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Jul 29, 2012 -- 8:00PM, DJhotenchilada wrote:

If prey upon makes two creatures "fight", would damage abilities such as trample, deathtouch, and lifelink activate? People have told me no, but my argument is that on the card it says exactly this... 
 Target creature you control fights target creature you don't control. (Each deals damage equal to its power to the other.) 

prey upon

I would say deathtouch and lifelink yes, trample I'm not sure.

The first answer is correct, despite the answerer's apparent lack of confidence in it was originally correct (when I started typing, it said outright that Trample didn't apply, not "I'm not sure").

Trample means that excess combat damage can be assigned to the player or planeswalker being attacked. Fighting is not combat damage (despite the fact that in English, "fighting" and "combat" are near synonyms - in Magic they have very different meanings), and there is no player or planeswalker being attacked. (Similarly, First Strike and Double Strike work by manipulating the mechanics of the combat phase, while fighting doesn't involve those mechanics at all, so those abilities don't apply to fighting either).

Deathtouch and Lifelink, on the other hand, just give additional effects to damage dealt by sources that have them. Those apply to all damage, combat or otherwise.

Trample affects combat damage assignment. No combat or damage assignment occurs in fighting, so trample does not come into play.

Deathtouch affects dealing damage. Damage is dealt in fighting, so deathtouch comes into play.

Lifelink affects dealing damage. Damage is dealt in fighting, so deathtouch comes into play.

701.10a A spell or ability may instruct a creature to fight another creature or it may instruct two creatures to fight each other. Each of those creatures deals damage equal to its power to the other creature.

702.18a Trample is a static ability that modifies the rules for assigning an attacking creature’s combat damage. The ability has no effect when a creature with trample is blocking or is dealing noncombat damage. (See rule 510, "Combat Damage Step.")

702.2c A creature with toughness greater than 0 that’s been dealt damage by a source with deathtouch since the last time state-based actions were checked is destroyed as a state-based action. See rule 704.

702.14b Damage dealt by a source with lifelink causes that source’s controller, or its owner if it has no controller, to gain that much life (in addition to any other results that damage causes). See rule 119.3.