Planeswalkers, Burn, and Hexproof

By now, I hope we’re all familiar with the planeswalker redirection rule. This is the rule that says if a source you control would deal noncombat damage to an opponent, you can choose to deal that damage to a planeswalker they control instead. This is to get around the fact that something like a Shock can only target a creature or a player, and in most cases, a planeswalker is not a creature or a player. But there is a surprising Standard-legal card that can protect your planeswalkers – Aegis of the Gods. Since you have hexproof, your opponent cannot target you with Shock, meaning they won’t be able to damage your planeswalker with the Shock.

But there is one targeted burn spell that can get around the Aegis: Fated Conflagration. The Conflagration targets a creature or a planeswalker, so the Conflagration can target the planeswalker directly, instead of having to target the player first. Since the player isn’t being targeted, the Aegis will not help. In this case, you would need to give your planeswalker something like hexproof (like via Simic Charm) to save it from the Conflagration.

So, in short: to protect your planeswalker from Fated Conflagration, you should use Simic Charm to give it hexproof, or similar. If you want to protect your planeswalker from other targeted burn spells, you should use Aegis of the Gods to prevent them from targeting you and redirecting the damage to your planeswalkers.

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