Hello, Nation! Today, I want to write an article dedicated to not dying in multiplayer. In order to do anything, you need to be alive. Do you want to combo out? You need to stay alive. Do you want to gain control and then win? You need to keep yourself in the game. Do you want to establish a strong tempo that dominates the game? You need to keep your life total on the positive side of things.

For me, it began with Maze of Ith. I started playing with The Dark as an expansion set and Revised in stores. Packs from The Dark cost more, and no one had black-bordered cards from any other set. I thought they were more powerful because they had black borders. The first black-bordered card I ever saw was Scarwood Goblins. It was gold, black-bordered, and crazy! It changed my perception of the game. Later, I would encounter the Legends card (which was super-rare in my area) Moss Monster, and it just seemed so much more powerful than my white-bordered Craw Wurms.

I opened my first pack of The Dark, purchased for $4 at a time when packs were a lot less, and on a limited budget of $20 dollars a month for my allowance. I still remember seeing my first uncommon from The Dark. I had cracked a Book of Rass and Standing Stones. Then I moved through the commons . . . and I saw it. I saw a card that changed Magic for me. I found a card so powerful that everyone would want four in every deck. This little common was something new, and it supported my notion that black-bordered cards were just more powerful. I had opened a Maze of Ith.

The rule that everyone abided by was twenty lands and forty other cards. Even in my first weeks of the game, I was still smart enough not to count this as a mana land. It was so powerful, and my Black/Green deck (with Zombie Master, Scathe Zombies, Craw Wurms, and Giant Spiders, plus a brand-new Scavenger Folk from the same booster pack) really wanted it. In went the Maze of Ith, and it was immediately the superstar of my deck. No one else had one. I felt special.

Soon, others would find the Holy Common. Other cards from The Dark began to seriously impact our game—Witch Hunter, Preacher, Ghost Ship, Ball Lightning, and Dance of Many all made many appearances. Token appearances for cards like Tracker, Fellwar Stone, Flood, Fissure, Wand of Ith, and Scarwood Bandits proved this was a set of pure power. But no card was more powerful than the Maze of Ith. It was feared. It was respected. It was desired. Everyone wanted Mazes.

Soon, I slid into Red/Black from Green, enabling me to play cards like Fireball, Dragon Whelp, Disintegrate, and Lightning Bolt. I ran some cards from The Dark that I loved—Cave People, Sisters of the Flame, Brothers of Fire, and Fissure. I tossed in my two Mazes and was having a blast. I relied on my Red burn and Black removal, plus the Mazes, for defense. No one could touch me. It didn't matter if we were playing duels or multiplayer, my deck was winning. The combination of burn plus Terror and Paralyze and Fissure was nasty. Plus, I could use Fissure to take out opposing Mazes in order for my Hypnotic Specters and Dragon Whelps to hit.

That's when I learned the value of staying alive. If I could keep myself alive by killing stuff, then back that up with Maze of Ith for whatever I couldn't kill, I knew I could establish control and either burn them out or overrun their paltry defenses. It was my first deck where I built it around something more than cool creatures and Giant Growth. It was my first realization of strategy.

Then we got the news. Maze of Ith was restricted. Crap! People went from four or three to one very quickly. Its appearance was random (although still dominating.) I began to look for other ways of keeping myself alive. I traded for a pair of Sorceress Queens and tossed them in my deck. Guess what? They worked really well, too! And thus my love of cards that kept me alive was born.

I actively started looking for cards that would keep me alive. No one knew what cards existed at the time. If you hadn't seen it in real life, it didn't exist. I remember that after three months of playing the game, buying a ton of Revised boosters, seeing others open up a ton, that I finally opened a pack with Volcanic Eruption as its rare, and just wondered at how I missed such a powerful card. I opened a Scrye or Inquest and looked at the price guide for something. They would print a picture of an actual card, one to a page. It was normally stuff everyone knew—dual lands, Moxes, etc. One day, I remember looking and seeing a Singing Tree. You can imagine how crazy that day was for me. Here was a really, really strong card, and I couldn't pick it up anywhere!

I eventually realized that cards like Royal Assassin (which I was totally unable to open or trade for) acted as a Maze of Ith, by keeping creatures back. Barring a Serra Angel, which was clearly the most commonly played creature of the day, Royal Assassin would kill anything that attacked. People would keep back a whole army in order to avoid just one creature from being killed! This was true power, and it was an obvious reason why Royal Assassin was tied in our minds with Shivan Dragon as the most powerful card from Revised.

By the time Ice Age and Chronicles were released, I had moved on to other decks and was trying other strategies, including a very powerful Red/Green aggro deck. I no longer really wanted to see or play cards like Horn of Deafening. I was having another epiphany about how powerful small and early creatures and removal could be in tandem with each other.

