Protection is not something you see in magic the gathering as much as you did in the past. There are a few reasons for this. The first is that the ability is only useful against certain decks making the cards that have it only valuable about 1/3 of the time because of this ability. In addition to this, when they were valuable they were a largely non interactive card since the point is that the opponent is unable to do anything unless he has another color to do it with.

To solve this the modern protection ability is shroud which simply gives the creature protection from being targeted, or a more active protection. Sygg, River guide uses the second type.

Sygg, River Guide is a rare legendary Merfolk wizard from the Lorwyn expansion set of magic the gathering. A 2/2 island walking creature for one blue and one white mana he has islandwalking and an ability that costs one colorless and one white mana and reads "Target Merfolk you control gains protection from the color of your choice until end of turn."

This is an ability that has been seen before on cards, but in general this ability was one that required tapping. That this does not, and that it can work on any merfolk leads to some very interesting possibilities.

The first of value is that you can wait to use it until after your opponent has acted. This is valuable because it can become an effective counter spell, but more important in some ways the opponent is unlikely to even try to do things if you have one white and one colorless untapped because they know it is unlikely to work.

The second point of value is that you can use this multiple times on the same creature. This means that if your opponent attempts to use a black spell on a creature you can use this, then if he tries to lightning bolt the same creature you can use it again. It can almost make creatures all but unblockable as you simply pay two or four mana to give your creature protection from every color the opponent uses.

In limited this is a card that can drive you into merfolk easily. If you see this card it is very worth picking up because it along with even one or two merfolk in play can become an almost unstoppable force as the game moves towards its end.

Learn more about this author, Elton Gahr.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.

---

Add your voice

Know something about Magic the Gathering card analysis: Sygg, River Guide?
We want to hear your view. Write now!