The 33 Best Can’t Attack Cards in Magic Ranked

Last updated on July 14, 2025

Ghostly Prison | Illustration by Daarken

Hello planeswalkers! I don’t know about you, but I can't stand it when I can’t do something I want to. I can’t go snowboarding because I have to work. I can’t buy MTG cards because I’m broke. I can’t have fun because I'm writing MTG articles (a joke of course).

An opponent can’t attack me in MTG? Now that’s something I do want.

Let’s look at the best cards that stop your opponents in their tracks. These defensive cards allow you to slow down the game, hopefully for your benefit later. They’ll take some practice and understanding but can help you control a game. If you can’t wait any longer, then let’s begin, shall we?

What Are Can’t Attack Cards in MTG?

Sphere of Safety | Illustration by Slawomir Maniak

“Can’t attack” cards stop a target creature or all of a player’s creatures from attacking you. With these cards, opponents' creatures won’t be able to attack you at all or with some sort of stipulation. The “can’t attack” cards focus on opponents paying mana to attack, stopping attacks based on a card’s color or creature type, or just a complete stop of attacking from one or more creatures. These cards all have “can’t attack” printed somewhere in their text.

I want to highlight a big subset of these can’t attack cards. We can call them the pacifism cards, based on Pacifism, the card. These are enchantments that can be attached to creatures to stop them from blocking or attacking. There have been many forms and iterations of these auras and they can be quite good. They’re included in many Constructed decks but are even better in Limited formats.

I won’t include pacifism cards in the rankings, as there are a ton of them and they fit awkwardly into the rankings. However, here are a few pacifism cards I think you should know: Imprisoned in the Moon, Planar Disruption, Prison Term, Lawmage's Binding, and Bonds of Faith.

One more note, this list is not about Ketramose, the New Dawn or Fog Bank, gods and defender cards can't attack by design and warrant their own discussions.

#33. War Tax

War Tax is a utilitarian approach to MTG. It works the best in control decks that react to their opponents. You can save counterspells or make your opponents pay for attacking you. It’s a good way to use all of your mana effectively. The downside is that you may have to choose between this ability or casting spells.

#32. Immovable Rod

Immovable Rod is a malleable artifact to stop creatures from attacking you. It’s cheap to get onto the battlefield and once the activation cost is paid, it can remain in effect for as long as you need. This white artifact also has the benefit of being untapped and reactivated, as well as letting you venture into the dungeon when it does.

#31. Sivitri, Dragon Master

Sivitri, Dragon Master puzzles me. It’s cool to have a planeswalker as a commander, but the dragon theme it fits into doesn’t quite match its color identity. Removing attacking threats is awesome, but if your opponent feels that this planeswalker or you are a threat, they’ll accept the life loss. Final verdict, this Dimir commander is imaginative and interesting, but a little flawed.

#30. Elephant Grass

Let’s throw it back with a vintage “can’t attack” card. Elephant Grass, from Visions, is an amazingly quick deterrent that’ll cost you a cumulative upkeep each turn. However, I think that the upsides of stopping or slowing down attackers from the first turn are wonderful. As long as your curve can afford the 1 mana each turn, I think this green enchantment can stop, or at least slow down many aggro decks.

#29. Gwafa Hazid, Profiteer

Gwafa Hazid, Profiteer bribes your opponents into not attacking or blocking. This human rogue’s activated ability can trade a card draw for removing a creature from combat possibilities. This can be effective against creature decks that don’t go too wide, but with some downsides. It plays slow, and giving your opponent more cards isn’t ideal. However, paired with other removal or control, Gwafa Hazid, Profiteer can be solid.

#28. Magus of the Moat + Moat

The moat is an ancient and useful defensive strategy. Magus of the Moat and Moat force your opponents to take to the air if they want to attack you. The obvious downside of these cards is the ubiquity of flying creatures and removal.

#27. The Second Doctor

The Second Doctor is a great addition to Azorius () control decks in the Eternal formats. It gives you an extra draw each turn and your opponent the option to draw or attack you. This is great for developing your control spells and for creating incentives for not attacking you in multiplayer games.

#26. Orim’s Chant

Orim's Chant is the cheap instant solution for surviving another turn. For the super cheap cost of 2 mana, you can stop a player from casting spells or attacking you. Playing this white instant at the right time may give another turn to try and steal a victory. You should know that Orim's Chant does not counter a spell on the stack, does not stop other instants cast after it before it resolves, and doesn't Stifle activated abilities of cards on the battlefield.

