Protection: Everything about the keyword, Interactions & Tips

In Magic: The Gathering, the "Protection" keyword plays a key role in the strategy and dynamics of matches. This ability allows a creature or player to become immune to a number of harmful effects, such as damage, enchantments, blocks, or even destruction.

Combining strategic and tactical elements, Protection creates a unique challenge for players, requiring strategic thinking and careful planning. In this article, we'll explore the nuances and complexities of the "Protection" ability, unlocking its secrets and revealing how it can change the course of a match.

The "Protection" ability is one of the oldest and most iconic abilities in Magic: the Gathering, dating back to its first set, Alpha, released in 1993.

Since then, it has been a constant presence on the game's cards, evolving and adapting over the years. While the "Protection" ability was expected to be an intuitive keyword, its potential complexity was recognized even before the game was released, which led to the creation of the terms and rules regarding targeting players and permanents.

Among the cards with the ability that existed in Alpha, without a doubt, the most famous are Black Knight and White Knight, which portray opposing forces and have protection against each other. Over the years, the duo has been referenced in numerous releases, with other pairs of knights.

Protection isn't just limited to the color of spells that can't interact with the protected card. Permanents can have protection from something specific, a type of creature, a type of spell, or even “Protection from Everything,” and that means it can't be affected by anything related to that trait it's protected from.

Protection offers several benefits:

Damage Prevention

A protected creature gains prevention of all damage dealt by any source with the property from which it receives protection. Therefore, a creature with "Protection from Blue" can easily block a Denizen of the Deep with its 11 power and not take any damage. The same goes for creatures that have Protection from Red, like Auriok Champion, against a Pyroclasm.

Damage Prevention is one of the most basic aspects of the ability, and during this process, all damage that would otherwise be dealt to the protected creature is simply ignored, preventing any adverse consequences such as triggers from damage or abilities like deathtouch. This makes the ability a valuable strategic tool that allows players to protect their key creatures and gain a tactical advantage by circumventing potential threats on the battlefield.

Blocking

When we understand that creatures with protection don't take damage, we also realize that the ability is great for blocks. A creature with "protection from blue", such as Goblin Piledriver, for example, can easily stop a Deep Spawn in close combat without taking any damage. The same goes for a creature without protection that blocks Deep Spawn and gains the ability through a Gods Willing.

Now, the situation gets even more interesting in a contrary situation, for example, if your Goblin Piledriver with protection from blue attacks an opponent whose has only blue creatures. Following the logic presented earlier, a novice player might think that blocking blue creatures would not deal damage to the Goblin. In that case, I am immensely happy to announce that the situation is not even possible to block. Creatures with "Protection from..." can't be blocked by anything that carries the trait it's protected from.

A creature with "Protection from Artifacts" can pass straight through a field of Frogmite and Myr Enforcer, just as one with "Protection from Enchantments" ignores the presence of a Boon Satyr and a Spirited Companion when attacking.

This ability gains a very interesting strategic sense. When in possession of a Gods Willing in your hand, you can attack with a creature to force a block, and then grant protection to your creature, thus doing an annoying blocker removal, or you can give protection beforehand, making it unblockable and capable of dealing the final damage needed.

Protection vs Trample

Since we touched on the subject of how damage cannot be dealt to creatures protected against certain types of cards, let's move on to another slightly more complicated example: that of a combat between a creature with trample and one that has protection.

Time to get out our Magic: The Gathering rulebooks, since here things get a little more confusing. If we look for rule 702.19b we will find exactly how this type of interaction happens in matches and how to proceed with them. This rule of thumb was made to talk about how trample behaves with abilities that prevent the creature from being destroyed or taking damage, basically saying that before combat actually happens, the player who controls the trampler must designate the damage that will be dealt to the blocking creature. Assigning and dealing damage are entirely different steps and just serve as metrics for the game math to roll.

Thus, assuming a combat in which we attack with a 10/10 red creature with trample and that will be blocked by a 3/3 with protection from red, we must first designate the intention of damage that we want to cause, the minimum to destroy the creature target, in this case, 3 damage. After that, we will proceed normally with the damage calculations, destroying the creature and passing the excess 7 damage to the opponent. That is, even if the blocking creature isn't going to die, we must declare the intention of the damage to be caused, always.

For more information on trample interactions, check out this article.

Untargetable

The inability to be targeted by spells, abilities, or effects from cards that have the protected characteristic is one of the best and most famous characteristics of protection. In an earlier example, we talked about Auriok Champion and how its protection against red prevents it from taking combat damage from a red creature or from taking damage, such as from a Pyroclasm.

In neither case is the status of a particular target, Auriok Champion is simply lost in the middle of the crowd, but due to its protection, has any damage directed at it negated. Now, when we are faced with the situation where the card is required to choose a target, cards with “Protection against…” any specific characteristic coming from that source cannot be chosen as valid targets for the effect.

This makes the protected permanent almost "invisible" to the spell that targets it, so if Auriok Champion is the only creature on the opposing board, and we cast one of our Go for the Throat aiming to increase our unique Tarmogoyf, for example, we will be forced to target our own Goyf, since there is no such thing as “I targeted it, but since it has protection, nothing happens!”.

