Magic Combat Strategy: Attacking and Blocking With a Plan

Welcome to Level 2. At Level 1 you cleaned up the rules slips and built a deck that casts its spells. Now you start winning the fights. In sealed, draft, and most kitchen-table games, combat decides more games than anything else, and most combat decisions come down to a little arithmetic done at the right moment.

Every combat is a trade

When creatures fight, something is spent: creatures, life, or a trick from your hand. The question is never “is this attack good?” It is “after this combat, am I further ahead than before?”

Four outcomes cover most combats:

• A clean kill. Your creature destroys theirs and survives. Always good.
• A trade. Both creatures die. Good for whoever spent less to get theirs onto the battlefield, or whoever needs the board less.
• A chump block. A small creature blocks a big one and dies without killing it. You spend a card to save life. Worth it only when that life matters soon.
• Damage through. Nobody blocks, and life changes hands. Good for the attacker when the race favors them.

Racing: who wins if nobody blocks?

The single most useful habit at this level is counting the race. Add up the power you can attack with each turn, and divide your opponent’s life by it. That is your clock: the number of turns until they are dead. Do the same for them.

Say you have 14 life and they have 3 power on the board. Their clock on you is five turns. They are at 9 and you have 4 power. Your clock is three turns. You win the race if nothing changes, so you should attack and let them make the hard decisions.

Flip it, and you should hold creatures back to block. The player losing the race is the one who must find a way to change it.

When to attack

• When you are winning the race. Make your opponent choose between taking damage and trading.
• When no good blocks exist. If every block loses them a creature for nothing, the attack is free.
• When your opponent is tapped out. No untapped lands means no instant tricks. That is the safest time to send everything.

When to hold back

• When the crack-back kills you. Attacking taps your creatures. Before you attack, count what your opponent can swing back with into your untapped creatures next turn.
• When the only result is a bad trade. Your best creature for their worst is a loss, even if it feels active.
• When a trick is likely. Two untapped lands and a card they have been holding all game means something. Attack with creatures you can afford to lose.

Keywords that change the math

These are worth knowing cold, checked against the Comprehensive Rules effective September 25, 2026.

• First strike. Creatures with first strike deal combat damage in an extra step before the others. A 2/2 first striker blocking a 2/2 kills it and takes no damage.
• Deathtouch. Any damage from a deathtouch source destroys a creature. A 1/1 with deathtouch trades with anything it touches.
• Trample. After assigning lethal damage to its blockers, an attacker with trample sends the rest to the player. With deathtouch too, 1 damage counts as lethal to each blocker, so nearly all of it tramples over.
• Flying and reach. A flyer can be blocked only by creatures with flying or reach. Flyers often win races because nobody can block them.
• Menace. Can be blocked only by two or more creatures.
• Vigilance. Attacking does not tap it, so it can attack and still block next turn. That breaks the crack-back problem above.

Combat tricks

A combat trick is an instant that changes a fight after blockers are declared: a pump spell, a protection spell, a surprise removal spell. The best time to use one is after blocks, when your opponent has committed.

Two rules of thumb:

1. Use a trick to win a trade, not to deal a little extra damage. A trick that kills a blocker and saves your creature is a two-for-one. A trick that adds 3 damage to an unblocked attacker is usually a waste, unless it wins the game.
2. Respect theirs, but not forever. If you never attack because they might have a trick, they have won without casting it.

Blocking well

• Double block to kill a big attacker, but remember the attacking player divides its damage, so expect to lose one blocker.
• Do not block just because you can. Life is a resource. At 18 life, taking 3 to keep a creature that wins the race later is often right.
• Block to survive when the race is lost. Chump blocking buys turns. Spend them on drawing the answer.

The skills here carry straight into draft and sealed, and they matter even more in a cube, where every creature is strong. Our article on aggro in cube shows how racing shapes a whole format.