Fight as One

Most one-mana protection spells hit a single target and call it a day; the modal split here answers a very specific structural problem in a set built around a Human-versus-monster divide. The two lines are functionally identical (+1/+1 and indestructible), but choosing "one or both" turns a single white pip into either a targeted save or a two-creature blowout, and the phrasing means you can shield a Human and a non-Human in the same combat step. That "both" mode is the whole reason the card exists rather than a plain reprint of a generic protection instant: it rewards a board that straddles the two creature groups, letting a wrath or a chumped-into-death attack become a clean win when you can cover a threat on each side of the line. At instant speed, it fights on the stack against removal, blows out an unfavorable block, or pushes lethal through a board that expected trades. The +1/+1 is small enough that this stays a combat and protection tool rather than a finisher, which is the restriction that keeps the "both" upside from being oppressive. It is a tightly costed answer whose flexibility is gated entirely by whether your creatures happen to land on opposite sides of a tribal divide most decks never engage with.