Hello awesome fans! I hope that your day is going awesomely well! Today I want to sequellize last week's Top Ten. this list was designed for all multiplayer formats like Commander, as well as Five Color, Highlander, and all other kitchen table formats.

In any multiplayer format, you have the potential to be attacked multiple times each round of your attack. In a base four player Commander Chaos game, that's three attacks that come your way for every one attack of yours. You need good defense to stay alive. Last week we looked at the best creatures to play defense, which makes sense since if they survive a block, they can always block three rounds of attacks each round. This week we'll be looking at the best non-creature cards that play defense. Also, this week we'll have five Honorable Mentions not three. Ready?

Let's get this thing started!

Honorable Mention #1 (#15 Overall) - Gossamer Chains

I love the Chains as a cheap 2-drop common enchantment that you can drop as early as the second turn and then just tap out and leave it out, and then bounce it to prevent all combat damage an unblocked dork would deal. Unlike many higher hitting stuff you don't have to hold out mana or keep something untapped like a dork or a land, you can just do your thing and then keep the Chains ready. I really like the Chains in an enchantment deck as your defense since you can cast it over and over again for cast of enchantment triggers like Mesa Enchantress which its color loves. No one ever tries to take out a Chains with a Disenchant effect, since it only works on one dork per attack. It only dies in mass removal, but if there is an attacker you can bounce it in response. Note that this only works on unblocked dorks, but not something that was blocked, so this is not removal or a combat trick. Let's be honest, did you forget about this thing? I bet! Next is a land and an artifact, but which ones?

Honorable Mention #2 (#14 Overall) - Prahv, Spires of Order AND Pentagram of the Ages

I love this duo in multiplayer formats. Prahv taps for colorless but has an Azorius color identity which reduces how often it can be played in Commander. It arrives untapped, but taps with 6 mana to prevent all damage from one source. The Pentagram drops four, taps for four, and prevents all damage to you from one source this turn. Did you notice the key words missing here? They do not prevent just combat damage or from creatures, but from any source.

Prahv is better since it'll stop all damage from one source to anything, like Blasphemous Act dealing damage to all creatures. But it costs two more to tap and requires two colors of mana. The Pentagram just prevents damage to you, but only taps for four, and it's colorless so you can run it in any deck no matter its color identity. I like playing the Pentagram with sweeps that hurt players like Rolling Earthquake since you can stop the damage to you. Since so many sweepers that are commonly played deal damage, just prevent it once from Prahv and you will stop so much other stuff. Like Mizzium Mortars. Then you can just use these as pricey Fogs that tap for four or six each. We also have two cards both from the Pre-Modern era hitting next.

Honorable Mention #3 (#13 Overall) - Safeguard AND Horn of Deafening

The enchantment costs five, and can be activated for three to stop all combat damage a dork would deal this turn. Unlike Gossamer Chains, this allows your stuff to deal damage if blocked, so you can kill attackers. Do that trick once with a 2/2 on a 3/2 that attacked, and no one will attack you as long as you keep three mana open and have blockers. Wanna be involved in the attacking and stay back to block and kill? Run vigilance dorks or an enabler like Brave the Sands in your color and you can block two attackers for each blocker.

Then you drop the artifact on turn four, three with a mana rock or ramp spell like Rampant Growth. It taps with two to stop all combat damage from a dork. Like the enchantment, it will let you deal damage back, it taps so it's a one use, but it's a cheaper cost and drop and colorless so it goes anywhere. This is a very strong combo of strong saving proportions.

Honorable Mention #4 (#12 Overall) - Spirit Mirror

In your upkeep, if there are no Reflection tokens then you'll make a 2/2. That gives you one turn to get attacked before your blocker arrives, and then you'll get a free blocker for the rest of the game. This can be activated for 0 to destroy a Reflection, so if someone has a Reflection token that would stop your creation just randomly, like the Changeling made by Crib Swap, you can destroy it to make your 2/2. You can also destroy any Reflection, not just tokens, so you can destroy anything with Changeling, or add this to an Azorius deck with Unnatural Selection to make them all Reflections for just one mana to die each time. It's fun in that shell with creature type matters stuff, but it's fine all on its own, and, again, no one will direct targeted removal here.

