As you are into MTG, I think the card looks way more like "target creature gains hexproof" than "counter target spell".Originally Posted by psychobabble
I've been thinking about this a little bit more, trying to be more charitable to the card. It's hard, but I've found a way to justify it at least in design concept, if not execution (ie. maybe it could have potential if it cost 1 and was a neutral attachment rather than a 3 cost warrior card).
This game doesn't have counterspells. This card is sort of like counterspell for item destruction which just happens to be fundamentally terrible because instead of being a 1 for 1 trade, it's 1 for 0 - you're paying resources and a card to prevent something which might not even happen. It's also a stupidly narrow counterspell, instead of "counter target spell" its "counter target spell that targets one specific type of permanent you control." [plus, of course, they don't actually need to play that card]. Now that's some pretty awful text BUT (and this is a huge but), if you can create a game state where the only out your opponent's have is item destruction on your armour (ie the only thing that you'd actually want to counter is a removal spell on your armour) then it's actually an effective counterspell (apart from the whole 1 for 0 thing). Because you wouldn't counter any other spell anyway.
So, in short, the "design" of this card could be justified as a very narrow, and fundamentally weak due to its pre-emptive nature, counterspell. Because such a card is very weak, development should have costed it very agressively and made it as wide in application as possible. As I mentioned, something like cost 1, neutral attachment MIGHT get there. And also, the whole idea of preventative cards as pseudo counterspells could be a fruitful area to explore. "attached to a creature. this creature cannot be the target of by oppoent's spells or non-creature abilities" is like saving up negate or dispel for removal. But, it should always be kept in mind that because you're 1 for 0ing yourself with this type of card (ie. it's a completely blank play if your opponent either doensn't have removal, or has other targets for it and even if they do then they havne't spent any resources or cards like you have in playing this spell) they should be agressively costed.
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