#25. Vow Cycle

Let’s put all these vows together, as they all work similarly. You enchant an opponent’s creature to make it more powerful. That creature then can’t attack you, so it’ll have to focus on other opponents or soak up a removal card or other ability. Of course, you can enchant your creatures if you want to boost them. My favorite of the bunch for annoying a table of opponents is Vow of Wildness.

#24. Unstable Glyphbridge

Unstable Glyphbridge is a solid wrath that can transform into a huge deterrent. First, you can remove many creatures with Unstable Glyphbridge. You can then craft it into Sandswirl Wanderglyph and cap what your opponents can do each turn. I haven’t seen this break into the Standard meta, but it has potential in the right deck.

#23. Blazing Archon

Blazing Archon is simple and has no pesky costs for opponents attacking you. They just can’t attack you, period. This white creature is the ultimate end of opponents attacking you. The 9 mana value is staggering, so this archon has to be cheated onto the battlefield if you want to effectively use it.

#22. Eriette of the Charmed Apple

Eriette of the Charmed Apple uses a not-so-popular strategy to succeed. You want to enchant your opponent’s creatures so that they can’t attack and your opponents lose life each turn. You could use enchantments like One Thousand Lashes or role tokens like Cursed. 

#21. Summon: Yojimbo

Summon: Yojimbo would rank better if it stopped creatures from attacking more. As it is, chapters 2 and 3 of this saga are good, while the first and last chapters are fantastic on a large summon creature. To put this another way, considering you very well could get three treasures on chapter 4, you come out way ahead on mana if your opponent pays for two attacking creatures during the course of the saga.

#20. Assault Suit

Assault Suit is an interesting equipment for higher-thinking players. When you equip a creature, you can then pass it around to other players, and it can’t attack you. This is an interesting way to incentivize attacking players other than you and can be quite interesting when equipped to a card like Phyrexian Crusader.

#19. Champions of Minas Tirith

“Authority is not given to you to deny the return of the King, Steward!” Thank you, Gandalf. Champions of Minas Tirith, from the Lord of the Rings Universes Beyond Magic set, allows you to take tribute as the monarch. When you’re the monarch, opponents have to pay mana equal to the number of cards in their hand to attack you. This can be a large deterrent, but the overall efficiency of this white soldier is difficult to maintain.

#18. Linvala, Shield of Sea Gate

Linvala, Shield of Sea Gate is a must when you’re trying to use the party mechanic. When you have a full party (you control a wizard, rogue, warrior, and cleric) you can make one of your opponent’s creatures inept. And since containing a full party can be difficult with so much removal available, Linvala, Shield of Sea Gate can protect your creatures if you sacrifice it.

#17. Angelic Arbiter

Angelic Arbiter sure can arbitrate over your opponent’s decisions. They can either cast spells in their first main phase and not attack, or attack and cast nothing during their turn. This can be a tough decision for certain decks. Ultimately, the downside of this white angel is its expensive MV. If you can afford it or have some way to reduce its cost, then you have a solid defense against many strategies.

#16. Orzhov Advokist

What an interesting dilemma for some of your opponents. Orzhov Advokist allows all players to put two +1/+1 counters on one of their creatures during your upkeep. The trade-off is that creatures can't attack you or your planeswalkers for a full turn cycle. This can have some interesting value in multiplayer games, but be careful to not boost up your opponents too much.

#15. Nils, Discipline Enforcer

Nils, Discipline Enforcer is the answer to +1/+1 counter-centric decks. The more counters an opponent’s creature has, the more expensive attacking becomes. On top of that, you can add a +1/+1 counter onto a creature that maybe won’t harm you or just to annoy an opponent. I’m not a huge fan of giving my opponents anything good, but the costs to +1/+1 counter decks might get overbearing.

#14. Archon of Absolution

Do you want to slow your opponents attacking like Baird, Steward of Argive? Do you want a little bit more power and protection than Windborn Muse? If yes, then Archon of Absolution is your card. Not much more to say, other than you get a flying creature and hopefully slow down your opponents.

#13. Baird, Steward of Argive

Baird, Steward of Argive is a lesser version of Windborn Muse. You get a creature that also taxes your opponent’s attacking ability. There’s not much more to say about Baird, except you can get a little more value if you pair it in legendary-matters or soldier decks.

#12. Sandwurm Convergence

I think Beetlejuice said it best with, “Whoa. Sandworms. You hate 'em, right?” Sandwurm Convergence limits the attacks of opponents and generates huge creature tokens. It only stops creatures with flying from attacking, but seeing as that’s one of the most popular evasive keywords, this wonderful green enchantment can be a nice sideboard piece.

