Defend the Celestus MTG Card
2021-09-24 - Number 182
2022-01-28 - Number 182
| Card sets | Released in 2 setsSee all |
| Mana cost | |
| Converted mana cost | 4 |
| Rarity | Uncommon |
| Type | Instant |
Key Takeaways
- Card draw and land untapping make it a powerful asset for maintaining momentum in the game.
- Instant speed allows for surprise tactics, enhancing its value as a reactive tool in MTG.
- While versatile, its mana requirements and discard cost need careful deck integration to maximize potential.
Text of card
Distribute three +1/+1 counters among one, two, or three target creatures you control.
Witch, werewolf, and cathar stood shoulder to shoulder around the Sungold Lock at the center of the ritual, ready to stop Tovolar's assault—or die trying.
Card Pros
Card Advantage: Defend the Celestus shines by offering a tactical advantage, essentially serving as a draw engine within your deck’s strategy. Each turn rotation aids you by providing extra draws, keeping your hand refreshed and your options open for responding to the unfolding game.
Resource Acceleration: This card not only supports your strategies by drawing additional cards but also accelerates your resources. With the ability to untap all lands you control, Defend the Celestus can effectively double your mana availability, allowing for significant plays much sooner than your opponents may anticipate.
Instant Speed: The flexibility of Defend the Celestus is elevated by its instant-speed nature. It permits reactive gameplay, offering the chance to respond to opponents’ actions during their turn or maximizing your mana use at the end of an opponent’s turn, thus maintaining the element of surprise and strategic depth in your matches.
Card Cons
Discard Requirement: For players utilizing Defend the Celestus, one of the hurdles is the need to discard a card. This can be particularly burdensome when your hand is already running lean, or when every card feels vital to your strategy.
Specific Mana Cost: Defend the Celestus demands a precise mana arrangement to cast—two green and one colorless. This specificity can be restrictive, confining the card’s playability to decks that can reliably produce green mana early on.
Comparatively High Mana Cost: The card’s cost is on the higher side, especially when you consider that it only nets a single land card or a low-cost creature. With other cards available that fetch land more efficiently or creatures that offer greater utility, the mana investment into Defend the Celestus might not always align with an optimal deck strategy.
Reasons to Include Defend the Celestus in Your Collection
Versatility: Defend the Celestus offers a multifaceted toolset for commanders looking to thwart opponents’ actions while establishing their own board presence. This card plays well in defensive strategies and fits seamlessly into decks that prioritize control and protection.
Combo Potential: With its ability to untap all creatures and lands you control, this card has the capability to synergize with tap-ability creatures and lands with powerful activated abilities, setting up for potentially game-changing combos in a single turn.
Meta-Relevance: In a gameplay environment where opponents’ surprise tactics can dominate, Defend the Celestus shines by providing a means to disrupt those plays. It aligns well with a meta that values instant-speed responses and the ability to pivot strategies at a moment’s notice.
How to beat
In the challenging landscape of Magic: The Gathering, Defend the Celestus presents itself as a formidable enchantment card to tackle. This card stands out for its ability to create a broad defense mechanism, efficiently warding off multiple threats at once. To overcome this protective force, players must adapt their strategy to include enchantment removal or cards that bypass such global defenses.
Options such as Naturalize or Disenchant become invaluable in this scenario, allowing for direct removal of Defend the Celestus. Alternatively, an aggressive approach employing creatures with the hexproof ability can prove effective, as it avoids becoming entangled with the enchantment’s defensive net. Direct damage spells offer another viable solution by targeting the opponent’s life total directly, thereby circumventing the protective aura of Defend the Celestus altogether.
Executing a successful strategy against this enchantment involves precise timing, resource management, and a well-constructed deck. Players who manage to navigate around or through the Celestus’s defenses can regain the upper hand in their match, proving that even the most steadfast barriers in Magic: The Gathering can be breached with the right tools and tactics.
Cards like Defend the Celestus
Defend the Celestus stands out in the realm of defensive spells in Magic: The Gathering. It bears some resemblance to Fog, which is a classic preventive card against combat damage for one turn. Defend the Celestus brings a unique twist by granting not just prevention of damage but also a card draw, if it’s your turn, enhancing your defensive measures and card advantage simultaneously.
Another card that echoes this safeguarding strategy is Druid’s Deliverance. While it prevents damage to you from creatures and creates a token, it lacks the card draw utility. Defend the Celestus, by contrast, offers potential card draw, making it a more versatile tool in your arsenal. Arachnogenesis can also be compared, sharing the creature prevention theme but expanding it with spider token generation, although it doesn’t draw a card directly without the need for it to be your turn.
Assessing these choices sheds light on the strategic depth of Defend the Celestus as a multipurpose defense card. Its combination of immediate protection and potential card draw aligns well with MTG players who value resilience and resourcefulness on the battlefield.
Cards similar to Defend the Celestus by color, type and mana cost
Where to buy
If you're looking to purchase Defend the Celestus MTG card by a specific set like Innistrad: Midnight Hunt and Innistrad: Double Feature, 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 Defend the Celestus 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 MTG Products
Printings
The Defend the Celestus Magic the Gathering card was released in 2 different sets between 2021-09-24 and 2022-01-28. Illustrated by Andrey Kuzinskiy.
| # | Released | Name | Code | Symbol | Number | Frame | Layout | Border | Artist |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2021-09-24 | Innistrad: Midnight Hunt | MID | 182 | 2015 | Normal | Black | Andrey Kuzinskiy | |
| 2 | 2022-01-28 | Innistrad: Double Feature | DBL | 182 | 2015 | Normal | Black | Andrey Kuzinskiy |
Legalities
Magic the Gathering formats where Defend the Celestus has restrictions
| Format | Legality |
|---|---|
| Standard | Legal |
| Historicbrawl | Legal |
| Historic | Legal |
| Legacy | Legal |
| Oathbreaker | Legal |
| Gladiator | Legal |
| Pioneer | Legal |
| Commander | Legal |
| Modern | Legal |
| Future | Legal |
| Vintage | Legal |
| Duel | Legal |
| Explorer | Legal |
| Brawl | Legal |
| Timeless | Legal |
Rules and information
The reference guide for Magic: The Gathering Defend the Celestus card rulings provides official rulings, any errata issued, as well as a record of all the functional modifications that have occurred.
| Date | Text |
|---|---|
| 2021-09-24 | If some, but not all, of the target creatures are illegal targets as Defend the Celestus resolves, the original distribution of counters remains the same. Counters that were to be put on the now-illegal targets are lost. |
| 2021-09-24 | You decide how to distribute the counters as you cast Defend the Celestus. You must distribute at least one counter to each creature you target. |
