Protect (プロテクト Purotekuto) is a Gift type based on impenetrable defense. It is represented by the color green.
When you first ride a unit with an Imaginary Gift: Protect icon, choose one of the following gift types and apply its effect. On any subsequent times you ride a unit with a Protect icon, apply that same effect. The two gift types associated with the Protect icon are:
Protect I: Add the Protect gift marker to your hand as a pseudo-card named "Protect." That pseudo-card has sentinel and the Perfect Guard ability ("[AUTO](GC):When placed, COST [discard a card from your hand], and one of your units cannot be hit until end of that battle.").
Protect II: Choose one of your rear-guard circles and put a landscape Protect gift marker on that circle, under any units on that circle. For the rest of the game, units on that circle get [Power]+5000 during both players' turns, and [Shield]+10000 if they are sent to (GC) to intercept. If multiple Protect II gift markers are on a circle, the unit on the circle gains the [Power] and [Shield] boost from each of them.
Clans with Imaginary Gift: Protect have a higher emphasis on utility. Many of these clans focus on drawing cards, hand filtering, retiring units, searching the deck and other abilities.
During the guard step of that battle that your unit was attacked, you may call the Protect card from your hand to the guardian circle like any other card.
While it exists in the hand or guardian circle, a Protect card can be chosen and affected by abilities, or used to pay for costs. For example, a Protect card can be discarded for a cost that requires one to discard cards from their hand.
While a Protect card is in the hand, it is considered to be a card, but not a unit card.
While a Protect card in on the guardian circle, it is considered to be a unit and a guardian.
The characteristics of Protect cards are:
They have the special type "protect," and do not have a regular type.
Their grade is "protect." The grade "protect" cannot be increased or decreased as a numerical value.
They have the effects listed above.
If a Protect card would be put into any zone other than the hand or the guardian circle, it ceases to exist. The gift marker representing it is put away, and can be reused later.
If a Protect card is put into the damage zone in exchange for another card in the damage zone, such as with the effect of Brisk Medical, Iruel, the Protect card disappears from the game, and the player has effectively "healed" a card from their damage zone.
Even though the Protect card has sentinel, it does not affect the number of sentinels you can have in your deck, as it is not included in your deck. The Protect card has sentinel for the purposes of cards that interact with sentinels like Dragonic Waterfall and Resolute Maiden, Chitose.
