Protection is a static ability that names a quality and shuts four doors against it. A permanent or player with protection from a quality cannot be Damaged by, Enchanted or Equipped by, Blocked by, or Targeted by anything with that quality. The Comprehensive Rules call it "a static ability, written 'Protection from [quality].' This quality is usually a color (as in 'protection from black') but can be any characteristic value or information" (702.16a), and the reminder text on Spectrum Sentinel says the same thing in one line: "This creature can't be blocked, targeted, dealt damage, enchanted, or equipped by anything multicolored." The part the reminder text leaves out is the part players argue about: protection stops exactly those four things and nothing more, so a sacrifice, a "destroy all creatures", a minus-toughness effect or the legend rule walks straight through it.
This guide is part of our MTG keywords and mechanics glossary, the index of every mechanic guide on Mana Grove.
Below: the four clauses with the rule behind each, the mid-argument cases, what protection does not stop, how it lines up against deathtouch, trample, indestructible and ward, and the protection cards Commander players run, read from our card database.
The four things protection stops
Players remember them with the word DEBT: Damage, Enchant or Equip, Block, Target.
Damage
Rule 702.16e
Any damage that would be dealt by sources that have the stated quality to a permanent or player with protection is prevented.
Prevented, not reduced and not redirected. A red creature blocked by Auriok Champion, which has protection from black and from red, deals its combat damage into a wall, and nothing that rides on damage arrives either: no deathtouch, no lifelink for the attacker, no "whenever this creature deals damage" trigger.
Enchant or Equip
Rule 702.16c
A permanent or player with protection can't be enchanted by Auras that have the stated quality. Such Auras attached to the permanent or player with protection will be put into their owners' graveyards as a state-based action.
Rule 702.16d
A permanent with protection can't be equipped by Equipment that have the stated quality or fortified by Fortifications that have the stated quality. Such Equipment or Fortifications become unattached from that permanent as a state-based action, but remain on the battlefield.
Two different fates. Put Sword of Feast and Famine on a creature wearing Rancor and the green Aura is put into the graveyard, which for Rancor means straight back to its owner's hand. Give a creature carrying Embercleave protection from red and the red Equipment falls off but stays on the battlefield.
Block
Rule 702.16f
Attacking creatures with protection can't be blocked by creatures that have the stated quality.
One direction only. A creature with protection from red cannot be blocked by red creatures, but it can block red creatures all day and take no damage from them. This is why the Swords are half evasion and half armour: an attacker with protection from black and from green ignores every black and green blocker at the table.
Target
Rule 702.16b
A permanent or player with protection can't be targeted by spells with the stated quality and can't be targeted by abilities from a source with the stated quality.
Protection from black stops Doom Blade and the activated ability of a black creature alike, and it does not care who controls them. Your own black spells cannot target your creature with protection from black, and you cannot put Ethereal Armor on your own creature with protection from white.
What counts as a quality
Usually a colour, but 702.16a allows "any characteristic value or information": Yawgmoth, Thran Physician has protection from Humans, Emrakul, the Promised End from instants and Teysa, Envoy of Ghosts from creatures. "Protection from everything" on Progenitus is protection from each object whatever its characteristics (702.16j), and "protection from a player" on True-Name Nemesis is protection from each object that player controls (702.16k). "Protection from black and from red" on Akroma, Angel of Wrath is two separate abilities (702.16g), and a second copy of the same protection does nothing (702.16m).
How protection actually works
Gaining protection in response makes the spell fizzle
An opponent aims a black removal spell at your creature; you tap Mother of Runes or Giver of Runes and give it protection from black. When the spell tries to resolve, rule 608.2b rechecks its targets, and one it can no longer target is illegal: "If all its targets, for every instance of the word 'target,' are now illegal, the spell or ability doesn't resolve." It was not countered, so nothing that cares about counterspells notices, but its controller paid for nothing. Sejiri Shelter and Eldritch Immunity do the same job as instants.
Protection on a player
Teferi's Protection and The One Ring give you protection from everything until your next turn. You cannot be dealt damage or targeted, and no Aura can stay attached to you. Attacking is not on the list: creatures still attack you and their attack triggers still happen; only their combat damage is prevented. Life loss that is not damage is not on the list either, so "each opponent loses 3 life" goes through; Teferi's Protection covers that with a separate line, "your life total can't change", and The One Ring does not.
What protection does not stop
Protection stops damage, attachment, blocking and targeting from the stated quality, and nothing else. Three families of effects account for almost every dispute.
