Long long ago I read an interview with a Magic designer, I think in the Duelist, and they said they designed while playing, and gave the example of "I'd be winning this game if I just had a 3/1 with Protection from Green." Twenty-some years later and I'm still waiting for it...

Some designer? : )

With regards to "Gift a tapped fish" being a single 'keyword', are the rules being written in such a way that Gifting in general can be referred to by other cards?

I.e. Something like "If a player gives another player a gift [do this thing]."Or will they have to refer to SPECIFIC gifting effects?Like, will "Gift a tapped fish" "Gift a Card" "Gift a Food" all technically be a different as First Strike, Trample, and Flying from a rules point of view?

They’re connected like protection connects protection from red and protection from instants.

Has it ever been considered to add being destroyed to the list of things protection prevents? I know it changes what the mechanic does, but it is WILDLY UNINTUITIVE that something like “protection from white” doesn’t protect a creature from something like wrath of god

Most destruction is targeted, so it matches intuition. The problem with untargeted effects is there isn’t a clean way for the rules to reference them. Trust me, we’ve tried.

How is a colored or hybrid ward cost all that different from “protection from [color]” or “hexproof from [color]”? I would argue it’s even a better design space, since other colors can still interact if they have something uncounterable.

Protection from [color} is only unanswerable from a monocolor deck, and even then it could have colorless artifacts that might have answers. Ward: [color cost] is unanswerable to every deck not playing that color.

Where is protection from everything on the storm scale?

It’s not something we want to do very often, but it’s not off limits.

Why does Resilient Roadrunner get protection from Coyotes? Protection entirely eliminates the need to run from them.

The Roadrunner runs because it enjoys running, not because it’s trying to get away from the Coyote. I don’t think it considers the Coyote a threat. : )

Could white get "Choose new targets for target spell or ability that targets a creature you control"? Bend or break?

I don’t think white gets that. It can grant a creature it controls protection to save it.

On the subject of Black Lotus: last night I decided to count up how many cards had the name of a colour in their name without being either that colour or colourless. White has 9, Blue has 4, Black has 7 (not counting cards with "blacksmith" in the name), Red has 10, and Green has 4. The only ones for Blue and Green are part of White protection cycles (the Scarabs, the Wards, the Circles of Protection, and the Runes of Protection). What I'm asking is when can we expect to see more cards with "Blue" and "Green" in the name that aren't those colours?

That’s not something we’re trying to do. Thanks for doing the research.

Hi Mark! Hope you’re well. How likely is it to eventually see cards that can’t be returned to the hand from the battlefield; like bounce protection?

We have hexproof, and to a lesser extent ward, to prevent pinpoint bouncing. Untargeted bouncing doesn’t happen a lot.

Hi Mark! One thing I really need to know: If/when (A Rune of Protection for Colorless so I can defend myself against Eldrazis and complete my collection 😀)

If on more Runes.