#11. Windborn Muse

Windborn Muse works similarly to the can’t attack enchantments ranked below but as a creature. This may bring a whole new set of problems with the vast amount of creature removal. However, the upside is you can attack with this “can’t attack” card.

#10. Collective Restraint

Collective Restraint is a great domain card printed before the ability word was even created. Depending on your build this can be an absolute impediment for your opponents that want to attack you. This is a bomb can’t attack card that’s unfortunately only legal in the Eternal formats.

#9. Ensnaring Bridge

Ensnaring Bridge is a wonderful way to stop your aggressive opponents. The 3 MV is fine and as long as you’re using your cards your opponent shouldn’t be able to attack with many creatures. This artifact is a wonderful addition to control decks that want to win in non-combat ways.  

#8. Kaito, Dancing Shadow

Kaito, Dancing Shadow is a ninja’s dream card. If you can use some elusive cheap creatures like Slither Blade, then you can activate two loyalty abilities of Kaito, Dancing Shadow. This can help you stop attackers or build defenses with deathtouch tokens. One of the best card-draw engines in Dimir (), Kaito, Dancing Shadow is a wonderful addition to control decks (especially ninjas!).

#7. Endbringer

Endbringer brings you the means to get to the ends you need. This colorless Eldrazi has many of the activated abilities you may need. It can ping, draw, and stop a creature from blocking or attacking. The value here is that it untaps on other players’ untap phases, giving you many more chances to activate abilities.

#6. Norn’s Annex

Norn's Annex needs to be mentioned as a lesser version of the can’t attack enchantments ranked below. It can be played on turn 3 like Propaganda but at a price. Also, it gives opponents an option on how to pay Phyrexian mana for their creatures to attack. An aggressive player won’t mind losing a few life points to finish you off. That said, making your opponents pay for attacking in any manner has value.

#5. Stormtide Leviathan

Stormtide Leviathan is a great example of a can’t attack card that limits your opponents while not affecting you as much. You can get an unblockable battlecruiser and your opponent can’t attack unless they have flying or islandwalk creatures. This blue creature can be an awesome addition for control strategies and the blue decks with tons of mana.

#4. Promise of Loyalty

Promise of Loyalty works as an interesting board wipe. Each player keeps their best creature, and yours can attack freely while no one else’s surviving creature can attack you. There are far more efficient and effective board wipes in white, and this doesn’t stop players from keeping a creature with wonderful abilities. Those are the downsides, but this white sorcery has value as removal and can work against certain opponents.

#3. Archangel of Tithes

Archangel of Tithes looks like a card that slows down the game but can actually be wonderful in an aggressive deck. It fits well into meta with goblins or other cheap creatures. You can play several cheap aggro creatures like Adeline, Resplendent Cathar and then make it hard for your opponents to block on turn 4 when you play Archangel of Tithes. And, of course, it gives you some protection from your opponent’s attacks.

#2. Sphere of Safety

Sphere of Safety can be an absolute quagmire for your opponents, depending on your build. The number of enchantments you control increases the amount of mana an opponent has to pay to attack you. This white enchantment could get absurd if an opponent has no enchantment removal. The MV of 5 is the only thing keeping this card from the top spot.

#1. Ghostly Prison + Propaganda

Ghostly Prison and Propaganda are wonderfully efficient enchantments to slow a game down. As early as turn 3, you can force your opponent to pay a ton of mana whenever they want to attack you. These cards are great because they require your opponents to use up one of their valuable removal cards/abilities or seriously ration mana for casting and attacking.

Best Can't Attack Payoffs

Inevitable cards like mana sinks that deal direct damage, planeswalkers, and enchantments let you win the game if you don't have to worry about blocking. Drain synergies on Bastion of Remembrance, pingers like Thermo-Alchemist, and consistent noncombat damage from a card like Chandra, Awakened Inferno, spell doom for players that can't engage in combat. They're not all red either, I promise, the colorless card, Chalice of Life / Chalice of Death is a clean win condition if your opponent's creatures can't attack.

Wrap Up

Sandswirl Wanderglyph | Illustration by Bastien Grivet

All good things must come to an end, even if you can’t stand it. Non-removal, defensive strategies have never been a major theme for most players. However, knowing how you can slow down opponents can help you turn the tables and become more offensive. With the sheer number of aggro decks you’ll face, having some options for slowing their assaults can be crucial.

Thank you for taking the time to read these rankings. If you want more great information, make sure to check out all the wonderful articles on Draftsim. If you like engagement then leave a comment, follow us on Draftsim's Twitter/X, and join the official Draftsim Discord.

I can’t wait to see you all on the MTG battlefields!