#1209: Protection
Update: 2025-01-24
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In this podcast, I talk about the history of the protection mechanic, starting from Limited Edition (Alpha) to present day.
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Transcript
00:00:00
I'm pulling away from the curb, gonna drop my son off at school, we all know what that means, it's time for the drive to work.
00:00:09
Okay, so today is all about the history of protection.
00:00:14
So protection is an ability that goes all the way back to alpha, and it has a very interesting history.
00:00:20
So I'm gonna talk all about protection today, and some of the mechanics have sort of came from protection, sort of later evolutions of protection.
00:00:28
Okay, so let's go back to the very beginning, because protection shows up in alpha, I believe it shows up on seven cards.
00:00:35
There are five cards known as wards that are, or as they give, that all in white, it's a cycle in white.
00:00:42
They get protection to each of the five colors, and there is white knight and black knight.
00:00:48
There are two two creatures in a first strike that are protection from the opposite color, so white knight, the picture from black, black knight's protection from white.
00:00:55
So the interesting thing about protection, so early magic, was a little more hand wavy on rules than the game would eventually become.
00:01:04
And the reason for that was when Richard made the game, he didn't expect it to be something that people were gonna play in tournaments, you know.
00:01:11
They give us more like, hey, you're playing your own home, and so Richard really saw it as the plus that like, hey, there's a feel these things have, and you can figure out how they work,
00:01:22
you know.
00:01:22
So the rule book would loosely explain things, but it just gave you the general sense.
00:01:27
And the idea of protection, I think protection, came from the idea of, like in a lot of other games, like dungeon drags and stuff,
00:01:37
there's protective magic.
00:01:38
You have magic that sometimes magic is used aggressively, and sometimes it's used defensively.
00:01:46
And there's a lot of offensive magic, but Richard wanted some defensive magic.
00:01:52
And so the idea of protection was pretty clear is, okay, well, I'm immune to this thing.
00:01:58
This thing, you know, I can't be harmed by such and such.
00:02:02
And the easiest thing, where protection started, and where it lasted for quite a while, I don't know the exact staff, but my guess is 90 plus percent of all protection is from a color.
00:02:15
So the idea of protection, early on, was, I'm immune to something.
00:02:20
And originally, I'm immune to this type of magic.
00:02:23
Well, I'm a white knight, so I'm immune to black magic.
00:02:27
What did that mean?
00:02:29
What did, immune to black magic mean?
00:02:32
So early on, it's sort of like, well, you can't be affected by spells of that color.
00:02:38
Oh, okay, but what exactly does that mean?
00:02:43
And they left a kind of vague.
00:02:44
And so they actually think about protection, an early magic.
00:02:49
Before, like, at some point, the six edition rules came around and started really defining things.
00:02:55
The six edition rules, for those who don't know their magic history, magic came out.
00:03:00
They had lucy, lucy rules.
00:03:02
And at some point, we're like, you know what, we really need to clean up these rules.
00:03:05
We need very tight rules.
00:03:06
And six edition was the first sort of real tightening of the rules.
00:03:11
And there are a lot of things that up until that point, there was a lot of, I mean, as you look at things, like that's the six edition, like, creature, say, creature on them.
00:03:22
And enchantments, you know, or as same enchantment on them, that, you know, there used to be summon, you know, creature type.
00:03:29
So like, summon goblin.
00:03:30
Like, how do I know when I destroy type of creatures?
00:03:32
And that goblin is a creature.
00:03:33
It doesn't even say on it that it's a creature.
00:03:36
So anyways, there's a lot of clean up.
00:03:39
But one of the, so the idea of protection early on was like, it can't be affected.
00:03:44
Spells of that color can't affect it.
00:03:46
Okay, what does that mean?
00:03:48
So, for example, one of the big questions early on had to do with wrath of God.
00:03:53
Wrath of God is a white spell.
00:03:56
Black knight is protection from white.
00:03:58
Okay, well, black knight can't be affected by white spells.
00:04:02
Well, then wrath of God can't destroy it.
00:04:03
And there was a point in time that was true.
00:04:06
That wrath of God could not destroy it.
00:04:09
But there are a lot of things that, for example, I remember the card that was one of the, there's a card in alphabet balance.
00:04:17
So balance says, I equal the number of creatures and lands and cards in hand, I believe.
