Does Infect Beat Teferi’s Protection? The Definitive Answer
No, Infect does NOT beat Teferi’s Protection. Teferi’s Protection grants you protection from everything, which includes protection from damage. Infect modifies how damage is dealt (by giving poison counters instead of causing life loss), but it doesn’t circumvent the prevention of damage. Since protection prevents damage, regardless of its source or how it’s modified, Teferi’s Protection will effectively neutralize infect. It’s a powerful defensive tool against strategies relying on infect, making you virtually untouchable for the duration of its effect.
Understanding Teferi’s Protection and Infect
Teferi’s Protection is a powerful white instant spell in Magic: The Gathering that offers immense protection. It phases out all permanents you control, sets your life total to what it was before the spell was cast, and grants you protection from everything until your next turn. This includes protection from creatures, spells, enchantments, and any source of damage or targeting.
Infect, on the other hand, is a mechanic that changes how damage is dealt to players and creatures. Instead of losing life when damaged by a source with infect, a player receives poison counters. If a player accumulates ten or more poison counters, they lose the game. For creatures, infect deals damage in the form of -1/-1 counters, which can weaken or even destroy them.
The key here is that protection from everything prevents all damage. It doesn’t matter if that damage is intended to cause life loss or inflict poison counters; if the damage is prevented, no effect related to that damage (including the application of poison counters) occurs. This interaction makes Teferi’s Protection a strong counter to infect strategies.
Frequently Asked Questions About Teferi’s Protection and Infect
Here are 15 frequently asked questions to further clarify the nuances of how Teferi’s Protection interacts with Infect and other game mechanics:
Does Teferi’s Protection stop proliferate?
Proliferate doesn’t target a specific player or permanent, so protection doesn’t prevent it from adding additional counters. Teferi’s Protection protects you from being targeted, but Proliferate affects all players and permanents on the battlefield with counters on them.
Does Teferi’s Protection end your turn?
Teferi’s Protection does not end your turn. The duration of the effects depends on when you cast it. If cast during your turn, the effects last until the beginning of your next untap step. If cast during an opponent’s turn, the effects last until the beginning of your turn after that.
Can you lose the game with Teferi’s Protection active?
Yes, you can still lose the game while Teferi’s Protection is active. The card protects you from damage, targeting, and being enchanted. However, it doesn’t protect you from losing due to other game conditions, such as running out of cards in your library or certain triggered abilities that cause you to lose the game. The article mentions your Cloudsteel Kirin no longer existing, because it phases out as well.
Does infect cause loss of life?
No, infect does not cause life loss. Instead, when a creature with infect deals damage to a player, that player receives a number of poison counters equal to the damage dealt. If a player accumulates ten or more poison counters, they lose the game.
How do you counter infect?
Countering infect strategies involves preventing damage, removing creatures with infect, or simply winning the game faster. Removal spells are effective, but can be card intensive. Another way is to break the rules of Magic using spells, or even countering the spell.
Does infect trigger combat damage?
Combat damage dealt by a creature with infect is still combat damage. However, if that damage is prevented, none of the effects of that damage occur, including the application of poison counters.
Does infect bypass indestructible?
No, Infect does not bypass indestructible. Indestructible creatures are not normally destroyed by damage, however infect deals -1/-1 counters to them equal to the amount of damage dealt. If the creature’s toughness becomes 0 or less from those counters, it is then placed into the graveyard.
How does Teferi’s Protection work?
Teferi’s Protection grants the caster “protection from everything”. This means damage will not be dealt to the caster (unless that damage cannot be prevented), no targeted spells or abilities can affect the caster, and no enchantments can be attached to the caster. Additionally all permanents you control phase out until your next turn.
Does infect work with non-combat damage?
Yes, infect applies to any damage, not just combat damage. If a source with infect deals damage (through a spell or an ability), the receiving player or creature will receive poison counters or -1/-1 counters accordingly.
Does shield stop sacrifice?
Shield counters prevent permanents from being destroyed by damage, and removes one counter. However shield counters do not prevent sacrifices. You are still allowed to sacrifice permanents with shield counters on them.
Does Teferi’s Protection remove your spells from the stack?
No, Teferi’s Protection does not remove your spells from the stack. However, it does affect the permanents you control, causing them to phase out. This can have indirect implications, such as preventing certain triggered abilities from resolving if they depend on those permanents.
Does Teferi’s Protection remove curses?
Yes, Teferi’s Protection removes curses. Since you gain protection from everything, that includes protection from enchantments. One of the parts of protection from everything means that you can’t be enchanted by anything, so enchantment auras that enchant a player like curses would fall off as their target becomes illegal.
Can Atraxa proliferate suspend counters?
Yes, Atraxa can proliferate suspend counters, Loyalty counters and +1/+1 counters. You could choose to cast a card like Suspend and then proliferate those time counters every turn, forcing that creature to remain exiled indefinitely.
Can you proliferate indestructible counters?
Indestructible counters can be put on an object, including by “doubling” or “proliferating”, just like counters of any other kind. Indestructible counters make a permanent indestructible, which means damage does not destroy it.
Does protection stop Deathtouch?
Yes, protection does stop deathtouch. Deathtouch means that any amount of damage counts as lethal damage. But if that damage is prevented, then it won’t do anything to the creature being protected. The damage never happened.
Conclusion
In conclusion, Teferi’s Protection is an effective counter to infect. It’s a powerful tool for buying time, resetting the board state (through phasing), and negating damage-based threats. Understanding these interactions is crucial for strategic gameplay in Magic: The Gathering. For more in-depth analyses of gaming and learning, explore resources such as the Games Learning Society at https://www.gameslearningsociety.org/, and further refine your understanding of Magic: The Gathering strategies. This makes the card a valuable card to have in your arsenal!