Rules: Protection, Explained with DEBT — What It Stops and What It Misses

Short answer first, then the reasoning — that is how rules questions deserve to be answered, because you usually need this ruling in the middle of a game.

The answer

Protection from a quality stops exactly four things, remembered with the letters DEBT: the permanent cannot be Damaged by sources with that quality, cannot be Enchanted or Equipped by permanents with that quality, cannot be Blocked by creatures with that quality, and cannot be Targeted by spells or abilities with that quality. Everything else gets through. A board wipe that destroys without targeting still destroys an unprotected-otherwise creature; exile and sacrifice effects that do not target are unaffected; and damage prevention is only about damage — a spell that makes a player sacrifice a creature does not care about protection at all. Protection is narrow and powerful at once: devastating against the four things it stops, silent against the rest of the game.

The cards involved, on their real text

Etched Champion (mana cost {3}; Artifact Creature — Soldier; 2/2; rarity: rare; most recent printing listed by Scryfall: Modern Masters 2015): Metalcraft — This creature has protection from each color as long as you control three or more artifacts.

Mother of Runes (mana cost {W}; Creature — Human Cleric; 1/1; rarity: uncommon; most recent printing listed by Scryfall: Commander Legends: Battle for Baldur's Gate): {T}: Target creature you control gains protection from the color of your choice until end of turn.

Build and check your list with the MTGBrew card database, and browse every card mentioned here in the MTGBrew Learn guides on MTGBrew.

If this topic is on your bench, keep going with Counterspell Explained: The Original Two-Mana Answer — it covers the neighbouring decisions from a different angle, and the two pieces together give you a fuller picture than either one alone.

Keep reading

Keep reading: Counterspell Explained: The Original Two-Mana Answer and Lightning Bolt in Modern and Legacy: Three Damage for One Mana.

Why this keeps coming up

Most rules confusion is really wording confusion: two game words that sound similar — destroy and exile, damage and life loss, target and choose — mean different things, and the difference is deliberate. When a ruling surprises you, read the exact words on the cards involved, in the order a judge would. Nine times out of ten, the text already contains the answer, which is why MTGBrew's guides quote oracle text instead of paraphrasing it from memory.

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