00:04:27
So like I look at how many lands I have and then my opponent have to, or I say, whoever has less lands goes down to, like, you equal to the lesser number.
00:04:36
So if I have three lands and you have five lands, when you have to go down to three lands, you have to sacrifice lands until you're the same as me.
00:04:45
And so the idea was, okay, how, what does that mean?
00:04:51
Okay, so I have a black knight.
00:04:53
So now I'm going to use balance.
00:04:55
Okay, well, balance can't kill the black knight.
00:04:58
But what does that mean?
00:05:00
What if I have no creatures and all you have the black knight?
00:05:03
Well, I guess it can't destroy it.
00:05:05
So it stays.
00:05:07
Okay, well, what if I have one creature and you have black knight and another creature?
00:05:13
Are you forced to sacrifice the other creature?
00:05:15
Because it can't kill the black knight.
00:05:17
Like does the black knight count as one of the things that you, you know, when you have to choose, must you force to save it?
00:05:25
Or do you not have to choose to save it?
00:05:27
Because it can't be killed by balance.
00:05:30
And in fact, the whole idea of protection is the thing that made Richard had come up with the idea of targeting.
00:05:38
Right.
00:05:38
So in early magic, the word target goes back to early magic.
00:05:42
I don't think it's used as aggressively intimidating as the later was.
00:05:47
But something like terror to say destroyed target creature or non-black creature.
00:05:51
But the idea of targeting is, oh, well, a spouse who affects something has to choose it.
00:05:57
And so they came up with the idea of targeting.
00:05:59
And part of targeting was, oh, well, things protection can't be targeted if you can't be affected by you can't be targeted.
00:06:06
And so there's this thing that happened in early magic where they came up with this thing they called semi-targeting.
00:06:12
So there actually was a ruling for a while that let's say I play balance and my opponent has a black knight or my opponent plays balance and I'm black knight, whatever.
00:06:22
Balance does count the black knight as far as the number of creatures that are there, but it can't destroy black knight.
00:06:33
So let's say, for example, that I have a black knight and my opponent plays, if I have less creatures than them, they do count the black knight for the number of less creatures than them.
00:06:47
But if I have more creatures than them, I don't have to count the black knight.
00:06:51
I mean, the black knight can't be destroyed.
00:06:54
Let's say, for example, I have two creatures, one of which is a black knight and they have one creature and they cast balance.
00:07:01
Well, I have to pick one creature for the balance.
00:07:03
I'll pick my not black knight.
00:07:05
And then black knight shouldn't be destroyed.
00:07:07
Normally, oh, but it's not because I've got protection.
00:07:10
Or if I have a, so the idea of semi-protection was that it was aware of it, but it couldn't destroy it.
00:07:19
So anyway, there was a lot of rigmarole and a lot of weird like balance, a lot of weird things.
00:07:26
So when they got to six editions, they said, okay, we need to clarify what exactly this protection means.
00:07:32
So they decided the protection meant four things.
00:07:35
It's actually not one ability.
00:07:37
It's four abilities all tied together.
00:07:40
Okay, so the amount that it used was debt, D-E-B-T.
00:07:44
So first, it can't be damaged.
00:07:48
So what that means is any damage done to a creature by that color, the damage just reduced to zero.
00:07:54
So if I have a creature protection from red and you lightning bolt it, okay, well, it just reduces all the damage.
00:08:00
None of the damage gets done to red.
00:08:01
Now also, we'll get to target insects.
00:08:03
So lightning bolt's a bad example.
00:08:06
Let's say I do pyroclasm that does two damage to all creatures that damage is reduced to nothing.
00:08:12
Next, it cannot be in E, enchanted, equipped, or fortified.
00:08:15
So the idea is nothing can be attached to it that is of that color.
00:08:22
So if you have protection from white, I can't put an ore on you, that is white.
00:08:26
Or I can't put any ore on myself for you.
00:08:29
It's got protection from that.
00:08:32
And once again, the other thing to remember is early magic was very, the effect was very global.
00:08:39
Effects were very global and early magic.
00:08:40
So if my effect makes goblins better, it makes all goblins better, it's by any player.
00:08:45
So protection just said, "Hey, I can't be affected by anything of this color."
00:08:49
So that included your stuff.
00:08:51
The bee in debt is blocked.
00:08:53
I can't be blocked by creatures of that color.
00:08:56
And the tea is targeted.
