"blocked" M10 rules question.

[Salient]

The new M10 rules are apparently still confusing me, I hope you'll forgive a question from a longtime player.

Suppose I block a Goblin Piker with a creature like Qasali Pridemage, then sacrifice my Pridemage to destroy an enchantment, or Unsummon it, or whatever. Is the attacking Piker still considered blocked, for the purpose of not damaging me? Does the outcome change if the Piker has been given trample?

I get that under the modern rules there's no way to get my Qasali Pridemage to do its 2 damage to the blocked creature and also sacrifice the Pridemage. What I don't get is whether it's possible for a creature to cease to be "blocked" due to actions that transpire after blockers have been declared.

(Mods, please feel free to vaporize this question if it's redundant. It's hard to figure out the right words to search the archives for, searching variations on "block" turned up a load of threads...)

[DragonFox1001]

Originally Posted by Salient

The new M10 rules are apparently still confusing me, I hope you'll forgive a question from a longtime player.

Suppose I block a Goblin Piker with a creature like Qasali Pridemage, then sacrifice my Pridemage to destroy an enchantment, or Unsummon it, or whatever. Is the attacking Piker still considered blocked, for the purpose of not damaging me?

Yes. Once blocked, it will remain blocked for the rest of combat no matter what happens to the creatures blocking it.

Does the outcome change if the Piker has been given trample?

Yes. Though it will still be considered blocked, it will assign all its damage to the defending player.

[Exsam]

Originally Posted by Salient

The new M10 rules are apparently still confusing me, I hope you'll forgive a question from a longtime player.

Suppose I block a Goblin Piker with a creature like Qasali Pridemage, then sacrifice my Pridemage to destroy an enchantment, or Unsummon it, or whatever. Is the attacking Piker still considered blocked, for the purpose of not damaging me?

Yes, once a creature is blocked it will remain blocked for the duration of combat.

Does the outcome change if the Piker has been given trample?

The creature is still blocked but trample will cause it to deal damage to the defending player/planeswalker since there is nothing else to assign the damage to.

These scenarios did not change.

[SyntheticDreamer]

Yes, the Goblin Piker is still blocked. The only way for a blocked attacking creature to become unblocked is if an effect specifically says so. If you sacrifice your Qasali Pridemage after it blocks the Goblin Piker during the declare blockers step, then when it comes time to assign combat damage, the Goblin Piker won't have a blocking creature to assign damage to, and therefore it won't deal any combat damage at all. If the Piker gains trample, it will assign all its combat damage to the defending player or planeswalker. That part didn't change when the rules were updated for M10.

Previously, when combat damage used the stack, you could respond to the combat damage going on the stack by sacrificing your Qasali Pridemage to activate its ability, and the damage would still be dealt. This is no longer the case.

[parinoid]

The answer to your question has been the case since at least 6th edition.

Once a creature has been blocked, it remains blocked even if all the blocking creatures die. If the attacking creature has trample, then since it has no creatures to damage, it just smacks the player for the full amount.

The only way to have a creature become unblocked is to remove it from combat, or to use a spell or ability that specifically makes it unblocked (if any exist).

[Salient]

Originally Posted by parinoid

The answer to your question has been the case since at least 6th edition.

Ah good, it works as I'm used to (no damage normally / all trampler damage gets through because 'assign lethal damage to defenders first' becomes satisfied vacuously), the only change is that there's no instant-speed-react-to-damage gimmickry anymore. I was getting badgered about this earlier today and didn't feel confident enough to protest. Thanks, all.