Originally Posted by
ChaosOS
First scenario, 6 damage. Combat damage happens, as part of that lifelink happens and so you gain 1 life. Then triggers get put on the stack (Such as pridemate getting a +1/+1 counter), then once those have resolved (you can cast instants here) you move to the next step, which is technically end of combat, but very rarely do people bother with doing things separately on that step so it moves to the second main phase. If the carcel had first strike, there's two combat damage phases, so the trigger would be put on the stack after the first (strike) combat damage phase, then regular damage happens after that so pridemate does 7 damage.
Hero of Iroas gets a +1/+1 counter because the heroic trigger is on casting the spell, not on resolution. In fact, if there wasn't the counterspell, hero would get the counter, THEN the aura would be attached. This is occasionally relevant in situations I can't remember right now.