00:08:57
I can't be targeted.
00:08:58
So if you have protection, I can't point a spell at you.
00:09:04
I can't damage you.
00:09:07
I can't attack you in any way.
00:09:11
And I can't be blocked by you.
00:09:13
So it's sort of funny that white and black night sort of are like these enemies each other, but they really couldn't ever come in combat with each other.
00:09:20
And they never fought each other.
00:09:21
Because the black night couldn't be blocked by a white night.
00:09:23
And then the white night couldn't be blocked by a black night.
00:09:27
So the interesting thing there, so this is where people sometimes get confused by protection.
00:09:33
Now let's go back to Rathagot.
00:09:36
Okay, Rathagot does not target.
00:09:38
It just says destroy all creatures.
00:09:41
So it's not a targeted effect.
00:09:42
So it's not the tea, right?
00:09:45
It's not damage.
00:09:46
Rathagot destroys.
00:09:47
It's not damage.
00:09:48
Like pyroclasm or if I had to spell that it did lots of damage to creatures, well, damage would protect that.
00:09:56
So if I do pyroclasm or a larger sort of effect them doing a lot of damage with red, will protection protect from that?
00:10:06
So the Rathagot is not, it doesn't attach anyway.
00:10:08
It's not enhanced or equipped or, you know, enchanted or equipped or thing.
00:10:12
And it has nothing to be blocking, right?
00:10:15
So the thing is once we define it, well, Rathagot can kill.
00:10:18
Protection doesn't save you from everything.
00:10:21
Because the idea of things not being able to affect you that don't directly do something to you was problematic.
00:10:27
And that's why the rules sort of arrange that.
00:10:29
So the idea is like, okay, I have a suite of things and that covers most things.
00:10:34
It's not like I said, the Rathagot is a good example where, hey, I can in fact with a white spell kill your black knight.
00:10:43
There's not a lot of spells that do it.
00:10:45
I can't pinpoint kill it.
00:10:46
I can't pacifism it.
00:10:48
But there is a way to get rid of it.
00:10:51
And so the other thing the protection does not do is protection doesn't save you from the sort of the game killing you.
00:11:01
So the most common that is reducing the toughness down to zero.
00:11:06
So let's say you have a white knight and I did some global effect that reduced your power and toughness.
00:11:16
I can't target it, right?
00:11:18
So I can't put an or on it.
00:11:20
But let's say I did something that put minus or minus one counters on everything or just did minus x minus x to all creatures.
00:11:26
That would destroy protection creature.
00:11:29
Because if you have zero toughness, the game, it's not the spell killing you technically.
00:11:34
It's the game killing you and the game doesn't care about protection.
00:11:38
So there is stuff like that.
00:11:40
So you can you can destroy something.
00:11:43
The reducing damage is not the same as reducing reduction of toughness.
00:11:49
So that doesn't stop that.
00:11:52
So anyway, the interesting thing was the reason protection existed in the first place was it was flavorful, right?
00:12:00
It was a cool flavorful word.
00:12:01
And the other thing that Richard did and protection is a good example is he said, hey, I don't make a mechanic, but it's something that's adjustable.
00:12:10
Like trample is just trample.
00:12:12
But protection was protection from quality.
00:12:16
At the time, in alpha, the quality was always color.
00:12:19
But it wasn't defined as colors.
00:12:21
We'll see.
00:12:22
He just just defined as inequality.
00:12:25
But in alpha, there was protection from each of the five colors, so the words had protection.
00:12:30
But it's interesting.
00:12:31
Alpha has seven cards with protection.
00:12:34
Six are white.
00:12:35
One is black.
00:12:37
And in fact, it's not till legends, which is the third expansion, that there's a non white or black card with protection.
00:12:44
White has always kind of been king of protection.
00:12:46
It's king.
00:12:47
White's the most defensive color.
00:12:48
So white was the best of protection.
00:12:51
Like I said, it had the wards.
00:12:53
Oh, another funny story was when, so the white ward in alpha says it and change pictures protection from white.
00:13:02
That's all it says.
00:13:03
But it turns out that one of the things that protection ended up doing is it keeps you from being targeted by white things.
00:13:12
So if you put white ward on something, it gained protection from white.
00:13:16
But then it knocked off anything.
00:13:18
So when I say you can't be equipped and chanted or fortified, I don't just mean you can't be targeted because obviously targeted covers that.
