The cards that give your creatures indestructible are mostly white instants you hold up for the turn someone casts a board wipe. Heroic Intervention protects every permanent you control for {1}{G}, Boros Charm does it for {R}{W}, and Flawless Maneuver costs nothing while you control a commander. Selfless Spirit and Archangel Avacyn do the same job as creatures: one sacrifices itself, the other flashes in. Indestructible means a permanent can't be destroyed, so "destroy" effects and damage don't destroy it. Below are 23 of these cards, grouped by how they work, with exact costs, what each grants to whom, and for how long. Colour identity is noted where it differs from the cost, because in Commander that decides whether a card fits your deck. For the keyword itself, see what indestructible does.
White instants: the board-wipe answers
White and green win with boards full of creatures, so a wrath hurts them most, and between them they print nearly every card here. White takes the lion's share: everything on this page except Heroic Intervention and Soul of New Phyrexia has white mana in its cost.
| Card | Cost | Type | What it grants, and to whom | How long |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Divine Resilience | {W} | Instant | One creature you control, or any number of them with the {2}{W} kicker | This turn |
| Restoration Magic | {W} | Instant | Hexproof too. One permanent for {0} more, one permanent and 3 life for {1} more, or all your permanents and 6 life for {3}{W} more | This turn |
| Duty Beyond Death | {1}{W} | Instant | Sacrifice a creature to cast it: your creatures, plus a +1/+1 counter each | This turn; the counters stay |
| Invisible Force Field | {1}{W} | Instant | Up to four permanents you control | This turn, then again next upkeep with rebound |
| Flawless Maneuver | {2}{W} | Instant | Your creatures. Free to cast if you control a commander | This turn |
| Unbreakable Formation | {2}{W} | Instant | Your creatures, and in your main phase a +1/+1 counter and vigilance each | This turn; the counters stay |
| Rootborn Defenses | {2}{W} | Instant | Populates first, then your creatures, the new token included | This turn |
| Your Temple Is Under Attack | {2}{W} | Instant | Your creatures, or instead you and an opponent each draw two cards | This turn |
| Ultimate Magic: Holy | {2}{W} | Instant | Your permanents. Cast after foretelling it, it also prevents all damage to you | This turn |
| Flare of Fortitude | {2}{W}{W} | Instant | Your permanents, with hexproof, and your life total can't change. Can cost a nontoken white creature instead of mana | This turn |
| Grand Crescendo | {X}{W}{W} | Instant | X 1/1 Citizen tokens, then your creatures, tokens included | This turn |
| Moogles' Valor | {3}{W}{W} | Instant | A 1/2 lifelink Moogle per creature you control, then your creatures, Moogles included | This turn |
When the wrath arrives, the three-mana team spells are close to interchangeable, so pick them for what else they do. Flawless Maneuver is the best of them in Commander, since you'll so often cast it for free. Unbreakable Formation becomes an attack spell in your main phase, the token makers add bodies before they protect them, and Your Temple Is Under Attack draws two cards for you and an opponent when nobody wipes. Divine Resilience and Restoration Magic scale with your mana: one mana covers your commander, the full price covers the board. Flare of Fortitude is the hardest to play around, since it can cost a creature instead of mana and be cast tapped out.
Green and multicolour instants
Green's only mono-coloured card here is the best one on the page. Heroic Intervention adds hexproof to indestructible, and that pairing is the point: hexproof stops the targeted exile and bounce spells aimed at your best creature, indestructible stops the wrath that targets nothing, and together they cover most of what a table throws at a board.