- Sacrifice. "To sacrifice a permanent, its controller moves it from the battlefield directly to its owner's graveyard" (701.21a). No damage, no target. Fleshbag Marauder and Grave Pact take a creature with protection from black exactly as easily as any other.
- Effects that neither target nor deal damage. "Destroy all creatures" on Damnation or Wrath of God destroys a creature with protection from black or from white, because the spell targets nothing and deals no damage; so do "exile all creatures" on Farewell and the overloaded Cyclonic Rift. Minus-toughness from a non-targeting source is the sneakiest member of the family: Toxic Deluge gives all creatures -X/-X, and a creature with toughness 0 or less "is put into its owner's graveyard" as a state-based action (704.5f) whatever it has protection from.
- The game's own rules. The legend rule, "If two or more legendary permanents with the same name are controlled by the same player, that player chooses one of them, and the rest are put into their owners' graveyards" (704.5j), applies to a legendary creature with protection from everything like any other, and so does every other state-based action, including lethal damage from a source without the stated quality (704.5g).
Protection versus the other keywords
Deathtouch
Deathtouch destroys "a creature with toughness greater than 0 that's been dealt damage by a source with deathtouch" (702.2b), and rule 615.6 says that "if damage that would be dealt is prevented, it never happens". A deathtouch source of the stated quality therefore does nothing to a protected creature. The reverse also holds: a creature with protection from green and deathtouch of its own kills the green creature it blocks and takes nothing back. The one exception is damage that "can't be prevented", which rule 615.12 says is dealt anyway.
Trample
Trample is about assigning damage and protection is about dealing it. Rule 702.19b makes the attacker "first assign damage to the creature(s) blocking it" until each has been assigned lethal damage, "not any abilities or effects that might change the amount of damage that's actually dealt". A red 6/6 with trample blocked by a 2/2 with protection from red must still assign 2 to the blocker, which is prevented, and may assign the other 4 to you, which is not. Protection saves the blocker, never the player behind it. A trampler with deathtouch tightens the squeeze, because 1 damage counts as lethal (702.2c).
Indestructible
Indestructible means the permanent "can't be destroyed" by damage or by "destroy" effects from any source (702.12b), but it can still be targeted, exiled or bounced. Protection stops targeting, damage, blocking and attachment from one quality, but not destruction that arrives without targeting. Against Doom Blade, protection from black and indestructible both work. Against Damnation, only indestructible does. Against Toxic Deluge, neither does; against Swords to Plowshares, only protection from white does.
Ward and hexproof
Three answers to the question "can you target this?" Ward is a triggered ability that counters an opponent's spell or ability targeting the permanent "unless that player pays [cost]" (702.21a): it taxes targeting rather than forbidding it, and it ignores your own spells. Hexproof forbids targeting outright, but only by "spells or abilities your opponents control" (702.11b), whatever their quality. Protection forbids targeting by the stated quality from anyone, you included, then adds the three clauses neither of the others has. None of the three touches a spell that does not target.
The protection cards Commander players run
Our card database holds 195 Commander-legal cards with the protection keyword: 68 white, 33 multicolour, 28 green, 26 black, 15 red, 14 blue and 11 colourless. Around 150 more Commander-legal cards grant it to something else, and that second group holds most of the cards that actually see play. These are the keyword holders Commander players run most, ordered by how often they appear in Commander decks.
| Card | Cost | Protection from | What it buys |
|---|---|---|---|
| Yawgmoth, Thran Physician | {2}{B}{B} | Humans | Immune to the Human commanders and blockers that fill the format |
| Karmic Guide | {3}{W}{W} | Black | Returns a creature from your graveyard and shrugs off black removal |
| Stonecoil Serpent | {X} | Multicolored | Reach, trample and immunity to every gold removal spell, at any size |
| Animar, Soul of Elements | {G}{U}{R} | White and black | Ignores Swords to Plowshares, Path to Exile and Doom Blade |
| Auriok Champion | {W}{W} | Black and red | A two-drop wall against the colours that destroy and burn |
| Akroma, Angel of Wrath | {5}{W}{W}{W} | Black and red | Six keywords, and the two colours most likely to kill her cannot target her |
| Mistcutter Hydra | {X}{G} | Blue | Cannot be countered, targeted by blue bounce or blocked by blue creatures |
| Baneslayer Angel | {3}{W}{W} | Demons and Dragons | First strike and lifelink on a blocker that Dragons cannot damage |
| Progenitus | {W}{W}{U}{U}{B}{B}{R}{R}{G}{G} | Everything | Unblockable, untargetable, undamageable, and still swept away by Toxic Deluge |
| True-Name Nemesis | {1}{U}{U} | A chosen player | One opponent can never block, target or damage it |
Then the cards that hand protection out, which is where the keyword really lives in Commander. The One Ring gives you protection from everything until your next turn when you cast it, and Teferi's Protection does the same for {2}{W}. Akroma's Will gives your creatures protection from each colour along with lifelink and indestructible. Mother of Runes grants a colour of your choice for a tap, and Giver of Runes does the same for another creature, colourless included, Commander's Plate gives the equipped creature protection from every colour outside your commander's colour identity, and the Swords, Sword of Fire and Ice and Sword of Hearth and Home beside Feast and Famine, each give two colours' worth. Akroma's Memorial gives your whole team protection from black and from red.