And, in a case where the only creature on both players' board is Auriok Champion, Go for the Throat couldn't even be cast, since there are no legal targets for its resolution.

Attached Cards

Cards with specific properties that the creature has protection from cannot be attached to it. A beautiful example are the auras. A creature with "protection from black" can't be targeted by a Dead Weight that will destroy it, but also can't be equipped with a Bladed Battle-Fan, which will make it Indestructible when it enters the battlefield. This usually happens because the keywords "Equip" and "Enchant" present in equipment and auras, respectively, target the creature they will be attached to, and as we know, creatures with protection cannot be targeted by anything that they are protected. But there is a very interesting variation on this.

We've used the card Gods Willing several times before to talk about giving a specific color protection. Not only because it's one that I really like and find very entertaining, but also because it has an objective text and instant speed. As much fun as it is to go around protecting your creatures left and right, it's possible to make some mistakes with spells like Gods Willing, and the most glaring of these has to do with enchantments and colored equipment.

Assuming there's a creature enchanted with a Cartouche of Knowledge, a pretty basic aura-type enchantment that gives +1/+1 and flying to the creature it's attached to. Your opponent casts a Snap to return that creature to your hand, and you respond with a Gods Willing to give it protection from blue. Well, really, your creature won't go back to your hand, but the same cannot be said of his Cartouche of Knowledge.

Protection also refers to cards that are attached to something. As mentioned before, the ability prevents the permanent from being "Equip" and "Enchant", but also has the benefit of removing such attached cards if the ability is gained by some other effect. Such knowledge can be used to help or hinder you, causing you to lose your auras and attached equipment or helping you remove negative auras from your opponent, such as Dead Weight. This is an interaction that adds a lot to the way the mechanic works.

True-Name Nemesis and Protection against the chosen player

Here we have a variation of the skill that shocked players when it was introduced. Designed for multiplayer games, “Protection from the Chosen Player” was originally intended for Commander. But the idea of protecting yourself from a specific player became very popular with players of conventional Magic, which is one on one, so the card with that ability, True-Name Nemesis, went straight to Legacy.

Protection from the chosen player does not create an invisible shield that will prevent the opponent from punching you in the face the moment you cast True-Name Nemesis, but it will protect the merfolk from all elements that player controls, in the same way as shown earlier in this article, but in general, not looking for specific words like colors or letter types.

Thus, a sweeper, sacrifice effect, or other more creative ways that don't target it are necessary to deal with it.

Progenitus, Hexdrinker and the Protection From Everything

"Protection from Everything" is a much more radical version of "Protection from the chosen player", which instead of vetoing the actions of just one player, vetoes all, even yours. So, not only can it not be targeted, enchanted, blocked, or damaged from sources controlled by opponents, its sources also won't interact with your permanents with this type of protection.

So, for example, your Progenitus cannot be targeted with a Giant Growth to make it even bigger. Or if you enchant your Hexdrinker with a Rancor and level it up to its maximum, which grants Protection from Everything to the creature, it will cause your aura to be detached and destroyed.

Auriok Champion

We've already mentioned this creature several times throughout the article, but it's for the reason that it's wonderful. Auriok Champion has protection against both black and red, being able to evade major removals and stop every major creature in Modern's Prowess decks without taking a single hit. All this progressively gaining life points, which against decks like Burn and Prowess is even more incredible, weakening the main means of these decks to win.

Whether on the sideboard or even on the main deck, Auriok Champion manages to hold the bar of games that were supposed to be faster, giving you time to develop your game.

Shifting Ceratops

Shifting Ceratops is a card with plenty of skills and gets better with every line of text written on it, which is another way of saying it's a green card released in 2019.

Initially, the creature cannot be countered, which for a 5/4, capable of serving as a finisher in many games against control decks, becomes gigantic. Then enter the reason for it being in the article, Protection from Blue. By the mere presence of this keyword, Shifting Ceratops is protected against game-slowing effects such as returning to hand effects such as Snap, tapping target effects, and of course, blue creatures who are blockers.

Finally, the dinosaur's last ability allows you to pay a single green mana in exchange for new abilities for it. Against many flying creatures, such as Delver of Secrets's "flipped" form, your Ceratops can gain reach, being able to stop it in mid-air. Against blocks by small creatures, the dinosaur can gain trample, to deal that excess damage to the opponent's face. And, of course, it can attack as soon as it enters the battlefield if you have spare mana to grant it Haste.

Shifting Ceratops is a very interesting sideboard against control decks. It cannot be countered, it protects against creatures of the main color of the strategy and, among all the abilities it can gain, Reach is undoubtedly a great way to deal with the flying creatures that so permeate the battlefield of control decks, making it a great sideboard for your green decks.

Protection is one of the best mechanics for your creature to have in terms of versatility. It will keep it from opposing interactions, and none of them will be able to cast a single removal on your creature if it is properly protected.

Unfortunately, as we can see, it is complex and full of details. Wizards even used "hexproof from" for a while, which meant that only spells and abilities of the chosen color couldn't target permanents with that keyword.

Nowadays, protection makes a timid return in recent sets, allowing it to continue to be discussed at several tables.