00:13:24
Let's say I give you protection, I grant you protection from white and you have a white in shaman or white equipment or white fortification, then it falls off.
00:13:34
And so the white ward originally had to be eroded.
00:13:39
It just you would put it on and then technically the game would knock it off.
00:13:42
It would knock itself off.
00:13:43
And then eventually said, okay, this protection doesn't get rid of this spell.
00:13:47
We had to sort of specify that.
00:13:49
So anyway, it's a white and black thing and then along comes legends and legends has the first red and green things with protection.
00:13:59
And then it's not the homeland that we get the first blue card with protection.
00:14:03
So what other rules of protection was as follows is an early magic.
00:14:07
White was king of protection.
00:14:09
White could have protection from any color.
00:14:11
And as you will see later white was taking protection from other things too.
00:14:15
And then each color was allowed to have protection from either itself, its own color or its enemies.
00:14:24
The reason it be its own color, like in legends, there was a card that wanted to damage, but it didn't want to damage itself.
00:14:31
So it had protection from red.
00:14:32
So it was kind of protected from red damage.
00:14:35
So we had left things sort of like, oh, why?
00:14:37
Because I'm attuned to my own color, I'm not damaged by my own color.
00:14:40
Or, hey, I'm an enemy, I'm fighting you.
00:14:43
So I have special magic to deal with my enemy.
00:14:45
So other than white early on, there wasn't that the only protection you got was for yourself or for your enemies.
00:14:54
You couldn't get protection from your allies.
00:14:56
It's a player we would do that, but we did not do that in early magic.
00:15:00
The other interesting thing is basically for most of early magic protection was only colors.
00:15:09
In antiquities, which is the second set, they made if they instead of using protection for artifacts, they sort of hand wrote things out.
00:15:21
You know, I can't be targeted by artifacts and stuff.
00:15:24
It's not actually until Earth is the legacy that we start doing actual protection from artifacts.
00:15:31
And I believe that is the first non-color protection that we did.
00:15:37
In some ways, artifacts, because early magic, we didn't do colored artifacts.
00:15:41
They were colorless.
00:15:43
The idea of protection from colorless, I don't know, because colorless is not a color, it felt weird.
00:15:51
So we ended up doing protection from artifacts, which was sort of us trying to capture the idea of protection from colorless.
00:16:00
So that was the first protection we did where it was something other than colors.
00:16:07
And in some ways, artifacts was kind of, I mean, not a colorless isn't colored, but it was still us playing in that general safe.
00:16:14
Although it was the first time we referenced creature types.
00:16:18
It's not until Odyssey that we would do protection from another creature type, which would be creatures.
00:16:25
On beloved chaplain.
00:16:29
The other thing that happened in Invasion, so Invasion was before Odyssey.
00:16:33
So we had protection from artifacts.
00:16:37
And then the next thing is we did a card in Invasion that a protection from Kavu.
00:16:41
It was protection from a creature type.
00:16:45
And then over the years, we've definitely played around.
00:16:48
There are a lot of different, you know, we messed around protection from players, like in Future Side, Sets Tiger.
00:16:55
It was a Future Shifter card.
00:16:58
What if players, what if you could get, what if players could get protection?
00:17:03
And then eventually we did, like, true name Nemesis, we had protection from players, and we messed around protection from everything.
00:17:11
I mean, we've definitely played around a lot of the space of what protection can be.
00:17:16
But the other thing story protection, to me, is, it is this weird thing.
00:17:21
Alpha mechanics were very much about flavor.
00:17:26
I think that most mechanics in Alpha didn't start necessarily as named mechanics.
00:17:32
It started as Richard wanting to capture some essence of something.
00:17:35
And one of them is remember, the idea of protective magic, the idea that magic could represent something that protected you and saved you was pretty cool.
00:17:46
And so there's not a lot of mechanics from Alpha that are still in the game.
00:17:50
I mean, flying is still in the game, trample is still in the game, first strike is still in the game.
00:17:57
And that might be it from the stuff that was in Alpha.
00:18:01
And even then, we don't use first strike a lot.
00:18:05
A lot of times use first strike on attacking these days.
00:18:07
We still do trample, and flying, obviously, is an all-star.
00:18:12
So what happened was, in six addition, we defined the rules for protection for the first time.
00:18:18
We say, OK, we make the debt rules and like, OK, this is what protection actually means.
