Godsend vs. Hexproof or Protection

The new equipment Godsend is a very interesting card, which often also means it’s a bit confusing! It is a white equipment card (the first colored equipment), and it has 3 separate abilities.

The first is very straightforward: “Equipped creature gets +3/+3.” Nothing weird about that.

The second is a bit more complex: “Whenever equipped creature blocks or becomes blocked by one or more creatures, you may exile one of those creatures.” Ok, let’s explore this. Notice that the ability triggers when the equipped creature is blocked by “one or more creatures,” which means no matter how many creatures are assigned to block it, this ability only triggers once. Then, “you exile one of those creatures.” Notice that the word “target” doesn’t appear at all. This means hexproof doesn’t interfere. Also, since protection only stops Damage, Enchanting/Equipping, Blocking, and Targeting (D.E.B.T.), it does nothing to stop a non-targeted ability that exiles the creature with protection.

The third ability is also unusual: “Opponents can’t cast cards with the same name as cards exiled with Godsend.” This is a linked ability, meaning it references only the cards that were exiled by the second ability of this particular Godsend — If you lose Godsend after it exiles something, then later get another one (or return the same one), the exiled cards are no longer linked, and the new Godsend won’t even know about them. Note that this ability only prevents actual casting of cards with that name. It doesn’t stop cards from entering the battlefield any other way (e.g., from the graveyard, exile, hand or library). Also important is that this ability only exists on the artifact itself, so it doesn’t continue to affect the game after Godsend leaves the battlefield. As soon as Godsend goes away, opponents can resume casting cards with those names normally.

One other quirk with that third ability in Commander/EDH: If you exile someone’s Commander this way, the controller of the Commander can (and probably will) choose to put it in the Command Zone instead. That means there isn’t a card “exiled with Godsend” for the third ability to reference, and it won’t restrict that Commander from being cast.

Today’s Rules Tip written by Josh Stansfield

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