Again, were not preventing damage, but we are preventing death at least for a turn
Lycanroc's ability allows it to attach up to two Spiky Energy to it from the discard pile when it evolves, which allows it to be a consistent attacker, even if it was not set up on the previous turn
Winning is the endpoint, sure, but it's secondary to the experience
If it dies, you take direct damage, and your opponent can buff it even more in response to a removal spell
This ability reminds me of a rare in Red (Raging River) that was printed way back in Alpha that divided grounded creatures into two sides of a River and then they could only block or be blocked by that side, so this is a clear call back to that, but color shifted to Azorius, which makes no flavor sense to me
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