00:18:23
And by the way, we actually finally made reminder text for protection.
00:18:28
So this is a reminder text, protection from quality.
00:18:30
This can't be blocked, targeted, dealt damage, enchanted or equipped by any quality.
00:18:36
And I think later they expanded like fortified stuff.
00:18:41
I'm not sure that.
00:18:42
Sometimes when we do reminder text, we don't hit every possible corner case just because we're not worried about that.
00:18:47
But it can't be nothing can attach to it.
00:18:50
OK, so in six addition, what happens is, we, for the first time, iron out the rules, we define it, we give the four definitions, like, here's what protection does.
00:18:59
And then, we remove it from the course at realize, this is too complicated.
00:19:03
Like I said, it's four different things.
00:19:04
And it is easy to forget some of those things.
00:19:10
Like I think most people would say, OK, I can't be affected by things.
00:19:13
They get targeting.
00:19:14
Maybe they get damage.
00:19:15
Maybe they even get equipped.
00:19:17
The idea that can't be blocked is something that I, it's not super intuitive.
00:19:21
And it also causes us some problems sometimes because it really, one of the things that we try to be careful with in our vision these days is making sure that particular text don't have no answer.
00:19:32
Like if you go back and look at early days when we did, like, fear or intimidate, fear could only be blocked by black or artifact creatures.
00:19:39
So if you just weren't playing black or didn't have artifact creatures, it was unblockable.
00:19:43
Then intimidate was that's fixing fear.
00:19:45
We were trying to say, OK, well, you can't be blocked by things that share this color artifacts.
00:19:50
But again, if you weren't having a mirror match, you just made it hard to interact with and eventually moved to menace because menace is more about how many not that shouldn't be covered.
00:19:57
So protection is a little of that.
00:19:58
So we don't tend to put protection in these days on super large things for that reason.
00:20:04
But anyway, so it gets removed from six addition.
00:20:06
Then a couple of course that's later back in nice addition.
00:20:10
We're like, well, man, we like more protection.
00:20:13
Protection is such a cool word.
00:20:14
Less more protection back in.
00:20:16
So we then put it back in the course that then imagine origins.
00:20:20
We said, OK, OK, OK, it's not going to be evergreen anymore.
00:20:24
We're going to make it deciduous.
00:20:25
Every set doesn't need protection.
00:20:27
It definitely has come complications.
00:20:30
And so we started saying, OK, we will use protection where we need it.
00:20:34
It's a tool.
00:20:35
It's very flavorful.
00:20:36
I mean, the interesting thing about protection is the fact that we still occasionally do protection shows like the value of flavor.
00:20:43
Because it is a complicated mechanic that we know time and time again we tested that just if you say the average player, what does protection do?
00:20:53
They don't have to learn the debt thing.
00:20:55
Most people can name some of what it does, but they can't name all of it.
00:21:00
OK, then in course at 2020 Aaron just loves protection.
00:21:06
He loves the name protection.
00:21:07
So he said, let's bring this back and let's try to make it evergreen again.
00:21:11
So we kind of put it what we call probation or his status that it like.
00:21:18
And like I said, I would argue that it's deciduous.
00:21:20
We just don't do protection everywhere.
00:21:22
It is a complicated mechanic.
00:21:23
And we have started coming up with other mechanics that kind of fill in the void that do some of what protection does.
00:21:30
So let's walk through those.
00:21:32
So first was shroud.
00:21:33
So in future site, we introduced on the future shift of cards, we introduced death touch and life link and reach and shroud.
00:21:44
So shroud first showed up in legends, a named in the idea of shroud was no one can target me.
00:21:53
So shroud was kind of like protection, but only the targeted part.
00:21:58
But it's all target things, not just that color.
00:22:02
So it's sort of like I protection from all colors, but only for the targeting part.
00:22:06
And it includes colors as well, I guess.
00:22:09
But the idea is so shroud like nobody can target me.
00:22:12
And we like that idea like it's a side like we part of what I realized after the fact is protection is just so complicated.
00:22:22
I think if we had to do it all over again, it's possible that protection might mean can't be targeted.
00:22:28
Maybe, maybe, maybe can't be damaged.
00:22:30
I don't think we put all that stuff in there.
00:22:31
We definitely wouldn't put blocked in.