| Card | Cost | Type | What it grants, and to whom | How long |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Heroic Intervention | {1}{G} | Instant | Every permanent you control, with hexproof | This turn |
| Boros Charm | {R}{W} | Instant | Every permanent you control, as one of three modes. The others deal 4 damage to a player or planeswalker, or give a creature double strike | This turn |
| Ready // Willing | {1}{G}{W} (Ready) | Instant | Ready: your creatures, and it untaps them. Willing ({1}{W}{B}) adds deathtouch and lifelink, and fuse lets you cast both halves from your hand. Colour identity: white, black and green | This turn |
| Chance for Glory | {1}{R}{W} | Instant | Your creatures, plus an extra turn, and you lose the game at the start of that turn's end step | No end date, for the creatures you control when it resolves |
Boros Charm earns its slot on quiet turns as 4 damage to an opponent, and its indestructible mode covers lands and artifacts too. Ready untaps your team, so cast it after your attack and everyone is back up to block, though in Commander the card needs all three colours even if you only cast that half. Chance for Glory isn't protection at all. It's a last turn: cast it in your first main phase for two combats with an indestructible army, and make sure the table is dead before that extra turn's end step.
Creatures that sacrifice themselves, or flash in
Most of these you pay for on your own turn, so the protection costs no mana later, but everyone sees it coming, and a sharp opponent baits out the sacrifice with a removal spell before casting the real wipe.
| Card | Cost | Type | What it grants, and to whom | How long |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Selfless Spirit | {1}{W} | Creature, Spirit Cleric | Sacrifice it: your creatures. A flyer the rest of the time | This turn |
| Boromir, Warden of the Tower | {2}{W} | Legendary Creature, Human Soldier | Sacrifice him: your creatures, and the Ring tempts you. Until then, he counters any spell an opponent casts without spending mana | This turn |
| Selfless Glyphweaver | {2}{W} | Creature, Human Cleric // Sorcery | Exile it: your creatures. Its back face, Deadly Vanity ({5}{B}{B}{B}), destroys every creature and planeswalker but one you choose. Colour identity: white and black | This turn |
| Archangel Avacyn | {3}{W}{W} | Legendary Creature, Angel | Flash. When she enters: your creatures. When a non-Angel creature you control dies, she transforms at the next upkeep and deals 3 damage to each other creature and each opponent. Colour identity: white and red | This turn |
| Dauntless Escort | {1}{G}{W} | Creature, Rhino Soldier | Sacrifice it: your creatures | This turn |
Selfless Spirit is the staple: two mana, a flyer, and since the sacrifice is an ability, there's no spell to counter. Dauntless Escort is the same deal in green and white, and Boromir counters free spells while he waits, an opponent's Flawless Maneuver included. Avacyn is the creature you hold up like an instant: keep five mana open, flash her in when the wipe hits the stack, and if nobody wipes, flash her in at the end of the turn before yours anyway. One warning: sacrifice Selfless Spirit, Dauntless Escort or Boromir with Avacyn on the battlefield and she transforms at the next upkeep, after your indestructible has worn off, and her 3 damage hits your creatures too. Selfless Glyphweaver is exiled, not sacrificed, so its ability never flips her.
Two that do it again and again
Nearly everything above protects you once. These two keep at it.
| Card | Cost | Type | What it grants, and to whom | How long |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ultra Magnus, Tactician | {4}{R}{G}{W} | Legendary Artifact Creature, Robot // Legendary Artifact, Vehicle | On its back face, Ultra Magnus, Armored Carrier: your attacking creatures, whenever it attacks. You can cast it converted for {2}{R}{G}{W} | This turn, each attack |
| Soul of New Phyrexia | {6} | Artifact Creature, Phyrexian Avatar | {5}: your permanents, as often as you can pay. Once more from your graveyard, for {5} and exiling it | This turn, each time |
Soul of New Phyrexia fits any Commander deck, and with five mana open it protects your board every turn, with one more use waiting in the graveyard. Ultra Magnus protects attackers rather than a board: its Armored Carrier side attacks with haste, and everything attacking alongside it shrugs off combat damage.
What indestructible stops, and what still gets through
Indestructible stops anything that says "destroy", and it stops destruction by damage: a wrath that destroys every creature, a damage sweep however big, and deathtouch all leave an indestructible creature standing (Comprehensive Rules 702.12b), Avacyn's own flip and Deadly Vanity included.
It does nothing against the rest. Exile isn't destruction and neither is sacrifice, so an exile wipe or an edict goes straight through. A -1/-1 effect that drops toughness to 0 kills without destroying anything, and bounce just returns the creature to your hand. Read the wipe before you spend your answer: if it exiles, shrinks or bounces, save the instant.
