10 More Great Protection Spells for Commander
Author’s note: This is a sequel to an earlier article from 2023 that can be found here. I encourage you to read both of them if you’re trying to bolster the defense of your favorite Commander deck.
Commander is a format where the difference between victory and defeat can be as small as one well-timed board wipe or targeted removal spell. It seems like most Magic sets have new options in both of these categories, so it’s important to make sure that we’re prepared for the worst. We all want to give our favorite decks a fighting chance at getting to do the thing, so this article will go over 10 more great protection spells that can help you do exactly that.
I did want to specify that this list won’t be focused on cards like Counterspell because those cards do so much more than just protect you from board wipes. I’m also not looking at rattlesnake cards such as Boromir, Warden of the Tower. Cards like these are great, but I’m focusing on things that can be cast at instant speed to protect your board without telegraphing information. There are plenty of times when you want a board wipe or other removal to happen, but you don’t want it to happen to your stuff.
Now that the introduction is out of the way, let’s do this!
Blacksmith’s Skill
I love cards that say “target permanent” on them. Not only can this spell protect your commander or another important creature from being removed or destroyed, but it can also be used to protect any other permanent that you have. That seems like a steal for just a single white mana. I’ve seen this card win games by protecting the right permanent at the right time when everything else got removed to clear the way to victory.
I see Blacksmith’s Skill as similar to spells like Rebuff the Wicked, but with the added utility of getting around spells that can’t be countered or protecting you from things like Boseiju, Who Endures. It can also protect a keystone permanent from any sweepers that rely on destroying things. The versatility of this spell can’t be underrated, and it would also be pretty cool in some type of Dakkon Blackblade theme deck.
Guardian of Faith
This card confused me at first because it didn’t really remind me of the Dungeons & Dragons spell that inspired it, but it’s still a very solid piece of protection that can save your creatures from all manner of threats. Phasing is probably the most foolproof way to make sure that nothing bad happens to your creatures, because not every board wipe merely destroys creatures these days.
Farewell will probably only see even more play as an answer to recursive threads in Commander, so and you’ll be happy that you have a card that can help you beat it. After all, it’s not like there are a bunch of people running around with Disciple of Caelus Nin in their decks. I hope to keep seeing even more defensive cards that use phasing in the future, because it’s a very interesting design space.
Slip Out the Back
As we’ve seen more and more good targeted removal in Commander, these one-mana protection spells for a single target have really grown on me. It’s hard to argue with a spell that can put a +1/+1 counter on your best creature and phase it out to keep it perfectly safe from all manner or removal or sweepers. Blue doesn’t get too many defensive spells that don’t rely on countering spells on the stack, so it’s always nice to see cards like this.
Powerful sweepers such as Toxic Deluge and Cyclonic Rift will probably always be popular in Commander for clearing out the board when things start to get hairy. If your commander is the reason why things aren’t looking good, Slip Out the Back can protect it for a single blue mana while allowing the sweeper to do the good work of clearing out all of the problems that you don’t want to see. Sounds great!
Grand Crescendo
This is one of my favorite cards from the past few years. Beloved by token decks everywhere, Grand Crescendo pulls double duty as a board wipe protection spell and a mass token generator. I also love casting this to make a bunch of indestructible chump blockers because opponents never see it coming. Even if you don’t need the tokens, you could do a lot worse than two white mana to make all of your creatures indestructible.
While it’s excellent in most token decks, Adeline, Resplendent Cathar especially loves this card because of its utility because she has to rely on your board presence to grow bigger and you’re often a single board wipe away from disaster. It’s also pretty easy to cast this in the end step before your turn and have your Halo Fountain go from being a simple value piece to a game-ending threat.
Tamiyo’s Safekeeping
Essentially green’s version of Blacksmith’s Skill, this spell trades the boost for artifact creatures for the upside of gaining you two life. If you’re playing a deck that focuses on keeping your commander or another key permanent around, this is one of the most efficient ways to dodge targeted removal and all but the most vicious of board wipes. It reminds me of a scaled down version of an iconic green protection spell.
