Question about V's Shapeshifter

[Moonkeeper]

i would like to know if the following works.

Suppose I am attacking with a Volrath's Shapeshifter and a Pit Spawn is on top of my graveyard. If my opponent decides to block it, and his creature gets removed from the game during the first strike phase of combat, could i then discard a Phage so that the "Phage" deals damage to my opponent during the regular damage phase of combat or would the Shapeshifter be considered blocked either way?

[Jebus]

It's still blocked.  So, unless it somehow has trample, you're not going to be assigning any damage to your opponent.

The strat was to get through with Dreadnought, assign trample damage, then do the Phage thing.

[Godder]

Would it be possible to discard something with Double Strike at the right time (whenever that is) to make it work?

[4-bar-killa]

No when the creature is blocked its blocked. The first stirke damage and the normal damage the creature with doublestrike deals go all to nothing.
Only unblocked creatures and blocked  creatures with trample can assign damage to a player.


# 310.2b An unblocked attacking creature will assign all its combat damage to the defending player.
# 310.2c A blocked creature will assign combat damage, divided as its controller chooses, to the creatures blocking it. If no creatures are currently blocking it (if, for example, they were destroyed or removed from combat), it will assign no combat damage.

[Godder]

And if the Double Striker has Trample as well e.g. Dragon Tyrant?

[4-bar-killa]

With Trample it works well. Even without double strike.

You attack and he blocks, now he/you removes the blockers from the combat. Now you have an blocked creature, but with trample you only have to assign minimum deadly damage to the blockers (in this case 0) and then you can assign the rest to the player.
With double strike you can to this 2 times. The first time in the first strike combat damage step and the second time in the normal combat damage step. So it will be 2*6 damage=12.

[cssamerican]

With Trample it works well. Even without double strike.

Just to clarify the timming on this.
During Combat Damage Step while damage from combat is on the stack is when you would pitch Phage because it is when combat damage resolve Phage's ability triggers. This is why all you really need is for Trample damage to get through for this combat trick to work.

Another thing you might want to note is that if the Shapeshifter is a Bird of Paradise which has flying your opponent cannot declaring any blocker unless they have flying. If no blockers are then declared you can pitch Phage during the Declare Blockers Step as a way to get damage through.

[Gabethebabe]

With Trample it works well. Even without double strike.

You attack and he blocks, now he/you removes the blockers from the combat. Now you have an blocked creature, but with trample you only have to assign minimum deadly damage to the blockers (in this case 0) and then you can assign the rest to the player.
With double strike you can to this 2 times. The first time in the first strike combat damage step and the second time in the normal combat damage step. So it will be 2*6 damage=12.

The Bold thing is not correct. Blockers are removed when damage is dealt by Pit Spawn, that means the first damage that is dealt has to be assigned to the blocking creature(s).

After evasion, Trample is the next best thing to kill by Phage.

If the power of the attacking creature > toughness of the blocking creature(s) then you don´t need tricks with First Strike/Double Strike.
If the blocking creatures have toughness > power of your attacking creature, you could make up a trick with a trampling /double striking Volrath´s Shapeshifter, with the idea to eliminate blockers in the first strike combat damage step and kill you opponent in the normal combat damage step.

But why make life so difficult? Dreadnought tramples over (almost) anything.

[Matt]

Screw that. Cepahlid Inkshrouder FTW.

[Gabethebabe]

Don´t listen to Matt, even when he is thrashtalking.

Cephalid Inkshoulder or whatever that card is named is crap. He is only good in the deck when you have Survival on the table or under the very special circumstances that you have VS in play AND Inkshoulder in hand AND Phage in hand. Nought is good when you have Mask in play OR VS in play OR Survival in play.

Whatever. QAPC.

[Matt]

Mask is banned in 1.5 though! And that's obviously the only format that exists.