Veteran Bodyguard

A genuine artifact of Magic's first design era: damage-redirection as a static ability, written before the rules engine had clean language for damage replacement, blockers-as-walls, or the now-familiar "creatures you control" template. The card asks the opponent to solve a puzzle the surrounding cards were not built to pose. Attackers that get through are not blocked, but they are also not damaging you; they are damaging a 2/5 that stays untapped on defense and resets each turn. The tap clause is what holds the rate honest: send the Bodyguard in to attack and the redirection switches off until your next untap, which positions it as a defensive anchor rather than a lock piece. The body is sized accordingly. Five toughness survives most unblocked swings on its own, while two power keeps it from doubling as a clock. Note the precise scope: it intercepts only damage that would hit you, the player, not your other creatures, which is what separates it from later umbrella effects like Palisade Giant that shield the whole board. It belongs to a design line white kept refining: the protector creature, the redirect-on-a-stick. It shows the seam where the rules language of Magic's earliest years was still figuring out how to write "stand in front of the player" without keywords. A historical curiosity more than a played card, but a clean one: the rate is fair, the restriction does real work, and the design problem it solves is one white has returned to in every era since.