#lethal damage

[magicjudge]

If Zilortha is dealt 2 damage during the turn, can it be killed with a -1/-1 effect?

First of all, contrary to what Arena shows you, normal damage doesn't reduce toughness. Zilortha still has 3 toughness even when it has taken 2 damage, so reducing its toughness to 2 won't do anything thanks to its ability. Giving it -3/-3 would kill it, however, since dying to 0 toughness is a different state-based action than dying to lethal damage.

Zilortha's ability causes you to compare marked damage to a creature's power rather than its toughness, so Zilortha would die if it had 7 damage marked on it. (Creatures with 0 power won't die unless they have at least 1 damage marked on them, though. Lethal damage is only checked if there is some amount of damage marked on a creature.)

[northeasts]

had to make a 2 minute call today at 10.30am 5 whole minutes after i woke up. still haven't recovered

[nordic-the-dm]

Lethal damage bitch slap is my favorite thing

[magicjudge]

I attack with a creature that has deathtouch, and it is blocked by multiple creatures. Then the defending player uses a damage prevention effect (lets say 3 damage prevented) on the first creature that I designate to receive damage. how much damage am I required to do to that first creature before I can start spreading damage to the other creatures?

You still only have to assign 1 damage to the first creature. Damage assignment doesn’t take into account damage prevention effects when determining what constitutes lethal damage.

[magicjudge]

Another question about combat resolving. Let’s say I have a Rot Shambler attacking with 3 counters on it (now being a 4/4) being blocked by a 4/5. In addition I have a 1/1 creature attacking that is blocked by a 2/2. Will the Rot Shambler die here, or will it get the triggered effect from my 1/1 dying, become 5/5 and survive? Also, if I have multiple creatures with triggered abilites dying, do I decide the order these resolve, or does my opponents order of decleared attacks decide?

This doesn’t work. I could do my usual thing and explain everything that’s happening here, but I’m going to try something different for this question and just point out the key element here instead. Let me know what you guys think of this format

Rot Shambler dies.“Why?” Because it has lethal damage marked on it. “But it’s going to get counters from its triggers when the other creatures die.”Sure, but those creatures have to die for Rot Shambler to trigger, and everything that’s going to die because of damage or other state-based actions dies simultaneously.“But the triggers...”They don’t get a chance to resolve. They’ll trigger, but they trigger at the same time that Rot Shambler is also being sent to the graveyard. They’re not even on the stack yet.“But it feels like it should all happen at once.”Sure, except it doesn’t work that way. The triggers can’t go on the stack until the other creatures die, and Rot Shambler can’t just hang around on the battlefield with lethal damage marked on it when other creatures with lethal damage are being destroyed.“But...”The rules have to treat every creature equally. They can’t just wait because this guy would live if only these triggers could resolve first.

As your second question, you choose the order in which your triggered abilities are put on the stack when there are multiple triggers waiting to resolve simultaneously.

[mtgtutorials]

If a creature with 3 toughness has 2 damage marked on it from a Mugging, and then it gets -1/-1 from a Tragic Slip, will it be destroyed or will it just die? (Would totem armor, regeneration or indestructibility save it?)

It would be destroyed. It’s toughness would still be above 0, so it wouldn’t just go to the graveyard as a state-based effect; rather, it would be destroyed because it had lethal damage on it.

Totem armor, regeneration and indestructibility would all save the creature in this situation, because they all prevent or replace the creature being destroyed.