00:22:33
But anyway, shroud is probably ready to shroud is magic had moved away from the globalness, like early magic, all effects were basically global.
00:22:42
Right?
00:22:43
If I made my goblins better, I made all goblins better.
00:22:47
If I did something, I did it to everybody.
00:22:50
And what we learned eventually is intuitively people believe like my spells are good for me and bad for my opponent.
00:22:55
And if I make goblins better, I don't make my opponent's goblins better.
00:22:58
And so we moved away, I mean, there are the occasional global effects, we still do global effects, but the default is your spells help you, your spells hurt your opponent.
00:23:08
There are times we break that rule that is not a hard and fast rule, but it is the default of how we do things.
00:23:15
And so the problem with shroud was people assumed, well, it's not my opponent stuff.
00:23:21
Now mine, hey, if I want to put an aura on my creature, why can't I?
00:23:23
Or if I want to giant group my creature, why can't I?
00:23:26
So people were playing shroud wrong.
00:23:29
So we came up with hex proofs.
00:23:32
So hex proofs first appeared in part three kingdoms, unnamed.
00:23:35
In fact, the first place that appeared with a name I believe was Dual to the Plainswalker 2012.
00:23:40
We then put it in the commander set and we put it in magic 2012 course set.
00:23:44
I think the first one had it by name in the course set.
00:23:47
And so hex proof is like, okay, I can't be targeted, but only by my opponent stuff.
00:23:52
I can target my stuff, not my opponent.
00:23:54
Even hex proof, though, proved to be just super powerful.
00:23:59
The idea is, if I ever can combine hex proof with a vision, there's not a lot of answers.
00:24:05
So the reason that if I put flying on a creature, you know, the reason you can answer that is maybe you have a flyer, but more so, you have, you can destroy creatures.
00:24:14
You can get rid of creatures.
00:24:15
So if I make a creature that you can't block, well blocking is the way that you deal with the most of the time.
00:24:21
Well, then the only other answer is to strangle the creature.
00:24:23
Sorry, strangle the spell.
00:24:24
So a hex proof said, well, you can't strangle the spell or, you know, or an ability.
00:24:29
And if you can't block it, how do you deal with it?
00:24:32
And so hex proof, we really have pulled back a lot on hex proof.
00:24:36
We do not use, you know, just like plain hex proof very often.
00:24:41
When we do, we tend to be on smaller creatures, and it's something that you can respond to.
00:24:45
It's something that you can, um, I mean, sorry.
00:24:50
We put it on small creatures where you can't react to it, but it's small.
00:24:54
So maybe, you know, it's a one-one unblockable.
00:24:56
It's nibbling away at you, but you have other answers, maybe getting some life.
00:24:59
The thing that you can't destroy is not, it's not game-ending, or at least it is game-ending, it's slow game-ending.
00:25:07
Then we said, okay, we need, we like having protective magic.
00:25:13
Shroud replays with hex proof, even hex proof, problematic at times.
00:25:17
Now, before I get to word, in hex proof, we did start doing, we started doing subsets of hex proof.
00:25:25
No, I don't have hex proof from everything.
00:25:27
I have hex proof from specific things.
00:25:29
And this is where we started mimicking a little bit of protection.
00:25:32
Oh, I have hex proof from a color.
00:25:35
You know, you can, yeah, you can enchant me, enchant me or equip me or block me or, um, damage me, but you can't target me because I have hex proof from you.
00:25:45
So, we started using hex proof in a lot of the places that we'd want to use protection, but we just wanted it simple, we didn't want, like we didn't want a lot of the baggage, so we did that, hex proof is done some of that.
00:25:55
So, eventually what we decided was, um, what we liked is the idea.
00:25:59
I mean, and this is kind of the same lesson we learned with Menace, which is, we want people to have answers in their deck.
00:26:09
We want, like, I want to make it harder for you, but not impossible for you.
00:26:14
Okay, it's not that you can't block me with any of your creatures, because you just have the wrong colors.
00:26:18
Menace says, hey, you just got to block me with an extra creature.
00:26:20
So, okay, I got to think about that, but every deck has the ability to blower most decks, I guess, not creatureless decks.
00:26:27
But most decks running creatures, which is most decks, you have an option that, like, you can think about it and there's things you can do.
00:26:34
So, the question we had was, was there a way to have protection that there is still answers to it.
00:26:40
It's not that I never could be targeted, is that it's harder to target me.