However, the lesson was learned. Throughout Magic, I have had a soft spot in my heart for cards that keep me alive, from Kor Haven and Maze of Shadows through Serendib Sorcerer and Safeguard and Commander Eesha.

Part of the reason this strategy of staying alive is so successful is because I play a ton of multiplayer. Defense is more important in multiplayer, where you can expect multiple waves of attackers every round. That means permanents that keep you from dying in the combat phase are very reliable ways of not dying. Not dying = time to do stuff to win.

As I allude to above, there are a lot of ways to keep yourself from dying in the combat phase. Let's take a look at them, plus some other ways to stay alive as well!

Creatures That Stay Alive through Combat

These are creatures that, due to their nature, will stay alive through multiple attacks. An early example is the Regenerator. All attacking into a Drudge Skeletons or Will-o'-the-Wisp does is tap one of my lands and my creature (and your creature, too). Clearly, this does not work for all creatures that attack you. It's a good start to a defense, though. A subset of this is the indestructible creature. It doesn't tap, and it takes no mana to work, but tossing Darksteel Myr out there will keep a lot of damage from coming your way.

Next you have creatures that, by virtue of their abilities, take no damage from the attacker. The basic way to have this is to have protection from the color of the attacker. Other ways include Commander Eesha and Beloved Chaplain's protection from creatures, or Cho-Manno, Revolutionary's no-damage clause (which also includes a number of walls, such as Fog Bank and Wall of Shadows, or Dawn Elemental or Uncle Istvan). (See cards like Knight of Dawn for a scalable creature).

You also have a set of unusual creatures that stick after taking a hit. One is Indomitable Ancients, which are so huge that they will survive hits from almost anything. Other examples include many walls with high defenses. Another unusual creature-ish is the Spirit Mirror. The token creature dies, but you get another each upkeep for free when you have none. This will provide another effective creature wall. See also Deftblade Elite, Goblin Snowman, and Mirror Golem.

Regenerators, indestructible creatures, protection, and other abilities all make up a set of creatures that survive attacks by your foes. Durability in a creature is a good way to keep yourself alive.

Permanents with Abilities That Cause You to Stay Alive

The classic example of this type is lands that tap to save you. After Maze of Ith and Island of Wak-Wak, there have been a lot of similar lands, through Mystifying Maze. Note that Prahv, Spires of Order also protects you or a creature from any damage. If you tap a ton of mana to use it, you can keep yourself alive in the face of Fireball, keep your team from dying to a Lavalanche, and so forth. It prevents damage from the source, and thus stops all of the damage that an Earthquake or something similar would dole out.

In addition to Maze of Ith et al.'s ability to tap and keep you alive, there are other options. The aforementioned Horn of Deafening prevents damage. So does Safeguard (and it is repeatable).

There are some cards that will tap to prevent damage from specific creatures. Al-Abara's Carpet prevents all damage from ground-pounders. Scarecrow can tap to prevent it from flyers. Radiant Kavu keeps you from taking damage just from Blue and Black creatures. Songstitcher can prevent damage from a flyer, but it can be used several times.

Don't forget the Circles of Protection and similar cards. They can really keep you alive for a good while. Story Circle is a good choice.

There are a few other side cases. Trap Runner taps and makes something become blocked. It can stop any attack that doesn't have trample or something similar. Gossamer Chains is a cool ability. It bounces back to your hand, but it costs nothing to actually use, so you can have it out for a while. Similarly, Guard Dogs is a bit odd, but it works.

Permanents That Reduce an Attacking Creature's Power

We've already talked about Sorceress Queen and Serendib Sorcerer. Both can stop an attacker from hitting you with a simple tap. This ability is not that common. It's the Black tap ability on a couple of Disciples (Dega Disciple and Ana Disciple). Saltfield Recluse, Wilderness Hypnotist, Merrow Grimeblotter, and Pradesh Gypsies also have it. See also Staff of Zegon. I don't think giving a creature -1/-0 is good enough to mention.

Permanents That Tap to Prevent Damage

Take a look at Samite Healer. It basically prevents all damage from a 1-power attacker. A bigger creature, like Master Healer, prevents a lot more. Having these creatures at your disposal can stop some serious damage from rolling your way. They aren't played a lot, but they can be lethal. There are a few artifacts that do something similar (Amulet of Kroog, Conservator, Panacea, Pearl Shard, etc.)

Permanents That Tap a Creature

Another way to keep a creature from dealing damage to you is to prevent it from even attacking by tapping it. Note that this is not as effective in multiplayer as in duels. You aren't even sure if someone will attack you with a creature, so why tap it? He may get honked off at you because you just tapped his creature when he wasn't even looking your way, and now he blows up something of yours. When I do have something out, like Master Decoy or Puppet Strings, I make sure that the creature is likely or certain to attack me before using it. Otherwise, you can make a major enemy.