Honorable Mention #5 (#11 Overall) - Al-Abara's Carpet

Just hitting outside of our Top Ten is this Legends rare! It costs five and taps with five as well! This will prevent all damage done to you by attacking non-flyers this turn. Sure, it's a mana guzzler, but it's colorless and you can combine it with Green's Cultivate, Black's Cabal Coffers, Red's Treasure Making or White's Land Tax, or any mono-color's Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx abilities to ensure you hit your land drops. And it's worth it, since this will all combat damage to you this turn from a certain class of attackers (ground pounders) which is probably more than the four-mana activation of the Pentagram.

Note that this prevents damage to you, but not to your stuff, so you cannot trade. It's pretty strong at shutting stuff down, and with it untapped and five mana available, no one will swing your way with their grounded team when they could attack another. Hitting my Top Ten at the first spot is another Land, and from the same era as this Legends artifact.

#10. Island of Wak-Wak

Welcome to my Top Ten list! This Island doesn't tap for Blue, unfortunately. It doesn't tap for any mana at all! But what it does tap to do is reduce a flyer's power to 0, so it cannot deal damage in combat. Note that this works on attackers that come your way or blockers. Flying is very common in Commander on Commanders so you'll shutdown the Commander Damage kill option there with this land. Unlike some preventions this doesn't prevent anything, so you can kill on offense or defense with a powerless blocker or attacker, so you'll want to keep or swing into flyers to force creature losses or damage.

It's here at my back spot on this list for a couple of reasons. Firstly, it doesn't make any mana, it just taps. Nice since it's mana free, to use, but otherwise it's just not adding to your land count. Also note that it taps, so it's just one use per turn. Then finally it's here since it doesn't work on anything, just grounded stuff. It does work with the Carpet above and with #9 below. Ready for that card?

#9. Moat

Yup, this list has some pricey stuff on it, I hear ya! I cannot be objective with a list like this and disinclude (all made up words are my own) Moat or the Island because of their cost. Four mana, enchantment, non-flyers cannot attack! Not you, not your foe's, and not yours either. This shuts them all down! You can build around it with all flyers, just like Red with Earthquake effects, or run both in Boros. I love the power of this thing loads, but like the Carpet showed, there are a lot of flyers running around that will slip over the Castle's Moat. Also, unlike previous scoring cards, this has a huge target on its back by those with big ground pounders like Token decks or Simic Landfall. I love it loads in general multiplayer, but it won't affect many dorks, you have to build around it and it's a big target.

#8. Labyrinth of Skophos

This nonbasic land hits our halfway spot on our countdown! It's pretty recently printed, taps for colorless, arrives untapped, and taps for four to remove an attacker or blocker form combat. That's both better than some things and worse than others previously hitting. For example, if you attack with two 2/2s and a 2/2 is blocked, you could stop the trade and keep your 2/2 so it's effective offensive or defensively. You can stop anything, not just flyers or grounded stuff, so it's better than Island of Wak-Wak and Al-Abara's Carpet. But it just removes it from combat, so there is no way to kill with this in combat. In Commander you can easily hide this in your 40ish land base, but it does cost four mana to use, so it's here at my eighth spot, and it also takes four mana and taps to use, so it's just one of each round of players in multiplayer.

#7. Sunstone AND Glacial Crevasses

Check out this pair from the same set! The former drops on the third turn, you can spend two mana and sacrifice a Snow-Covered Land to Fog this turn, and any turn thereafter. Obviously, this wants a deck with a lot of Snow Lands, and it doesn't care which color. I like it with Green's ramping since it can sacrifice your ramped lands from things like Explosive Vegetation or Rampant Growth.

The latter also costs three and you can spend no mana to sacrifice a Snow-Covered Mountain for Fogging this turn. This is free, costs the same to drop, and just sacs that color of land. This duo is quite nice at shutting down problems from attacks in masse as long as you have a Snow Land to sacrifice. I love this pair loads and you see them in my Commander '95 variant of the format where you can only stuff printed up through the end of 1995. Next is an enchantment in White originally printed as an uncommon but shifted to rare later! But what?

#6. Story Circle

Our final card before the Top Five proper is this three-mana mono-White enchantment. This is the best Circle of Protection ever printed. It'll stop any color source from attackers that are unblocked, to any burn including your own. This will shut down the damage from any mono-color deck you encounter at the kitchen table. In a two-color deck, roughly half of their creatures and burn are prevented.

The issue is that most multiplayer games these days are Commander and thus usually multicolored to run more colors with the color identity rule. So that's less powerful in Commander where you may only shut down 20% of stuff. I also like this in decks alongside mass damage since you can prevent it to you for just a W mana, like with Hurricane and Force of Nature in Selesnya or Earthquake in Boros or Orzhov with Famine.

