Disease Defenses

DFPW/PDWP

The standard way of fighting Disease (other than countering it) is gesturing D/P or D/D on the turn before Disease strikes. One of these hands will get Paralysed, but the other can complete DFPW or PDWP 2 turns after the opponent's Clap, so the opponent can't counter it: 
DSFFFCxx
     Cxx

    DFPW
    PPxx

    DDxx
    PDWP
depending on which hand is Paralysed.

The problem with this approach, is that you're probably breaking whatever you were doing. If the opponent aborts Disease on the last turn (very likely given such a defense), you'll have broken your spells for nothing, while the opponent goes on with other spells.

Invis Dispel

I've seen a more subtle approach being used: prepare just one P, and when it (very likely) gets Paralysed to prevent PDWP, do the following: 
 
DSFFFCxx
     Cxx

    xxWSCDPW
    PPWSC
This seems foolproof at first sight: You go Invisible before your opponent can prevent it, and you are then protected until the final turn of your Dispel - curing the Disease in the nick of time.

Consider, however, the following reaction from the caster of Disease: 

DSFFFCSPPFD
     CxxSPFP

    xxWSCDP- 
    PPWSCxx-
During the Time Stopped turn, Invisibility is no defence against Antispell (or Amnesia, or Paralysis), which stops the Dispel.

Of course, if the opponent gestures S to start Time Stop, they don't gesture the more usual D/W or F/W offensives, and you can try to cure the disease in another manner.

Yaron

DPP/PDWP

Assuming your opponent has no further initiative over you than the paralysis that's built into disease, you should almost always have a foolproof defense available. So long as your gestures on the turn of the para are ANY combination of W, P, S, and D -- that is, they do not include F, claps, stabs, or null gestures -- you can ensure you'll have D/P the turn of disease. Cast Amnesia on the second turn. From there, the defense splits into three paths, depending on what your opponent does:

No WPP ready on turn 3 
DSFFFC
     C

     DPP
     PDWP
WPP ready on turn 3, other gesture is not W 
DSFFFCWPP
     C

     DPPDWP
     PDWPP
WPP ready on turn 3, other gesture is W 
DSFFFCWPP
     CxWW

     DPPCDPW
     PDWC

While this method will allow you to cure disease with 100% success, it isn't perfect. If your opponent goes WPP/xWW, he can hit you with WFP while you prepare the dispel. Even worse, if he goes WPP/DFF, you have the choose between defending para (and eating a bolt, if he goes for bolt) or defending the bolt (and dying, if he goes for para). The bolt version also segues into Para/FOD nicely, while you as defender are kept from using any of the good (more than two 50/50 shots) FOD defenses.

Disruptions (Recommended)

The best ways to defend disease involve hitting the attacker with a useful disruption on the turn of disease, or 2 turns afterwards, followed by an additional disruption. It is generally possible to set these up so that you have at least one disruption even accounting for the DSFFF para. Amnesia the turn of the clap works. Charm and Antispell work that turn as well as two turns later; you follow them up with another disruption and should then have no problem curing. These methods have the additional strength of disrupting any attacks your opponent tries to make after the clap. Charm and Antispell are also nice, as they leave you will very pleasant spellflow options.

For this reason, I find that disease is only a useful attack if I have completely drained my opponent of initiative -- and then, there are usually better attacks.

Defenses to Avoid

On rare occassions it might be useful, but clapping dispel the same turn as disease -- while it is a foolproof defense -- leaves you extremely open to attack if they dummy the disease.

Shotgun Curing, that is, preparing combinations of DFPW, possibly dummying into PDWP, and possibly clapping dispel at some point, can often work -- your opponent needs counterspells to defend the cures, but disruptions to defend the dispel -- but it relies entirely on luck. You should almost always have a better defense available.

Slartucker