Trample Apply to Double Strike?

Trample works really well with double strike, especially if you can destroy your opponent’s creature in the first strike step. Any excess damage your trample creature would deal is still dealt to the player/planeswalker it’s attacking, and this includes excess from double strike damage.

This is why Embercleave and Temur Battle Rage are super scary, and Bolrac-Clan Basher can disguise a big surprise.

Does “Prevent All Damage” Stop Trample?

If all damage is prevented, this definitely stops any damage from trample. But if the damage is only prevented to the blocking creature, like with Blinding Fog, things work just like they do when the creature has protection and can result in damage getting through.

How Does Trample Work with Damage Modifiers Like Torbran?

Damage is assigned before modifiers like Torbran's ability adds damage. Torbran doesn’t help if your trample creature’s power isn’t enough to deal lethal on its own. This is because damage is assigned before modifiers like Torbran, Thane of Red Fell’s ability come into effect. So your trample creature assigns its damage to the creature(s) blocking it, and then Torbran’s ability adds that damage. Torbran doesn’t help if your trample creature’s power isn’t enough to deal lethal on its own.

This works in much the same way with other damage modifying effects like Fiery Emancipation, and even effects that reduce damage dealt like Valkmira, Protector's Shield.

Does Trample Work on a Planeswalker?

Yes, trample works on planeswalkers. Excess damage is still dealt to the planeswalker if you chose to attack it instead of the player. However, if a planeswalker has 1 loyalty left and you attack it with a 10/10 trampler, none of that damage goes past the planeswalker to the defending player.

Does Trample Work with Fight?

The key point here is that trample cares about combat damage, and fight effects don’t count as combat damage.

Does Trample Work with Infect?

Yes, trample works with infect. Any damage dealt to blockers by the trampling infect creature is replaced with -1/-1 counters, and damage dealt to players (excess or otherwise) is replaced by poison counters.

How Does Toxic Work with Trample?

Trample helps enable toxic. Since toxic cares if combat damage is dealt to a player, any amount of trample damage that gets through a block will turn into poison counters.

How Does Trample Work with Battles?

Trample can send excess damage through creatures to hit battles much like players or planeswalkers.

How Do You Give Creatures Trample?

There are lots of ways to give creatures trample. You can give it temporarily with cards like Berserk, one of the first cards with trample printed on it, permanently with Archetype of Aggression or an activated ability like on Rhonas the Indomitable.

Fully Grown is another way to permanently give a creature trample thanks to the ability counters from Ikoria.

There are tons of cards that give trample since it’s an evergreen keyword, and more are printed pretty much every set.

What is a Trample Counter?

If a creature has a trample counter on it, then it has trample! Ikoria introduced ability counters to Magic. These counters represent a permanent buff to the creature, granting a keyword to the creature based on the type of counter. If a creature has a trample counter on it, then it has trample!

Can Trample Work if the Attacking Creature’s Power is Reduced to 0?

No, trample does nothing if the creature's power is 0. The creature needs to deal combat damage for trample to be relevant.

What is Spell Trample?

Any excess damage from the spell is dealt to the target creature’s controller, similar to how regular trample works with combat damage. Super-Duper Death Ray was printed in Unstable. This card deals four damage to a creature, but has trample, meaning any excess damage from the spell is dealt to the target creature’s controller similar to how regular trample works with combat damage.

This was a cute one-off until Flame Spill and Ram Through were printed in Ikoria in 2020. The former works the same as the Death Ray, while the latter creates a fight effect with a clause that lets trample work even though it’s not combat damage.

We’ve had a few other cards that either have “spell trample” since then, like Pigment Storm, and other cards that care about excess damage in other ways, like Aegar, the Freezing Flame. It’s proving to be a new area of design for WotC that’s still being explored.

Is Trample Good?

In short, yes, trample is good. It’s generally held as one of the better keywords to give a creature, maybe behind flying, lifelink, and double strike. Obviously best on larger creatures, it’s often the addition of trample to a big beefy green creature that takes it from okay to great.

Just look at how little play something like Gigantosaurus sees, mostly because of the lack of trample.

Notable Trample Cards

Here’s a quick nod to a few trample cards you should be aware of if you think you can hide behind three or four saprolings, you could be in for an Overwhelming Stampede.

Best Cards to Pair with Trample Creatures

Toski, Bearer of Secrets

One of the best cards with trample is Toski, Bearer of Secrets. This squirrel draws you a card for each creature you get through. And you’ll draw a card for each strike if you have double strike!

Ohran Frostfang + Saryth, the Viper's Fang + Archetype of Finality

Deathtouch goes amazingly well with trample since it means you only have to deal one damage for lethal. There are a few cards that give creatures you control deathtouch, and some of the better ones are Ohran Frostfang, Saryth, the Viper's Fang, and Archetype of Finality. These allow you to get even more damage through, and make it unwise for your opponents to block at all!

Decklist: Stonebrow Trample in Commander

Stonebrow, Krosan Hero | Illustration by Ron Spears

The best place to play around a mechanic like trample is, obviously, in Commander. Here’s an idea of how to abuse the extra damage you can deal to your opponent.

As we know, trample is best on big creatures. Well, the good thing about this deck is that Stonebrow, Krosan Hero is the perfect card to make your big tramplers even bigger! Cards like Neheb, Dreadhorde Champion, can give you effects like ramp and card selection when you hit. And it’s filled with big beaters like Borborygmos and Ilharg, the Raze-Boar to attack in with!

Wrap Up

Toski, Bearer of Secrets | Illustration by Jason Rainville

Trample has been around since the start of Magic. It’s a fantastically flavorful mechanic with a bit of a “simple to learn, difficult to master” vibe to it, which is for the intricacies of the game. It makes big creatures useful and chump blocks not very effective, while the mechanic is a touch less powerful than flying, which is good when it comes to the design and balance of cards.

What do you think? Where does trample rank in your keyword power levels? What’s your favorite trample payoff? Let me know in the comments down below or join the discussion in the Draftsim Discord.

I’ll catch you in the next one. May all your creatures deal excess damage!