This came up for me on MWS:

http://entertainment.upperdeck.com/wow/com...ShowThread.aspx

There was no official UDE ruling, and the thread has lots of debate, but it sounds like an arconite dragonling can not protect itself from a sabotage.

Of course, If you had 2 arcanite dragonlings out, and they went to sabotage one, you could protect with the other, and it wouldn't get sabotaged (and your opponent would take 2).

there's a discussion about this in the official forums.

and I think (after a good 10 minutes of reading):

602.2b Only one character can protect each combat. A character can protect whether or not it can be attacked by the attacker. A proposed defender can't protect itself.

Because Arcanite Dragonling is the Proposed defender for the sabotage, it can't protect itself.

http://entertainment.upperdeck.com/WOW/COM...ad/1650930.aspx

edit: thats the same link >.< lol

the debate was caused by this rule:

602.3b If a modifier causes a character to “become a defender” during combat, that character starts defending against the attacker and the attacker starts attacking it. Both characters enter combat and are now in combat with each other. A sabotage combat stops being a sabotage.

It was explained then that the "become a defender" modifier cannot occur in this scenario because Arcanite Dragonling is not "becoming a defender" but has always been a defender from the beginning.