Damage Racing
Typically, in Magic, we tend to think of one player being the aggressor and the other playing defense. However, role assignment can be fluid, and often times both players can utilize elements of offense and defense at the same time.
When should you be conservative? When is it time to throw caution to the wind? Today we're going to tackle the important question: What's the best way to kill an opponent who's also trying to kill you? In a few weeks, we can try out our answer using today's preview cards from Modern Masters 2015 Edition!
What is a Damage Race?
A damage race (or simply a race) is an element of Magic that shows itself when neither player is able to take firm control of the game.
Johnny is attacking Jenny. Jenny cannot effectively stop Johnny's attack. Her only course of action is to race—to try to win the game before Johnny's creatures deal her the finishing blow.
Races are most often driven by one or both players having creatures with evasion (flying, unblockable, etc.). However, the presence of anything that makes it easier to attack than to block might lead to a race. Prowess, heroic, or the threat of a combat trick are just a couple of the innumerable reasons why it might be more profitable to be attacking than to sit back and try to block.
What does a discussion of damage racing make you think of? Is it the last minutes of a hockey game where even the goalie leaves his post and tries to score? Is it an image of soldiers pouring over enemy ramparts? Han Solo and Princess Leia desperately trying to shut the Death Star's shields down before it's too late? Conceptually, a damage race might invoke the spirit of primal rage, boiling blood, and reckless abandon. Ironically, however, it can be the aspect of Magic that requires the most precision, thinking ahead, and careful planning.
It's easy for a race to come down to just a few life points in either direction. Winning a close race is about thinking ahead, squeezing every bit of value out of all of your resources, and planning things out to make sure you're on the winning side.
Using Your Life Total as a Resource
We've discussed mana as a resource, cards as a resource, even things like tempo as a resource. Your life total is a resource too, though with some important differences. You can use your mana and your cards to impact the game, often in a repeatable way. Life total does not help you control the board or the flow of the game. It cannot be spent to your advantage. Sort of….
In some ways, the only meaningful life total is 0. Being at 1 life or being at 20 life doesn't impact your ability to play the game, or your control over the board. However, being at a low life total can limit your options. You must block a creature that attacks you. Perhaps even the threat of an attack can limit your options. Do you need to leave an extra blocker for fear of your opponent drawing a removal spell or a haste creature? Will it limit your ability to use your
Life total is a resource, but each point of life can have a very different value. Your last point of life is worth everything—you'll do whatever is in your power to protect it. On the other hand, you're thrilled if you can start the game with
So how do you equate a change in your life total against a card in your hand or an advantage on the board?
Chump Blocking
To chump block means to block with a creature to preserve your life total, even though you're going to lose the creature. You generally want to avoid chump blocking when you can, especially early in the game. After all, creatures in play can generate advantages as the game goes on, whereas your life points cannot.
Everyone learns quickly that it's a bad idea to chump block an attacking
However, chump blocking is an important technique, and knowing when to use it can help you win close races. Later in the game, you might be thrilled to chump block
We haven't yet touched on the most important factor in the
When the game is shaping up to be a damage race, you should strive to get the most value possible from your chump blockers. There's often little point to chump blocking early because you might still be able to get some value from your creature, and because your opponent's most threatening attackers aren't even in the picture yet! As long as you have some life points to spare, you might as well take the damage from the 3/3, because you might be able to block a 5/5 later in the game.
The flip side is that you don't want to wait too long and miss your window for an effective chump block. Several things can go wrong if you wait too long. For one, you might go too low on life and unexpectedly die to an evasion creature or a burn spell. For another, your opponent might decide to spend removal on your chump blocker, denying you the opportunity to block at all. For yet another, your opponent might have an unexpected card like
Winning a race is about thinking ahead. It's not often a good idea to chump block early in the game, but trying to wait until the last minute can sometimes be disastrous. Be aware of the changing value of your life points, and look for the opportunities to best protect them.
Turning the Corner
Let's backtrack to the start of our discussion.
Johnny is attacking Jenny.
There are two countermeasures Jenny can take: defending herself or attacking back. Sometimes a combination of the two is best. Sometimes her approach needs to change as the game goes on.
When you find yourself being attacked, it often means you're behind in the game. If you immediately turn to an all-out race, you're likely to lose. Instead, your first priority is to stem the bleeding using blocking, removal spells, and any other measures available to you.
You can't always establish a wrought-iron level of control over the game, but you can usually at least do something to slow down your opponent's attack. In such a case, once you've done all you can, you need to know how to turn the corner.
Turning the corner is like flipping a switch, where your game plan suddenly changes. You turn the corner in the moment when you stop playing defense, and instead set your sights on killing your opponent.
A good example from Standard comes from the matchup between Abzan Aggro and Mono-Red. Abzan Aggro is not necessarily built for playing defense. It deals a lot of damage to itself via
The Mono-Red player casts some early creatures and starts attacking. The Abzan Aggro player casts a
What happened in this example game? The Mono-Red player got off to a substantial early lead, but the Abzan Aggro player was able to stabilize by using his or her creatures—ones that are normally meant to be attacking—in a defensive capacity (not attacking with Anafenza on turn four). Finally, and perhaps most importantly, the Abzan player found the best possible chance of winning by turning the corner and ending the game before the opponent could find a way past their defenses.
One of the strengths of Mono-Red is its reach. Recall that reach is an aggressive deck's ability to finish off a weakened opponent. It's possible that the Mono-Red player was holding a
The Abzan Aggro player didn't win the game by killing all of the opponent's creatures. He or she never locked the opponent out, nor had total control over the game. Instead, he or she just went for the throat! There's a ton of value in being able to end the game quickly, because you leave much less room for things to go wrong. If your opponent can present a card or combination that you might have trouble with, you want the option to get around it by simply going for the win.
Even decks that intend to play defense can benefit from a strong ability to turn the corner.
Preparing to Race
Which brings us to the final point, which is that you want to get in damage on your opponent any time you have a chance to safely do so. You might think of yourself as playing defense at a certain stage of the game, but that doesn't mean that you can't attack when the opportunity presents itself. If you're not intending to block with a creature, attack with it!
The reason is that you never know when the game is going to boil down to a race. You opponent might play a flying creature you don't have a removal spell for. Now you're forced to race, and any early points of damage you got in might prove valuable!
Similarly, you might have firm control of the game, but now you need to turn the corner and win before your opponent can draw a burn spell. If some early damage you dealt changes the clock by one turn, that's one less draw step for your opponent to kill you!
Modern Masters 2015 Edition Preview Cards
All signs point to an aggressive black-red strategy being a viable option in Modern Masters 2015 Edition draft. Cheap creatures backed up by burn spells and black removal is a timeless strategy, and it can be quite terrifying when it comes together well.
Master the art of damage racing. Even if it's not your preferred way to play the game, it might only take a