Picture it with me. The bully down the street has finally cornered you. Your back is to the wall. A cold sweat covers your body as a sadistic grin curls the sides of his mouth. He grabs you, confident in his ability to carry out whatever evil plan his pea-sized brain has devised. Then... he crumples to the ground in a fit of blinding pain and nausea. Why? While he was pondering what toilet to shove your head into, you were calculating the perfect time to use your combat trick.

While Magic offers us some slightly more elegant options, the principle of combat tricks remains the same. A combat trick is any spell (or in some cases well-timed knee to the groin) that is cast during combat to screw up your opponent's assessment of how things are going to go. When most people think of combat tricks, they think of obvious spells like Predator's Strike, but almost any card that can be played at instant speed can be a combat trick. I once saw some guy play Galvanic Key after his opponent had decided to attack with all his creatures, use it to untap his Myr Enforcer, block some of the impending lethal damage, and then win the next turn. No, I don't think you should be running Galvanic Key. That instance was probably the only time in the history of the card that it has ever been good for anything. Why was it good? The player used it to turn his opponent's decision to alpha strike from the quickest route to victory into a fatal error.

Combat tricks don't necessarily have to win you the game. Most of the time they simply cost your opponent board position. The change in board position can be minor, like using Awe Strike to keep your creature alive when your opponent believed it would trade with one of his. It can also occasionally be amazing.

In MMM, I had no creatures in play and was staring across the table at my opponent's Rustmouth Ogre, Myr Enforcer, Vulshok Gauntlet-wearing Iron Myr, and freshly played Vulshok Berserker. He attacked with everything. In response, I entwined Betrayal of Flesh killing his Rustmouth Ogre and bringing back my Viridian Shaman, which in turn destroyed his Myr Enforcer and blocked his Vulshok Berserker, trading with it. One spell took me from having no creatures against my opponent's three and him attacking for seventeen deadly points of damage to me taking a paltry five damage and equally lousy board position for both of us. I think I managed to go on to lose that game, but the lesson to me was clear. If you're going to win at Magic, you have to make the most of every single spell. Often times, the best way to do that is to use it to create unintended consequence for your opponent in combat. Let's talk a little bit about some different kinds of combat tricks and how and, perhaps more importantly, how not to use them.

Pump Spells
Pump spells, spells that increase a creature's power and/or toughness either temporarily like Giant Growth or permanently like Battlegrowth, are the prototypical combat tricks. These types of tricks are best played when they allow you to kill an opposing creature without losing one yourself. For example, our valiant scrub, Timmy, has managed to play a Slith Predator on his second turn after going first. Spike looks across the table at him with cold derision and plays a Gold Myr on his second turn. Tim, untaps, plays a land and sends his 1/1 Predator into the red zone to face the opposing Myr. Spike looks at the second Gold Myr in his hand and blocks. Unfortunately for Spike, the scrub has been getting better since last time they met, and with a look or calm determination, he plays Battlegrowth on his Predator which kills Spike's Myr, tramples for one damage, and grows to a 3/3. Grumbling about stupid scrubs and their bad combat tricks, Spike goes on to lose the game and slinks off to find some eight-year-old to play against.

Now Tim, pleased with himself, but still remembering that he sucks, thinks back to last week before he understood combat tricks. He'd been playing against Spike then too, but on that day he'd drafted the usually more powerful Predator's Strike. Spike had kept a slow draw, and the scrub had felt great as he played a turn 4 Fangren Hunter to oppose Spike's empty board. On turn 5, Spike still hadn't played a creature and the Hunter charged into combat ready to smash him. This time, though, our scrub grinning slyly had played his Predator Strike on the unblocked Hunter. He wondered at the time why Spike had looked at him like he was an idiot, but no matter, Spike's life had dropped to thirteen.

