I'm unclear on something... say I am flinging a magical attack... no frills... 1 difficulty die. Do I add black dice equal to the targets defense too, or is that skipped in magic?

Attack spells are considered combat checks, so yes.

Attack spells are combat checks, so all rules of combat checks apply, including Defense and Adversary talent, to name a few.

Keep in mind that no frills means 1 die only for short range... increasing range increases the difficulty (thus essentially mimicking the ranged difficulty of any ranged attack)