“Hybrid mana” is incredibly flexible. Each hybrid mana symbol in a card’s cost lets you choose which color of mana you’ll use to pay for each hybrid mana symbol. For example, Rakdos Shred-Freak‘s cost is {B/R}{B/R}, which can be paid with BB, BR, or RR. However, the Shred-Freak’s colors are always black and red, even if you only pay for its cost with a single color of mana. This is because determining a card’s color is based solely on the colors found in its mana cost.

“Protection” is another very versatile ability. If a creature has “protection from [quality],” that creature can’t be Damaged, Enchanted/equipped, Blocked, or Targeted by anything with that quality (this can be easily remembered with the acronym/mnemonic “DEBT“). Protection from a color is one of the most common types of protection abilities (such as “protection from black”), but protection can also cover qualities like card type, card subtypes, and more.

At this point, you may be wondering what hybrid mana and protection have to do with each other. Not very much, as it turns out… they’re pretty distant cousins who don’t see each other very often.

But they do have one important interaction, which is that a creature with an ability like “protection from black” will be protected from anything that is black, even if it’s also another color. Rakdos Shred-Freak is always black and red (no matter what colors of mana you spent to cast it). Although pro-black doesn’t care about the Shred-Freak’s red-oriented dealings, the Freak’s red half doesn’t give it a free pass. Pro-black will still smack the Freak down. As a result, Rakdos Shred-Freak can’t block or damage Knight of Glory, let alone enchant or target it…

Today’s Rules Tip written by Paul Baranay