On the next turn, Spike rolled his eyes and played Quicksilver Behemoth. His mighty Hunter shut down, Tim had gone on to lose that game to Spike's fliers. It was only after the match that he'd realized that if he had only waited one more turn to cast Predator's Strike he could have killed the Behemoth and beaten Spike to death with the Hunter long before the fliers could have done the same to him. By playing his combat trick the way he did, he'd turned it into simple direct damage. Direct damage is fine, but would you really play Sizzle? Let me make sure you know the correct answer to that question. Repeat after me. No, under no circumstances would I ever play that stupid spell. I'd rather play Groffskithur or Myr Moonvessel. I mean, at least they're creatures.

Is there ever a time when it's correct to turn your temporary pump spell into direct damage to your opponent? Yes, if you're sure it's going to allow you to kill him that turn, feel free. Otherwise, hold onto it.

What about permanent pump spells? They make creatures bigger forever, so it's okay to play them even when they aren't combat tricks, right? Yes, sometimes it is, but only if you're pretty sure you aren't going to be able to set up a situation when you can use it as a combat trick. It's fine to use Stand Together to turn your Myr into a 3/3 and your Fangren Hunter into a 6/6, but wouldn't it be better if you did it after blockers were assigned, so you killed some of Spike's creatures too? It would, but sometimes Spike will be bright enough not to block. At those times, you have to make a judgment call about whether or not the extra damage each turn is worth it. With a little extra damage like Battlegrowth, it usually isn't. With a lot of extra damage like Stand Together, it often is.

Removal and Damage
I know what you're thinking. Removal and combat tricks are two different things. Well, you're right, but you're also wrong. Remember my Betrayal of Flesh? That was removal, right? It turned into a pretty vicious combat trick though, huh? That's what you should be looking to do with your removal and damage spells when you can. Let's talk about some removal spells that are great, but aren't bombs of the quality of Betrayal.

How about Terror? What can you do with Terror? You can kill a non-Black, non-artifact creature. It says so right on the card. What if I told you that you could kill two creatures with it without giving up one of your own? Let's say you have a Fangren Hunter staring across the board at a Leonin Den-Guard with its very own Leonin Scimitar and a Wizard Replica. Looks bad for our side, huh? There's no point in attacking. There wouldn't be except, that you're holding Terror. Why not just Terror the Den-Guard and attack? Then you'd be giving your opponent a choice about whether or not to chump block with his Wizard Replica. Instead you just attack, and as you hoped, Spike double blocks because he wants your Hunter dead. You Terror the Den-Guard, let the Hunter kill the Wizard, trample for one, and think"Ahhh, it's good to be a scrub."

What about damage? You're lucky. You've got a Skyhunter Patrol, but wouldn't you know it, as soon as you play it, Spike comes back with a Hoverguard Observer. Shrewdly, you don't attack knowing that Spike will suspect a trick and fail to block. Spike attacks with his Observer on his next turn. You block. Spike looks at you like we're stupid again and says,"When are you going to learn not to chump block unless you have to." Grinning you ask,"First strike damage on the stack?" Spike makes a face reminiscent of Drooling Ogre as you play Electrostatic Bolt on his Observer, killing it and saving your Patrol.

Bounce Spells
Bounce spells, like Echoing Truth or Aether Spellbomb, usually say something similar to"Return target creature to its owner's hand." There are all kinds of neat ways you can use them from returning your Chittering Rats to your hand so that you can use their ability again to bouncing your Loxodon Warhammer carrying Neurok Familiar to fizzle Murderous Spoils and keep your big toy, to just bouncing your opponent's turn 4 Fangren Hunter to give you one more critical turn to attack with your Slith Firewalker. All those are great ways to use bounce magic, but it can also be used as a combat trick.

Most people realize that you can attack, allow your creature to take and deal its damage, and then return it so that it doesn't die. It's important to remember that you can also use it as removal. In the example above, when you used Terror on the equipped Den-Guard, you could have just as easily used Echoing Truth on the Leonin Scimitar. By returning it, you would have shrunk the Den-Guard, and you could have killed it without losing your Hunter. Alternatively, you could have simply returned the Den-Guard or the Fangren Hunter. There are situations in which it might be correct to do any of the three. That's a judgment call that you have to make when you play.

