Interaction and Protection
Interaction is anything that disrupts your opponents' plans. Protection is anything that keeps your own pieces alive. In practice, these overlap. A counterspell can protect your creature from removal or stop an opponent's combo.
Run 2-4 dedicated protection effects. This goes up to 6-8 for strategies like Voltron or Combo where specific permanents are essential.
Equipment-based protection
These stay on the battlefield and can be re-equipped as needed.
- Lightning Greaves — shroud and haste, free equip. You can't target the equipped creature yourself (shroud), so you need to move Greaves off, add other things, then move it back.
- Swiftfoot Boots — hexproof and haste, equip {1}. You can still target the creature. Slightly slower but more flexible than Greaves.
- Darksteel Plate — indestructible, equip {2}. Survives board wipes.
- Champion's Helm — +2/+2 and hexproof if the creature is a commander, equip {1}.
Spell-based protection
One-time effects that save your board or specific permanents.
- Heroic Intervention — 2 mana, your permanents gain hexproof and indestructible until end of turn. Green staple. Answers board wipes and targeted removal.
- Teferi's Protection — 3 mana, phase out everything you own. Nothing can touch you until your next turn. Answers everything.
- Flawless Maneuver — free if your commander is out. Your creatures gain indestructible until end of turn.
- Boros Charm — 2 mana, multiple modes including indestructible for all your permanents.
- Deflecting Swat — free if your commander is out. Redirect a spell or ability to a new target. Stops targeted removal.
Counterspells as protection
In blue, counterspells double as protection. If someone targets your combo piece with removal, counter the removal spell. This is one of blue's main advantages: you don't need separate protection slots because your interaction does both jobs.
How much to run
The amount of protection you need depends on how important specific permanents are to your strategy:
- Generic midrange / goodstuff: 2-3 protection effects. Your deck doesn't collapse if one piece dies.
- Combo: 4-6. Your combo pieces are your win condition. Protect them.
- Voltron: 6-8. Your commander has your entire strategy attached to it.
- Aggro / tokens: 1-2. Your board is wide, not tall. One removal spell doesn't set you back much.
If you're in blue, counterspells count toward these numbers. If you're not in blue, lean on equipment (Greaves, Boots) and green instants (Heroic Intervention).