#5. Dueling Grounds AND Caverns of Despair

The Selesnya one costs three, and no more than one dork can attack and no more than one can block. That's everyone, you too! But if you stop that one attack with Horn of Deafening or similar effects you'll be good and nothing can get through. You can also leave back one dork to block, but why not attack with your best thing. I love this in decks that are only looking to attack with one dork, like Selesnya Big Stuff, Auras, Equipment, Voltron, or other Commander Damage brews.

The mono-Red one costs one more, is a world enchantment, and then two can attack and block, not one. Love the in the same brews as Dueling Grounds, and unlike Selesnya which is often about Aggro and Tokens, this is in the color of bigger stuff like the things I mentioned. Good pair to start off our Top Five with! Next is our only instant on today's list! But...what?

#4. Constant Mists

Welcome to the best Fog variant ever made! Then you can buyback this back for no mana, just sacrifice a land. It's like Sunstone and Glacial Crevasses but not requiring a Snow. It shuts down everything that attacked you in one spell. Since it's in Green, it's in ramp and extra land drops, so this is an easy price to pay. Once someone runs into it, they often will attack elsewhere with their hoard, although they might attack you with one dork only instead to keep themselves from overcommitting to an attack if you are running this and have nothing to block their one dork. Then you can just run your one dork defenses we mentioned above like Horn or the Labyrinth. Love this instant's power loads in multiplayer! Next at the three spot is another pair of enchantments, this time both uncommon!

#3. Propaganda AND Ghostly Prison

The cards that define the "Pillow Fort" archetype in Commander! Here, let me prove it: Ghostly Prison is the picture that defines the archetype on EDHREC. This pair has to be here! Each opposing critter that swings your way must pay two mana each! That's rough on go-wide brews that are common at the kitchen table like Tokens and Aggro. Then you can just prevent the damage on what came through at your face with your other prevention effects, which will gang up nicely to stop your foes from casting things. Note that this duo was templated before planeswalkers were printed so those can be attacked all day long. Instead of choosing between attacking you or casting things, they'll usually attack elsewhere and cast too. And this might not be the last place you see this taxing duo style hit on this list...insert hint here...

#2. Collective Restraint AND Sphere of Safety

...here is the last taxing pair in our list, in the same color combo! The Blue one costs four and has domain. Your foes cannot attack you save for one mana for each basic you control. In a two-color deck, this is your third Propaganda effect. In a three-color deck this is often three mana per attack. In a four or five color deck this can shut down almost all potential attacks. Just like the last two cards, it was printed prior to planeswalkers so your foe's can attack them, and this really shuts down attacks your way.

The White card costs one more, but you cannot be attacked unless mana is spent equal to your enchantment count. In that Top 15 Archetype that could easily be 6 or 8 per attack. I like this with any deck with 10 or 12 enchantments since they are harder to answer and often just sit around. Also, this was printed after planeswalkers, so it protects them too, and is the only one of these four to do so. This pair is very strong at the win conditions. What land pair hits the top spot?

#1. Maze of Ith AND Kor Haven

The land that was once so powerful it was restricted in Vintage! Could anything else make my top spot? Printed as a common way back in The Dark, the Maze doesn't tap for mana, just like Island of Wak-Wak, but it does tap to untap an attacker and prevent all combat from and to it to, so this isn't removal in land form. Also note that unlike what people think, its ability does not remove it from combat, so your unblocked Ophidian will still draw a card and your Guiltfeeder will force life loss that can kill. This is the best non-creature way to keep yourself alive.

But don't sleep on Kor Haven either. It taps for colorless and comes with a White color identity for Commander, and it prevents all combat damage that would be dealt by an attacker. Note that this will let you kill an attacker by blocking, unlike Maze, and it also doesn't remove from combat. The Maze doesn't take any mana to use, nor is in a color identity, but the Haven taps for mana so I consider them roughly equal. Use these on things that creak through the last four cards or past a Dueling Grounds or Caverns of Despair, or attacked solo around the sacrifice land Fogs of Sunstone or Constant Mists.

This pair tag teams wonderfully well with many cards in my Top Ten lists. They are Commander Classics with the Maze in 75,021 decks and the Haven in 14,248 decks at EDHREC. Like other lands on today's list, you are not losing much by running them in your land count, save for Maze since it doesn't tap for mana I run it not as a mana land.

And there we go! I hope that you enjoyed my two-week deep dive into the best defensive stuff ever printed. Go out there and play the right stuff to stay alive long enough to win! Because you cannot win until you don't lose!