Samite Blessing

The strangest take on damage prevention the white toolkit ever tried: instead of a one-shot spell or a static shield, it bolts a repeatable, targeted prevention engine onto a creature, who then has to tap to fire it. That tap cost is the real story, and it cuts against the grain of how white prevention usually works. Most of white's protection had been priced as instant-speed insurance (Healing Salve, the various Circle effects), where the value is reacting to a swing after blocks. This Aura keeps that reactive window but relocates it onto a body: because the granted ability only prevents damage "this turn," you leave the enchanted creature untapped through your own turn precisely so you can activate it on the opponent's turn, pre-aiming the shield at instant speed in response to combat or a burn spell. The "source of your choice" wording is the clever part, letting the controller name the specific threat they fear rather than a color or a spell type. The friction is structural: the protection lives on a permanent that must survive and stay untapped to do its job, so the Aura quietly prefers a defensive home, a wall or utility body whose held-back tap costs nothing you wanted to spend anyway. It reads as an experiment in turning prevention from a fistful of one-time spells into a permanent engine, and the upkeep that engine demands explains why the spells endured while this never caught on.