Magic can you attack creatures

The 2 in the top right corner of Knight of the Keep represents two generic mana. You can get this by tapping a Plains and two additional lands of your choosing. A game of Magic might take any number of turns. On each of your turns, perform these actions, in this order:. Your main phase is the time when you play your land, and cast your spells. Instants are the only cards that may be cast at a time other than your main phase.

But they can still be cast in your main phase if you choose! Your attack happens all at once. You cannot attack with one creature, and then attack with more later in the turn.

Creatures attack your opponent; they do not attack other creatures. Only untapped creatures may block, but blocking does not cause creatures to tap.

Each blocking creature may only block one attacking creature. However, two blocking creatures may block the same attacking creature.

If a creature is not blocked, it will deal damage to the opponent. If a creature is blocked, the attacking and blocking creatures will deal damage to one another.

Finally, all attacking and blocking creatures will deal damage. Some creatures might die and be put in the graveyard, and your opponent might take damage that reduces their life total. However, damage to a creature only lasts until the end of the turn. For example, you could block Vorstclaw with a four-power creature, and then use an instant like Scorching Dragonfire to finish it off.

There is also a special rule that creatures cannot attack, or use abilities that require them to tap, on the turn that you cast them.

However, they may block right away. Sign up to join this community. The best answers are voted up and rise to the top. Stack Overflow for Teams — Collaborate and share knowledge with a private group.

Create a free Team What is Teams? Learn more. Are you allowed to attack creatures instead of a player? Ask Question. Asked 7 years, 7 months ago. Active 4 years, 1 month ago. Viewed 24k times. Improve this question. Gerben Jacobs Gerben Jacobs 1 1 gold badge 1 1 silver badge 4 4 bronze badges. Add a comment. Active Oldest Votes. Since this is a basic rules question, a quote from the basic rules : In your combat phase, you choose which of your creatures will attack, and you choose who or what they will attack.

Improve this answer. Cascabel Cascabel In the computer game Hearthstone you can attack creatures and there's a different strategy, I wouldn't call it less interesting.

Sorry for not reading the rules! Unless you have a very specific reason not to, you should generally block in a situation like this. A long-standing joke is that having the ability "must attack each turn if able" makes a creature more powerful than it would otherwise be. Technically speaking, something that serves to limit your options can never be a good thing.

The idea, though, is that the danger of playing too passively is greater than any possible rewards of choosing to keep your creature out of combat. When two similar creatures face off, you should usually attack if you can and you should usually block if you can.

You should block, because you're making an even trade and saving yourself 2 damage. You could take the damage with the intention of attacking back, but what if your opponent plays a bigger creature? Even if your opponent does not, you've traded damage, but you're behind in the race. One way to think of things is that creatures provide value every turn that they attack or block.

If you neither attack nor block with Wetland Sambar , then you've wasted a turn's worth of its value. If you decline to block and instead attack back, you've wasted half a turn's worth of its value. Players don't always get the same number of turns in a game of Magic, so mirroring your opponent's actions when you're on the draw will often be a losing battle. That's why you should virtually always block an attacking Wetland Sambar with your own Wetland Sambar.

Why should you attack when the situation is reversed? Well, for one thing, your opponent might not block. He or she might be afraid you have Awaken the Bear or might simply make a mistake.

Even if your opponent blocks nine times out of ten, that's still free damage some amount of the time. You'll win more games in the long run if you give yourself opportunities for free value. More realistically, though, the Wetland Sambar s are destined to trade off at some point in the game.

If you do it sooner rather than later you leave fewer chances for things to go wrong. If you don't attack, your opponent will probably attack you back and you'll probably block for all the reasons above. But now you've opened the door for things to go wrong. What if your opponent now has Awaken the Bear? What if your opponent plays a removal spell and takes away your ability to block? What if you allowed your opponent to trigger raid for a Mardu Warshrieker?

Sometimes you'll have a special reason not to trade creatures, like if you have Flying Crane Technique in your hand and are trying to set up a big turn for later. In the absence of that, however, you might as well trade off creatures sooner rather than later so your opponent can't take away your ability to do so.

Bluffing isn't a huge part of Magic. You can do well for yourself by simply playing your cards in the obvious way, and never trying to pull the wool over your opponents' eyes. That said, why not do it if you can? The most traditional bluff is simply attacking a smaller creature into a bigger creature in the early turns of the game.

Or would I? There's no easy solution to this situation, and that's the point. Both players are considering risk vs. From my perspective, let's say that I have nothing in my hand and I'm considering whether or not to bluff. How costly is it to lose my Wetland Sambar? How valuable is the 2 points of damage I stand to deal?

How likely are you to block? From your perspective, I've attacked a smaller creature into your bigger creature. What makes this special is that Abzan Falconer is quite a powerful card that's capable of giving you a big advantage as the game goes long. Doesn't that mean you shouldn't risk losing it in combat? But don't I know that, and wouldn't it make me more likely to bluff? As I said, there's no easy solution.

All I can offer is one piece of knowledge from my long experience with the game. If I found myself in this situation against an opponent I'd never met before, I'd most often not block with my Abzan Falconer thinking that my opponent probably had Dragonscale Boon.

The question of whether I'd bluff attack with Wetland Sambar comes down to the exact situation. If I had a strong hand and felt that I could win the game without taking the risk, I probably would not bluff. If I thought the game would come down to a close race and that I could only win by sneaking in some extra damage here and there, then I would probably attack. If I did attack, I'd be surprised although not shocked if my opponent blocked. It takes gall to attack a smaller creature into a bigger creature, especially in a high-pressure tournament setting.