Replacements - Teferi's Protection

Why is Teferi's Protection so expensive?

Teferi's Protection is perhaps the best "protect me and everything I own" card in the game. If you see an opponent holding up 3 mana with at least one white pip, there is a strong chance that they are waiting for you to attack them before popping it off.

It often turns the tide of a game. Imagine this scenario: It is turn 8+ and an opponent is threatening to kill the table. They have lethal on board, or at least enough to take 1 person out. When they go to combat and declare attackers, you cast Teferi's Protection. The other 2 players will likely be taken out, and the player doing the attacking is now shields down. When you phase back in on your next turn, you swing in for the win. Teferi's Protection is as much of a protect yourself card as a potential win condition.

This week, we are going to see if we can replace Teferi's Protection at a budget level! We are only going to look at cards that meet the following requirements:

• Protects your permanents
• Prevents our life total from changing
• Can be cast an instant speed

Levels of protection

In the way I think about things, there are 3 levels of protection your permanents can get.

Level 1 - Hexproof

Giving your permanents hexproof means they cannot be targeted by removal like Path to Exile, but they die to board wipes like Wrath of God or Nevinyrral's Disk.

Level 2 - Hexproof and indestructible

Permanents that are additionally indestructible means they will survive Nevinyrral's Disk, but creatures will die to Toxic Deluge because it gives them -X/-X.

Also, board wipes that return cards to your hand, like Flood of Tears, get around hexproof and indestructible.

Level 3 - Phased out

The best form of protection is phasing permanents out. This means they essentially leave the game until your next turn. Nothing can touch them. This is a big reason why Teferi's Protection is so good.

New kids on the block

Just this year, we got maybe the two closest impersonations of Teferi's Protection. From Bloomburrow, Perch Protection (Level 3) has essentially the same text. You get the added bonus of 4, 2/2 flyers to hit your opponents back with, too.

The downside is that you have to gift an opponent an extra turn. In practice, I would say that most gifts are pretty harmless. An extra turn though is devastating. Remember how I said that a benefit to Teferi's Protection is that casting it at the right time lowers your opponents shields? Giving them an extra turn means they can just hold back and set up to eventually take you out. Granted, you can give it to another opponent, but still, an extra turn is A LOT.

Flare of Fortitude (Level 2) is from Modern Horizons 3 and is a fantastic card that does everything but phase out your permanents. What could make this potentially better than Teferi's Protection is that you can cast it for free. In a pinch, you can sacrifice your commander for its alternate cost.

Changing requirements

Let us try dropping the requirement that our life cannot change. This opens up quite a few more cards!

Smuggler's Surprise (Level 2) gives all of your creatures, with power 4+, hexproof and indestructible. I love modal cards, because this has the upside, depending upon how much mana you have, to cheat 2 creatures into play and/or draw 2 in the right deck.

In dedicated +1/+1 counter decks, Mutational Advantage (Level 2) protects your permanents and proliferates the counters on them.

Join Shields (Level 2) is a card that I had never seen before. Hailing from Guilds of Ravnica, in today's EDH meta it is overcosted at 5 mana. But imagine playing this as a combat trick when an opponent sees your tapped creatures and attacks you. You cast Join Shields, untapping all of your creatures and using them kill your opponents' onslaught!

Set your phasers to stun!

Cards that just phase your creatures out have the downside where it leaves you open for subsequent attacks.

Gallifrey Falls // No More (Level 3) lets you phase out your board for just 3 mana.

From one of the most forgotten commander sets in New Capenna commander, Change of Plans (Level 3) phases your creatures out and lets them connive. If you have 5 creatures, that is 5 opportunities to dig through your deck for just the card to turn the tides on your next turn.

Final Rankings

Here is my final rankings of how close, and how good, these Teferi's Protection impersonators are.

1. Flare of Fortitude
2. Perch Protection
3. Mutational Advantage
4. Smuggler's Surprise
5. Join Shields
6. Change of Plans
7. Gallifrey Falls // No More

Cleanup

Another way to classify these cards are as fogs that only affect you. Fogs traditionally stop all combat damage for the entire table, but this year (as 4 of the 7 cards were printed in 2024), WOTC is showing that it is designing specifically for 4 player situations. In a 4 player game, you want your opponents to kill each other first and leave you alone, and cards like Teferi's Protection leave you protected in this very way.

When building decks, always look for cards that will save you in dire circumstances. Even though Perch Protection gives an opponent an extra turn, it also gives you one more opportunity to stay alive and find an answer. Change of Plans may cost a lot to save your entire board, due to the X in its casting cost, but even just saving your commander is better than losing everything. Who knows, that ability to untap just one more time may be the difference between life and death!