Protection mechanics have been part of Magic since the very beginning. The Wards, in Alpha, were five White auras that gave the enchanted creature protection from their re-spective colors. So, Red Ward gave protection from Red and so on. We also had perennial favourites, White Knight and Black Knight.

Protection continued for quite a while - too long, really - as the de facto "leave my creatures alone" ability in the game. It certainly did the job, and the flavour was evocative. The problem was that protection does its job too well. Cards like the Circle of Protection: Black cycle made it nigh im-possible for an opponent unlucky enough to be playing that color to play the game.

Shroud

Wizards of the Coast got the message at some point, because we soon got the ability that would go on to be known as Shroud. It wasn't given a keyword until later on, but the text "can't be the target of spells or abilities" was first printed on Svyelunite Priest in Fallen Empires.

Certainly, this is less powerful than protection (and Hexproof, but we're getting to that), but it led to some confusion among players. According to Mark Rosewater, players "understood that their opponents couldn't target their creatures but didn't get that they couldn't either."

Hexproof

This leads us nicely onto the title mechanic of the article. Hexproof, love it or loathe it, is an elegant solu-tion to the above problem. It neatly answers the question "what if we just made Shroud work how peo-ple think it works?"

Reading "can't be the target of spells or abilities your opponents control," Hexproof first came onto the scene with Innistrad. It was on one card, Angelic Overseer, and it was fine. The card was pretty good in Limited but saw no Constructed play. It was used sparingly during its early years, with Mizzium Skin being the first card using the mechanic to make a splash in Constructed.

Ironically, the deck that first put Hexproof on the map as an entire archetype is named after a card that predates the keyword. It was Slippery Bogle that led Reid Duke to the 2013 World Magic Cup final. Like Shroud creatures before it, Hexproof had been around for a long time, but 2013 was the first time that pro players put together a critical mass of creatures that are good with auras alongside good au-ras.

This is one of the biggest factors in why Hexproof is so strong: the ability to go all in on a single creature without having to worry too much about that creature dying. You still have to worry about sweepers, and to a lesser extent, sacrifice effects, but Totem Armor cards like Hyena Umbra go a long way towards getting around these downsides.

Zero-sum Fun

Unfortunately, the mechanic, when good, leads to game play that many players find uninteresting. By design, Hexproof makes interaction extremely difficult. This led to a lot of frustration and we soon began seeing conditional Hexproof and temporary Hexproof appearing in sets more often. It was still good on cards like Reaper of the Wilds and Dragonlord Ojutai, but the built-in fail states led to more back and forth game play.

Nowadays, the mechanic is used only rarely, and never on creatures with evasion. Mostly it appears on instants or auras with flash, to negate removal. The best example of this is Veil of Summer, which has seen a lot of play in many formats since it was first printed in Magic Core Set 2020.

The Future

While it hasn't entirely gone away, Hexproof has, for the most part, been replaced by Ward. Just like its predecessor, Ward neatly solves a lot of Hexproof's problems while retaining enough of the spirit of the mechanic it usurped. Similarly, it seems unlikely that we will ever go back: Hexproof is still an evergreen mechanic, but it is best used as a tool for creature decks to fight through removal rather than being an archetype in its own right.

It appears that Wizards agree, looking at how the mechanic has been used in recent sets. We see more and more "Hexproof from X" with cards like Elanda, Saint of Dusk and Niv-Mizzet, Guildpact. At the same time, temporary and conditional Hexproof is alive and well in cards like Defend the Rider and Basri, Tomorrow's Champion.

After over a decade in the game, Hexproof seems to have found its sweet spot. It is a strong mechanic, used occasionally in most (but not all) sets. We're unlikely to see an entire top tier deck built around the mechanic again, but that's probably for the best.