Want the full list rather than the top of it? Ask Scry for creatures black spells cannot target, and it searches on what the card does rather than on the word protection, so the granting Equipment and instants come back alongside the creatures.
Using protection in a deck
- In an Equipment deck, protection is evasion first. A Sword on your commander turns two colours' worth of blockers into spectators, and Commander's Plate turns every colour outside your commander's identity into spectators (702.16f), which is usually worth more than the damage it prevents. Pick the Swords whose colours match the removal at your table.
- One-mana protection is the cheapest insurance in white. Mother of Runes and Giver of Runes answer a targeted removal spell every turn for the rest of the game. Save them for the removal rather than a combat you were already winning.
- Do not count protection against everything. It fails against sacrifice, board wipes and minus-toughness, so a deck built around one protected commander still wants recursion. Animar dodges the white and black removal that ends most commanders, and Progenitus and Akroma make combat a formality; browse the Commander hub for each one's page. If you like keywords that punish blockers, menace pairs neatly with protection from a colour.
Frequently asked questions
What does protection from a colour mean in MTG?
The permanent cannot be damaged by sources of that colour, cannot be enchanted or equipped by Auras or Equipment of that colour, cannot be blocked by creatures of that colour, and cannot be targeted by spells or abilities from sources of that colour (Comprehensive Rules 702.16b through 702.16f). Nothing else changes.
Does protection stop "destroy all creatures"?
No. Damnation and Wrath of God target nothing and deal no damage, so protection has nothing to stop. Of the keywords in this article, only indestructible saves a creature from them.
Does protection stop sacrifice?
No. Sacrificing moves the permanent from the battlefield to its owner's graveyard (701.21a) without damage or targeting, so edicts go straight through protection.
Does protection from black stop a black creature with deathtouch?
Yes. All of the black creature's damage is prevented (702.16e), and deathtouch only destroys a creature that has been dealt damage (702.2b).
What happens to Auras and Equipment when a creature gains protection?
Auras of the stated quality go to their owners' graveyards and Equipment of the stated quality becomes unattached but stays on the battlefield, both as state-based actions (702.16c, 702.16d). A colourless Sword stays on.
Build around the rule, not the reminder text
Open a list in the deck builder and sort your creatures by what kills them. Grover can take a brief such as "my commander keeps dying to black removal, what protects it" and propose swaps in plain language, and the Suggestions tab, powered by Tutor, scores them against the rest of your list. Try the deck builder without an account.
Create a free Mana Grove account to build with the full deck builder and format legality checks, see plans and pricing for more time with Grover, Scry and Tutor, and read the rest of the MTG keywords and mechanics glossary, including indestructible and ward, the two keywords protection is most often confused with.
Sources
- Magic: The Gathering Comprehensive Rules, effective August 7, 2026: https://magic.wizards.com/en/rules. Read on September 20, 2026. Rule 702.16 (Protection) including 702.16a through 702.16g, 702.16j, 702.16k and 702.16m, rule 701.21a (Sacrifice), rules 704.5f, 704.5g and 704.5j (state-based actions and the legend rule), rule 608.2b (illegal targets), rules 615.6 and 615.12 (prevention effects), rules 702.2b and 702.2c (Deathtouch), rule 702.19b (Trample), rule 702.12b (Indestructible), rule 702.21a (Ward) and rule 702.11b (Hexproof) are quoted above.
- Mana Grove card database, MTGJSON build of September 14, 2026: the protection keyword, the Commander legality, the mana cost and the rules text of every card named above, the count of 195 Commander-legal cards with protection and its colour split, each card name counted once and a double-faced card by its front face, and the count of around 150 Commander-legal cards whose rules text grants protection. Commander play frequency is the deck-inclusion popularity rank carried in the same data.
This article is updated when the Comprehensive Rules change the protection entry or when a set adds a protection card worth listing. The date at the top is the last revision.