I just had to hope that my creatures were big enough to block it. It wasn’t a challenge to work around its abilities to see if I could get rid of it somehow. I remember the first time I had to face off against a monstrous Fleecemane Lion. A creature with hexproof is pretty much impossible to get rid of. The design team at Wizards felt like hexproof was a little too powerful and maybe a tad unfun. This change is directly related to the creation of the “ward” mechanic. Most new cards with the keyword, like Guardian Augmenter and Keen-Eared Sentry, give the ability to other creatures you control or even to you, rather than having it for themselves. Hexproof is used not as a keyword for the card but rather something it gives to you or other creatures you control. It’s always going to be a part of the game, but there’s been a slight shift in the way the ability is functionally used. Is Hexproof Gone from Magic? Why?Īquatic Incursion | Illustration by Jason Rainville It’s clearly a keyword that will show up for a while yet. Since it’s evergreen, you can expect to see it in just about every set on at least a few cards. Hexproof has been considered an evergreen ability ever since then and has showed up on a ton of cards in almost every set. The first physical sets to feature the keyword were Magic 2012 and Commander 2011, both released the same year as the Duels game. It wasn’t until 2011’s Duels of the Planeswalkers 2012 video game that the ability was finally granted a keyword. Some cards had the ability here and there from that point on. The first cards to have this ability were Taoist Hermit and Zuo Ci, the Mocking Sage. It would take another 12 years for hexproof to get a keyword. The first cards with this ability are from Portal Three Kingdoms. This was way before it got a keyword and even before shroud had its own keyword. I’m actually surprised how far back the first instance of the ability goes. And then hexproof came along to rub my mistake in my face. I mean, I wasn’t entirely wrong, but it’s not as broken as I used to think. I’d only been playing Magic for a few years and I thought shroud was one of the greatest abilities out there. I remember when the hexproof keyword first appeared. Hexproof only affects spells and abilities controlled by opponents, so you can still enchant, equip, or cast spells on your own creatures with hexproof. The main difference between hexproof and these is that both protection and shroud also stop you from targeting your own permanents. The other two abilities that give a similar type of protection are shroud and, appropriately, protection. So if you control an Aven Fleetwing and your opponent casts Shock, they can’t even put the spell on the stack pointed at your creature. Unless it has hexproof.īoth permanents and players can have hexproof, and things with hexproof can’t be chosen as targets by your opponents. Basically almost anything in the game can be a target. Depending on the ability, the target can be a creature, a planeswalker, a player, an enchantment, a spell on the stack, or an artifact. There are a lot of spells and abilities in Magic that prompt you to “target” something. In short, hexproof just means that a card can’t be targeted by any spell or ability controlled by an opponent. Blossoming Calm | Illustration by Michael C.
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