00:26:45
And so, we ended up, so we made a, we ended an unnamed ability for what we call as frost armor.
00:26:49
It was on, like, frost titan, diffusion sliver, which says, okay, it's not that you can't target me, it's that it's harder to target me.
00:26:58
Well, how do you make something harder to target?
00:27:01
Well, you make it cost more.
00:27:03
Or, you put additional cost.
00:27:05
So, the original idea of ward, like, frost titan was, it was extra mana, and I think it was two.
00:27:13
So, the idea of ward is, okay, we'll have ward, and we'll make it flexible, so we can put a number on it if it's mana.
00:27:21
So, the idea is, hey, if you want to target me, it costs extra mana.
00:27:24
And what I've shown it, which is really nice, is it allows things to have more protection in the early game, and there's answers in the later game, but it comes at a cost.
00:27:34
Okay, I can do that, but I'm using more of my mana.
00:27:35
It's a large, maybe I'm using my whole turn to get rid of it.
00:27:38
And it has an impact.
00:27:38
And the ward is proven very cool.
00:27:41
We like to work so much, the other thing we did was we said, you know what, let's let every color of access to it.
00:27:47
But, so we have some difference in flavor.
00:27:50
We let green, white, and blue, their default ward is mana, and then black and red, their default is life.
00:27:58
So, the idea with red and black is it's not that I have to spend extra mana on it, but it comes at a resource that I have, it comes at life.
00:28:05
And once again, we've played around with ward, much like we played around with protection.
00:28:11
Ward is open-ended, the cost doesn't have to be mana, like I said, it could be life, it could be other things, and so we definitely played around with a lot of costs there.
00:28:21
So, where do we live now, modern day?
00:28:23
So, protection is like I said, deciduous.
00:28:27
There are times and places we like it, definitely in more advanced sets, like you see it in like modern horizon typesets.
00:28:34
We will, if a set wants protection, we can use it, but we are very conscious of the weight of protection.
00:28:42
Protection is complicated, there's a lot of moving pieces with it, there's a lot of parts to it.
00:28:46
And so, the idea nowadays is we have protection, we like the words, it is flavorful, in the right place, in the right time, we will use it, but we are careful with it.
00:28:55
Oh, the other thing that we started to do with protection, since I'm almost wrapped up here, is we learned that protection actually was most interesting when it was temporary.
00:29:05
Like, we gave white spells, like shelter, where, oh, I can grant protection for the turn.
00:29:12
So, it's not that I, it's not like, oh, I had this protection, you can never deal with me, it's like, well, you're trying to storm my creature, hey, for the turn I can save it.
00:29:20
I'm trying to get this creature through, for the turn I could make it unblockable, assuming you have a single color blockers.
00:29:27
It ended up being really interesting, and that temporary protection actually proved to be much more useful.
00:29:35
So, interestingly, we use protection more, if you actually see it in premiere sets, it more often gets used as a temporary effect than as a permanent effect.
00:29:46
We do some on the permanent effect occasionally, it's not none.
00:29:49
But anyway, like I said, protection is definitely, it's funny from a historical standpoint.
00:29:56
There are a lot of decisions that got made early, like if we had to do again, we probably would do differently.
00:30:01
But, you know, things get grandfathered in, I mean, like I said, we keep trying to get rid of protection, and it keeps coming back, because the word is cool, and the flavor is cool,
00:30:12
and so, we've adapted it and tried to change it around.
00:30:15
So, we can make it work the best that it can.
00:30:17
So, it is, like I said, and it is one of the original mechanics that's still here.
00:30:20
It's fallen back to the citrus status, we don't use it all the time, we use it more temporary than permanent.
00:30:26
But, it's still exist.
00:30:27
And, the way you know the protection is pretty cool, is that we made shroud, we made hex or made ward.
00:30:35
There's something there that is doing this a fun part of the game.
00:30:37
We do like having protective magic, we do like, hey, I can help you from messing with my stuff to some level, and Matt is cool.
00:30:46
But anyway, guys, that, my friend Matt, is the history of protection.
00:30:51
So, I hope you guys enjoyed that today, but I'm at work.
00:30:53
So, we all know that means, in the end of my drive to work.
00:30:56
So, instead of talking magic, it's time for me to make a magic.
00:30:58
I'll see you guys next time.
00:30:59
Bye-bye.
00:31:01
