Stave Off
Instant
Target creature gains protection from the color of your choice until end of turn.
- CMC
- 1
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- W
- Rarity
- common
- Set
- Conspiracy
- Price
- $0.14
- EDHREC rank
- #15367
Stave Off is a one-mana instant that grants protection from a chosen color until end of turn — saving a creature from targeted removal, blanking a blocker, or stripping an Aura mid-combat. The ceiling is real, but the narrow single-target effect makes it a fringe include outside of dedicated protection strategies.
Format Analysis
Where it lives, where it can’t
| Format | Verdict |
|---|---|
| commander | legal |
| legacy | legal |
| modern | legal |
| pioneer | not legal |
| standard | not legal |
| vintage | legal |
| pauper | legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
In Commander, Stave Off competes against a crowded field of one-mana interaction, and protection-from-color effects lose value as four-player tables throw colorless and multicolor threats at you constantly. Pauper is where Stave Off earns its keep — white aggressive and hexproof-aura decks treat it as a legitimate combat trick and a way to punch through blockers. Legacy and Vintage have access to it but essentially never run it; the formats move too fast and demand interaction that affects the board state more permanently. It's a clean, functional card, but the format has to be right for it to do meaningful work.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.14 bulk tier
At $0.14, Stave Off is deep bulk — you're paying for cardboard and shipping, not the card itself. Price stability is a non-issue here; it'll sit in this tier indefinitely unless a competitive pauper deck suddenly puts it on a buylist.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.