Hold up mana or commit: which does your deck want?
- Instants are the surest answer, because you decide with the wipe already on the stack. The cost is mana left open on everyone else's turn, which is why the free and cheap ones matter: Flawless Maneuver with your commander out, Flare of Fortitude with a spare nontoken white creature, one-mana Divine Resilience or Restoration Magic.
- Creatures (Selfless Spirit, Dauntless Escort, Boromir, Selfless Glyphweaver) are paid for on your own turn and are easier to play around; Avacyn, who plays like an instant, is the exception.
- Repeatable permanents (Ultra Magnus, Soul of New Phyrexia) are slow and expensive, and they pay you back every turn they live.
A typical creature deck wants two or three: a whole-team instant, a cheap creature, and one more of whichever kind suits your mana. If your commander is green, Heroic Intervention comes first; if it's white, Flawless Maneuver and Selfless Spirit; if it's red and white, Boros Charm. With neither white nor green, Soul of New Phyrexia is the one card here you can play.
Ask Scry: cards that give your creatures indestructible
Results on . Scry ranks cards by what they do, not by their names.
- Soul of New Phyrexia {6}: {5}: Permanents you control gain indestructible until end of turn.
- Avacyn, Angel of Hope {5}{W}{W}{W}: Other permanents you control have indestructible.
- Heroic Intervention {1}{G}: Permanents you control gain hexproof and indestructible until end of turn.
- Selfless Spirit {1}{W}: Sacrifice this creature: Creatures you control gain indestructible until end of turn.
- Avacyn's Memorial {5}{W}{W}{W}: Other legendary permanents you control have indestructible.
- Bastion Protector {2}{W}: Commander creatures you control get +2/+2 and have indestructible.
Want only the instants, or only what fits your commander? The filter sidebar on the card catalog narrows the list by colour identity, mana value or card type. Getting Better Search Results covers the search and the filters, and how to build a Commander deck with an AI assistant walks through the whole build, from brief to legality check.
Frequently asked questions
Does indestructible stop -1/-1 counters?
No. -1/-1 counters don't destroy anything: they lower toughness, and a creature with toughness 0 or less goes to its owner's graveyard through a state-based action, not a destruction (Comprehensive Rules 704.5f). The +1/+1 counters from Duty Beyond Death or a main-phase Unbreakable Formation help a little, since a +1/+1 counter and a -1/-1 counter on the same creature cancel out (rule 704.5q).
Does indestructible protect against exile or sacrifice?
No. Only an effect that says "destroy", or lethal or deathtouch damage, destroys a permanent (Comprehensive Rules 701.8b), and exile and sacrifice are neither. Hexproof from Heroic Intervention, Flare of Fortitude or Restoration Magic stops an opponent's spell that targets your creature for exile, but not a wipe that exiles everything or an edict that makes each player sacrifice.
Can an indestructible creature die to zero toughness?
Yes. A creature with toughness 0 or less goes to its owner's graveyard, indestructible or not (Comprehensive Rules 704.5f), and since it went from the battlefield to a graveyard, it died (rule 700.4). Its death triggers happen as usual, and a non-Angel creature lost that way still flips Archangel Avacyn.
Does giving indestructible in response to a board wipe work?
Yes, as long as the wipe destroys or deals damage. Cast the instant, or sacrifice Selfless Spirit, while the wipe is on the stack: the last thing added resolves first (Comprehensive Rules 405.5), so your creatures are already indestructible when the wipe resolves. Only the creatures you control when the protection resolves are covered (rule 611.2c), which is why Grand Crescendo, Moogles' Valor and Rootborn Defenses make their tokens first.
Build the deck around them
Put your protection package into a Commander deck in the Mana Grove deck builder, and the Validation tab will flag any card your commander can't run, such as Archangel Avacyn in a mono-white deck. Create a free account to start; every plan includes the full deck builder, and plans and pricing shows what the paid plans add.