If you’re anything like me, you’ve probably found yourself casting Heroic Intervention to save just one important permanent quite often. That means that Tamiyo’s Safekeeping is pretty much right up your alley. While you certainly don’t need a specialized deck to want to include this spell, it’s one of many excellent cards that I’ve seen do wonders alongside the very cool Blanka, Ferocious Fiend (or his Universes Within counterpart).
And They Shall Know No Fear
If you’ve got a deck that includes white and focuses on a specific creature type, this card is one of the best ways to protect your creatures and it can even be used as a combat trick if you need a little extra damage in during the combat phase. I enjoy when protection spells can serve multiple purposes like this, so I even made a mono-white Humans deck this year specifically so I’d have an excuse to play this card (and Roaming Throne).
I play this card in my Celestine, the Living Saint deck and it feels pretty flavorful there, but the coolest place where I’ve seen it is in a Kutzil, Malamet Exemplar Cats deck, as a way to protect creatures during combat and enable the card draw even if there were no anthems on board. I expect it to be quite a while before And They Shall Know No Fear sees any kind of reprint, so I wouldn’t sleep on it while it’s still reasonably priced.
Surge of Salvation
What this spell lacks in protection from most sweepers is made up for by its versatility. Being able to give all of your permanents (and yourself) hexproof at instant speed for a single white mana is pretty powerful, but it also comes with damage prevention for black and red sources. This effect is relevant more often than you’d expect, since red and black have a good number of cards that deal damage to creatures.
There’s practically no greater feeling in a game of Commander than resolving this spell and knowing that your creatures are safe when an opponent casts an emergency Blasphemous Act. It’s priceless. That said, I wouldn’t underestimate the hexproof that Surge of Salvation gives to the player who casts it. I’ve blanked a potentially game-ending Intuition more than once because nobody expects white to interact that way.
Mithril Coat
It’s easy to see why Frodo was able to survive his journey in The Lord of the Rings. Not only did he have a faithful companion in Sam, but he also had a reliable Equipment spell with flash that made him indestructible…or something like that. This card feels tailor-made for Commander players, not that I’m complaining. Having more decent protection that isn’t color-restricted is always good.
I don’t think that I’m legally allowed to talk about Mithril Coat without comparing it to Darksteel Plate and wondering how many people cut that card when this one came out and never looked back. Rest in peace, Darksteel Plate. I think that this card is especially great when playing lightning rod commanders like Prosper, Tome-Bound that are in colors that lack many good ways to protect them from being destroyed.
Galadriel’s Dismissal
I believe that I said that I hope to see more defensive phasing spells earlier in the article. This one exceeded my expectations because of how useful it can be. You can choose to phase out a single creature for just one white mana, or you can phase out all creatures controlled by a player if you pay the kicker cost. It can even be used to target your opponents and their creatures if you need to put them in time-out!
Outside of saving your creatures from targeted removal or sweepers, Galadriel’s Dismissal is equally apt at stopping an opponent from making a ridiculous number of Inklings with a well-timed Inkshield as it is at saving the table from a Craterhoof Behemoth cast into a huge board. You’ll find so many great uses for this card in Commander that go way beyond simply protecting your creatures.
Legolas’s Quick Reflexes
I wasn’t banking on a holiday product with only a handful of new cards having two of the best protection spells in recent years either, but here we are. As long as you aren’t looking for indestructible, this card might be the cream of the crop when it comes to single-target protection spells due to everything that comes along with it. The split second also means that this card is all but guaranteed to resolve.
I’ve even seen this card perform at higher power tables tables with commanders like Selvala, Heart of the Wilds and Najeela, the Blade-Blossom that can benefit from the protection and the ability to deal damage to enemy creatures whenever they become tapped. This is definitely one of the coolest cards that I’ve seen in a while. It does a lot, but it doesn’t feel like it always does way too much for what you’re paying to cast it.
Thanks for sticking with me while I talk about a specific genre of cards that means a lot to me. I love creatures, so I hate when anything bad happens to mine. I hope that you’ll try out some of these cards in your own Commander decks. I think that most people don’t consider cards like this enough when building decks, which is why we’re often one board wipe away from disaster. Especially if that board wipe is an all-modes Farewell!
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