Life Gain
No, gaining six life from Nourish is not a good combat trick. No, I don't care if it does feel really good to be at twenty-six life while your opponent is at eighteen. No, I don't care that it once kept you alive one more turn which was enough to play your Darksteel Colossus. Life gain is almost always a bad use of slots in your deck. There are two minor exceptions to this rule.

If you gain life as a side effect of doing something useful, it's fine. Spells like Consume Spirit and Essence Drain are the sort of thing I mean. The other exception is repetitive life gain. No, for the love of God, I don't mean Tanglebloom. There are three sources of repetitive life gain in this format that might be acceptable. Everyone agrees that Pulse of the Fields is a bomb. It's difficult to lose when you're holding it. Most people agree that Sun Droplet is decent because it often neutralizes an evasion creature, and gives slower Green-based decks a chance against the faster archetypes like Affinity. There's more disagreement about Leonin Elder. In his favor, he's a little guy who can carry Equipment in a color that already really likes Equipment, and he can be very annoying to play against. Even with those marks on his side, he still isn't good most of the time, and it would probably be wise of you not to take him before eighth pick if there is any good alternative.

Damage Prevention
Damage prevention may actually be better when your opponent knows it's coming. Why? The best pure damage prevention in the format is Pearl Shard. It's the best because it can be used over and over again, but since your opponent knows it's going to happen in advance, it isn't really a combat trick. The only truly incredible damage prevention spell around at the moment is Test of Faith. Why is it so good? It's cheap, it keeps your guy alive, and at the end of combat he'll be much bigger than he was before. Seems like a good deal, huh?

How do you use damage prevention? If you have a choice between using it to prevent damage to you or a creature that's going to die, it's almost always better to save the creature rather than the points of life. Why? Creatures contribute to your board position. The state of the board is more important than the life totals unless one of the life totals is zero.

Falter Effects
These are spells that prevent your opponent from blocking your creatures allowing you to swing for lethal damage. Taunting Elf is a good one. Tanglewalker, Bloodscent, and Nemesis Mask are all fairly unexciting examples of the same thing. Another way of allowing your creatures to attack freely is by tapping opposing creatures. Blinding Beam is excellent at this, since it can essentially give you two free turns to attack by tapping two of your opponent's untapped creatures and keeping them from untapping at the beginning of his next turn. Beam can also be used for tempo advantage in the early game or stalling your opponent's lethal attacks later.

Other Nifty Stuff
Have you ever been unlucky enough to be the victim of a Savage Beating? Have you ever had your pride stirred? Ever cast Blinding Beam and attacked for lethal damage only to hear the Roar of the Kha? If you have, you know that there is another class of combat tricks out there. There simply isn't much to say about them except ouch. Oh, and draft them high.

What you're really looking for with all these tricks is to squeeze the greatest possible amount of card advantage out of each of your spells. What's card advantage? Don't ask. No, not because I don't know. I'm just not the least bit interested in arguing about it with any of the experts. They all have slightly differing ideas, and when you get into the highly technical nuts and bolts of how it works, I suppose that's important.

For us scrubs, it can be very simple. If I use one of my cards, like Terror, to kill one of their creatures, like Den-Guard, that's fine. I trade one-for-one. If I can use one of my cards, like Betrayal of Flesh, to kill three of their creatures like Rustmouth Ogre, Myr Enforcer, and Vulshok Berserker, that's amazing. Why? Since we're all drawing about the same number of cards, using one of my cards to handle three of theirs leaves me two cards to kill them with, right? That's one of the reasons cards like Betrayal and Grab the Reins are so good. They almost always give you card advantage.

Well, that's about it for today. Until next time, remember, getting a second pick Molder Slug and a third pick Loxodon Warhammer in a side draft at Regionals is good. Giving someone a second pick Molder Slug and a third pick Loxodon Warhammer in a side draft at Regionals is bad.

Dave Luebke
Scrub Extraordinaire
Lionsfear on MODO
davidrluebke@hotmail.com