Practice · the ten principles of play

Find the best play in the position. Most puzzles offer four lines to choose from; the rest are answered on the board itself — click your creatures to send them in, or pick one up and click the attacker you want it to block. Answer, and the reason is explained.

How to read the table

• A card lying on its side is tapped: a land that was used for mana, or a creature that attacked. What attacked on their turn is still tapped on yours; a creature you cast this turn is marked summoning sick and cannot attack, which is one reason to cast creatures after combat rather than before.
• The graveyards are what has died or been cast so far: read them for what each side has already spent. Their hand is face down, so what they are holding has to be read from their open mana, their graveyard and the plays they have made.
• Hover a card to read it. The answer is a line for the turn, chosen from the ones offered, or a board action where the puzzle asks for one: click your creatures to send them to attack; to block, click one of your creatures to pick it up and then click the attacker you want it to block, which draws a line between them. Clicking that attacker again takes the line back, and only the attackers a creature may legally block will accept one. Where the answer is not to block, the button is live as it stands.

This exercise practises The Craft of Playing, Part I.