Magic Monday: Protect Your Commander

My Ygra deck is suffering from a lack of protection for my commander. I can make Ygra very large and impressive, but as soon as I get hit with removal, it’s just falling apart. This shouldn’t be a surprise, honestly. He’s a big kitty can quickly grow to an impressive size…

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That’s him as a 50/50 after surviving a board wipe!

The thing is, once he’s gotten to that size, I’m just left with a big target that will simply be removed. How then, do we protect our commanders?

Your commander is the heart of your deck, and keeping them safe can often mean the difference between victory and defeat. Losing your commander at a key stage of the game can be devastating, especially in a multiplayer game where opponents have access to a wide range of removal spells and board wipes.

In considering how to protect our commanders we have to consider spells, equipment, and strategy. Let’s start with some spells. There are countless cards that can be used, but here are just a handful of examples:

Mother of Runes or Brave the Elements: These white cards offer protection from specific colour spells, making it a great choice against common removal spells once you know what you’re facing.
Selfless Spirit: Another white card. This one provides indestructibility, ensuring your commander stays safe from some of the most common methods of removal.
Broken Fall or Molting Skin: These are functionally identical cards that fit very well into any green deck. They allow you to return the enchantment to your hand to regenerate a chosen creature. It’s great way to just bring your commander straight back onto the field after it is killed. These both feature in my frog deck.
Unhallowed Pact: This black card will give you a little bit of protection, allowing you to enchant your commander and then return him to the board once he dies.
Bolt Bend: This is a great red card that excels against single-target removal by allowing you to redirect a spell to a different target.
Counterspell or Negate: For blue players, you’ve got some classic counters to just shut down opposing spells.

Again, there are a ton of other spells (better spells!) that you can bring in, but these are just a few. They’re examples of the type of thing that you can use.

Next up, here are a few pieces of equipment to protect your commander:

Commander’s Plate: This is a pricey card that provides protection from any colour that is not part of your commander’s profile.
Champion’s Helm: This improves stats slightly whilst also giving hexproof.
Swiftfoot Boots: Provides hexproof and haste, making it harder for opponents to target your commander and allowing it to attack immediately.
Lightning Greaves: Similar to Swiftfoot Boots but with shroud instead of hexproof, making it even more difficult to target the equipped creature.

These are some of the most commonly used protective equipment artifacts. They’re staples in many decks. Heck, I’m writing this on Saturday evening, having just ordered another copy of Swiftfoot Boots to add to my Ygra deck!

Finally, here are some strategic tips for protecting your precious commanders:

Run Multiple Forms of Protection: Since different opponents will have different removal spells, it’s wise to have a variety of protection spells and equipment in your deck. Recently, my lack of enchantment removal was highlighted in my frog deck when poor Grolnok spent the bulk of the game as a forest. That was less than ideal.
Keep Your Commander in the Command Zone: Sometimes, the best way to protect your commander is to keep them in the command zone. Most commanders won’t have any impact on the game from there, but if you don’t need their specific abilities yet, why bring them out too early and leave them vulnerable? Keep them in there until they are needed, or until you can protect them.
Use Instant-Speed Protection: Yes, proactive and preventative protection is all well and good, but sometimes were needs to reactive. Cards like Brave the Elements and Blacksmith’s Skill can protect your commander reactively, making it harder for opponents to remove them. These protections are also hidden in your hand until use, giving you the chance to cause your opponents to waste good removal spells.

Some decks are a lot more reliant on their commanders than others. Without the commander, my frog deck doesn’t really work as intended, but it’s still possible to win. My miracle deck is totally usable without the commander, though it will be a bit slower. My Ygra deck, though? Very commander-reliant.

So, what are your favourite ways to protect your commander?

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