These are some of the more notable names we think of when it comes to protection effects. My question is, are any of them playable? (And at what level/size?) Initially, I was gonna make this a SCD about Shield, but then I realized that this is really about all of these cards to a certain extent.
Generally, I've understood the loose consensus to be that protection spells are bad, especially in tight, powermaxed lists. But why? And under what conditions does this implicit exclusion begin to loosen?
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Harm's Way is pretty decent. Sometimes it feels really underwhelming, but it can also perform really well since cube combat is less trick-dependent and the blocks are usually easier to figure out. Harm's Way is a good tool to screw those scenarios up, plus it can give some random reach to white aggro decks.
The protection spells you're listing seem versatile, because they can be used as combat tricks (to save a creature during combat), counterspells (to fizzle a removal spell), or as reach (making a creature unblockable by creatures of a certain color. The problem is that these scenarios are too narrow or too weak to be worth a card in your main deck compared to the alternatives. White is full of great removal spells, which I'd draft and play over one of these protection spells any day. I think WoTC has even tacitly admitted that this effect isn't really worth a whole card, because they keep printing them with different upsides to mitigate the loss of a card like Scry 1, Rebound, and drawing a card. Gods Willing was a great card in Theros draft, but only because that environment was full of Heroic creatures that also got a permanent buff from it. The only protection-from-any-color spell I'll probably ever run is Mother of Runes, because she's reusable and still only costs one mana. That's pretty much what it takes for this effect to be worth not only a card, but a cube card.
I think I get why you're interested in running this kind of spell, though. One of the exciting things about retail limited is the constant game of chicken that comes from an environment full of combat tricks, and this is missing from a lot of cube draft games so combat can be predictable. You might want to check out this thread on combat tricks in cube.
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Shining Shoal could also be considered, because it's free, and it has a way for stealing wins in certain situations.
There's also Reverent Mantra, which is a similar beastie (but hands the protection to all creatures, rather than just yours). It's definitely fun to resolve on your own turn, but Shining Shoal is probably the better defensive card (which I'd imagine is more the point of the thread).
These are some of the more notable names we think of when it comes to protection effects. My question is, are any of them playable? (And at what level/size?) Initially, I was gonna make this a SCD about Shield, but then I realized that this is really about all of these cards to a certain extent.
Generally, I've understood the loose consensus to be that protection spells are bad, especially in tight, powermaxed lists. But why? And under what conditions does this implicit exclusion begin to loosen?
I'm officially proposing we retire the word "insane" from the MtG vocabulary.
"The best way to be different is to be better" - Gene Muir
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And if you want damage protection, Harm's Way isn't terrible.
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I think I get why you're interested in running this kind of spell, though. One of the exciting things about retail limited is the constant game of chicken that comes from an environment full of combat tricks, and this is missing from a lot of cube draft games so combat can be predictable. You might want to check out this thread on combat tricks in cube.
450 card Peasant cube thread. Draft it here.
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There's also Reverent Mantra, which is a similar beastie (but hands the protection to all creatures, rather than just yours). It's definitely fun to resolve on your own turn, but Shining Shoal is probably the better defensive card (which I'd imagine is more the point of the thread).
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