Permanents That Prevent All Damage

I already mentioned cards that can prevent all damage, and thus, keep you alive from burn and other things. While this article is primarily focused on keeping alive via the combat step, there are some cards out there that will keep you alive.

Take a look at cards like Mourner's Shield, Shieldmage Advocate, Pentagram of the Ages, Seasoned Tactician, Purity, Nova Pentacle, Cho-Arrim Alchemist, and Prahv, Spires of Order.

Also note that there are a few creatures that can Fog all combat damage, such as Spike Weaver and Dawnstrider. As long as you threaten these cards, you will often keep people from attacking you.

Permanents That Make Attacking Useless

There is certainly a subset of cards that make the idea of attacking tough, impossible, or silly. Cards like Moat and Teferi's Moat, Caltrops and Powerstone Minefield, Reverence, Dueling Grounds, and Silent Arbiter, No Mercy and Dread, Aurification, Snow Mercy, all of the Propaganda cards, Ensnaring Bridge, and even Meishin, the Mind Cage. These cards all do things like dealing damage to attacks, preventing certain types of creatures from attacking, killing them if they hit you, limiting the number that can attack, and so forth.

This set is distinct from the next group, which uses cards in a different way to punish and thereby dissuade attackers.

Permanents That Punish Attackers

Remember how I realized that Royal Assassin was a Maze of Ith, because it kept creatures from attacking me? That's a perfect example of this category. These are permanents that will activate and punish someone who comes your way.

Any permanent that will kill a creature is good here. However, there is a difference between Avatar of Woe and Royal Assassin. One will still tap and kill something anyway, so you might as well attack into it. Sure, an untapped Avatar of Woe may keep many players from attacking you, but it doesn't always work, and often it forces them to come your way.

Royal Assassin is different. It's not a threat at all unless you tap creatures. It's less noticeable, and stays alive much longer despite its weak tailbone. It looks more like a defensive ability than an offensive ability. As such, it performs much more like a card that sends attackers elsewhere than something else. (See also Avenger en-Dal.)

There is another category—the send-you-away-temporarily category. One random card in this is Soul Sculptor. Although it has a lot of potential in various ways, it can also turn an attacker into a nonattacking enchantment. It'll come back quickly, but in the meantime, you stay alive.

You can also phase out the attacker with something like Vodalian Illusionist. You can exile it with Tawnos's Coffin. These sorts of cards will not offend much, and therefore they are not as strong on defense as other options in this article. They do have a lot of other uses, however.

Permanents That Kill a Player

A small subset of permanents that can kill a player will keep you from being targeted or attacked by anyone. The classic example is an untapped Door to Nothingness with mana ready. When you have that, no one is coming your way.

Other great examples of this are the two creatures that sacrifice to Blaze someone—Cinder Elemental and Goblin Dynamo. Having one of those ready with mana backup is like saying you can deal 8 or 10 damage in one simple step. Any enemy with a life total in the danger zone is staying clear of you (until you tap your stuff, of course).

Permanents That Keep You and Yours from Being Targeted

One final way to stay alive is to keep you and your stuff from dying easily to targeted removal. If you have a Maze of Ith, Horn of Deafening, Sorceress Queen, and Mirror Golem out, you want to keep that stuff from being taken out. Someone who wants to smash through your defense needs to take out your stuff. That is best done with targeted removal. Eliminating that option can really help you go the distance. Another option for a person is just to take you out with things like milling and direct damage. While I have included tools to help you with that earlier (such as Prahv and Story Circle), being unable to be targeted is the best plan.

First, you want to keep yourself from being targeted. There are four holy cards that can keep you from being targeted by that kicked Urza's Rage or a Denying Wind/Ivory Mask, True Believer, Imperial Mask, and Leyline of Sanctity. Know them and love them. They also stop some ways to get around Shroud for your creatures, like edicts.

Next are cards that protect your people. Some just protect certain types of permanents (Hanna's Custody, Fountain Watch, Leonin Abunas, Greater Auramancy, Sterling Grove, Asceticism). These are great in the right decks for keeping your stuff in play.

Finally, there is one card that protects everything (except itself). Privileged Position is awesomely powerful. It used to be a chump card in terms of price, and now it's worth some cash, so pick up some now before they continue to rise.

There are a lot of ways to stay alive in Magic-dom, even when fighting against a lot of foes. The most powerful ways to do these things are in tandem. When you have everything from Story Circle and Dawn Elemental to Spirit Mirror and Prahv, Spires of Order out, you make hitting you that much harder. Add in a Moat, add in a Leyline of Sanctity, and add in a Songstitcher, and you are suddenly in a very strong place.

This article is more of a survey of strategies and what is out there than it is about anything specific. I hope you found a few cards in here that you will toss into your next deck!

See you next week,

Abe Sargent