I know this blog mostly covers Standard and Limited, but I personally play a whole lot of Commander. One tricky thing that comes up there a lot is how you can slap Auras onto dudes with Hexproof or Shroud. The trick to it is that Auras only target when you cast them as spells. If you get an Aura onto the field, and bypass the stack, then all you need is something it can legally be attached to. No targeting required.

Because of that, you can, say, cast Sun Titan and bring back your Pacifism from the graveyard to put on your opponent’s Geist of Saint Traft and wreck his whole day, because at no point did the Pacifism need a TARGET.

However, this only works to avoid Hexproof/Shroud. It doesn’t get around Protection, because Protection stops four things: Damage, Enchanting/Equipping, Blocking, and Targeting. While using Sun Titan to slap a Dead Weight onto Geist gets around Targeting [so it dodges Hexproof], it does NOT get around Mirran Crusader‘s pro-black, since Crusader cannot legally be enchanted by a black aura.

Today’s Rules Tip written by
Trevor Nuñez, Level 1 judge from Roswell, NM