Midvast Protector MTG Card
| Mana cost | |
| Converted mana cost | 4 |
| Rarity | Common |
| Type | Creature — Human Wizard |
| Released | 2012-05-04 |
| Set symbol | |
| Set name | Avacyn Restored |
| Set code | AVR |
| Power | 2 |
| Toughness | 3 |
| Number | 28 |
| Frame | 2003 |
| Layout | normal |
| Border | black |
| Illustred by | James Ryman |
Key Takeaways
- Midvast Protector’s ability to recover creatures offers significant card advantage.
- The card’s recovery of creatures can lead to indirect resource acceleration.
- Provides strategic advantage with instant-speed creature recovery.
Text of card
When Midvast Protector enters the battlefield, target creature you control gains protection from the color of your choice until end of turn.
"I cultivated my faith in Avacyn despite meager returns. Now my faith is repaid."
Card Pros
Card Advantage: Midvast Protector offers a meaningful boost to your hand by providing a creature that can also return another creature card from your graveyard to your hand. This kind of two-for-one deal can tip the scales in your favor by maintaining or enhancing your card advantage on the battlefield.
Resource Acceleration: While Midvast Protector itself doesn’t directly accelerate your resources, its ability to recover creatures with potent enter-the-battlefield effects can indirectly lead to resource acceleration. Retrieving creatures that generate mana or draw additional cards can be pivotal in ramping up your in-game resources efficiently.
Instant Speed: Although Midvast Protector operates at sorcery speed, its capacity to bring back instant-speed creatures from your graveyard provides a strategic edge. You can reinstate a key spell-caster during your turn, setting yourself up for a defensive or offensive play that can be executed at the speed of an instant on your opponent’s turn.
Card Cons
Discard Requirement: For those who wield the Midvast Protector, the battle often comes with a price. While its presence on the field may offer a comforting shield, enlistment requires you to throw another card into oblivion as part of its casting ritual. This sacrifice can sting, especially when the fortunes of your hand are already fading, and each card holds the potential to be the keystone in your strategy.
Specific Mana Cost: The sanctuary crafted by Midvast Protector is not one easily reached by all magic wielders. Its mana demands a devoted following, asking not just for a generic magical outpouring but also for the pure essence of white mana. This requirement can tether your deck-building aspirations, constraining them to a path illuminated by the light of white mana sources, or to the inclusion of versatile mana pools capable of meeting its particular demands.
Comparatively High Mana Cost: The mantle of protection the Midvast Protector offers does not come without its burdens. The expenditure of resources is considerable; a quartet of mana—one of which is strictly white—places a heavy weight upon your magical reserves. Weigh this against the tableau of possibilities within your grasp, and you may find that this protector’s shield, while sturdy, casts a long shadow on the efficiency of your mana utilization, particularly when other beings or spells could employ it with greater flexibility or impact.
Reasons to Include in Your Collection
Versatility: Midvast Protector fits nicely into a variety of white decks, where its role as a protector shines. With the ability to give another creature protection from the color of your choice until the end of the turn, it can be a game-changer in both offensive and defensive scenarios.
Combo Potential: This capability to selectively grant protection allows for potent combinations in both combat and with cards that might require targeting one of your own creatures without risking it being destroyed by spells of a chosen color.
Meta-Relevance: Given the prevalence of targeted removal in most metas, Midvast Protector’s instant speed protection can be crucial for maintaining board presence and safeguarding key creatures from being removed, which is invaluable in a competitive setting.
How to beat
Midvast Protector enters the fray as an intriguing card that offers a creature with both a defensive dimension and the benefit of bolstering another. Its main allure is in its ability to instantaneously reinforce another target creature by providing it with a substantial boost in toughness. This makes it particularly potent in decks built around creature longevity and resilience during battles. However, overcoming this stout defender requires a strategic approach.
To effectively challenge Midvast Protector, it’s wise to rely on removal spells that are not contingent on the target’s toughness. Direct removals, such as ‘Path to Exile’ or ‘Dreadbore’, bypass the toughness granted by Midvast Protector’s enter-the-battlefield effect. Moreover, widespread board clearance spells like ‘Wrath of God’ or ‘Damnation’ eliminate the need to focus on individual creatures, nullifying the Protector’s defensive enhancement completely.
Tactical adjustments also play a vital role – prioritizing the elimination of key threats over less significant creatures can sometimes render the Protector’s presence irrelevant. Strategizing to manage and ration your removal resources efficiently can thus prove to be a decisive factor in prevailing over decks that incorporate Midvast Protector and similar protective cards.
Cards like Midvast Protector
Midvast Protector offers an interesting dynamic to creature plays within Magic: The Gathering. Comparable to creatures like Guardians of Akrasa, Midvast Protector provides a presence on the board while also bolstering your defense. Yet, Midvast Protector steps forward with the added ability to give another target creature indestructible until end of turn — an impactful feature not found on the Guardians.
Looking to other parallels, Knight of the Holy Nimbus stands out with its flanking ability and a similar self-regenerating mechanic, yet it doesn’t extend protection to other creatures the way Midvast Protector does. Under its wing, Midvast Protector grants an ephemeral yet potent shield during critical turns. Then there’s the Stalwart Shield-Bearers, which boosts the toughness of each other creature with defender you control. Though they enhance defense capabilities of creatures, they lack the one-off indestructible gift that Midvast Protector can provide.
With this assessment, it’s clear that while some creatures offer pieces of what Midvast Protector brings to the table, its unique combination of defending another while affecting the board state carves out its own niche in creature-based MTG strategies.
Cards similar to Midvast Protector by color, type and mana cost
Where to buy
If you're looking to purchase Midvast Protector MTG card by a specific set like Avacyn Restored, there are several reliable options to consider. One of the primary sources is your local game store, where you can often find booster packs, individual cards, and preconstructed decks from current and some past sets. They often offer the added benefit of a community where you can trade with other players.
For a broader inventory, particularly of older sets, online marketplaces like TCGPlayer, Card Kingdom and Card Market offer extensive selections and allow you to search for cards from specific sets. Larger e-commerce platforms like eBay and Amazon also have listings from various sellers, which can be a good place to look for sealed product and rare finds.
Additionally, Magic’s official site often has a store locator and retailer lists for finding Wizards of the Coast licensed products. Remember to check for authenticity and the condition of the cards when purchasing, especially from individual sellers on larger marketplaces.
Below is a list of some store websites where you can buy the Midvast Protector and other MTG cards:
- eBay
- TCG Player
- Card Kingdom
- Card Market
- Star City Games
- CoolStuffInc
- MTG Mint Card
- Hareruya
- Troll and Toad
- ABU Games
- Card Hoarder Magic Online
- MTGO Traders Magic Online
See Magic products
Legalities
Magic the Gathering formats where Midvast Protector has restrictions
| Format | Legality |
|---|---|
| Commander | Legal |
| Legacy | Legal |
| Paupercommander | Legal |
| Modern | Legal |
| Oathbreaker | Legal |
| Pauper | Legal |
| Vintage | Legal |
| Duel | Legal |
| Penny | Legal |
