Equipment!!
Now that Double Masters has been released, a bunch of the best "equipment matters" cards are getting reprints and becoming accessible for the first time in many years. Gone are the days of $75 Stoneforge Mystics and $30 Batterskulls, at least for the time being. However, it is difficult to properly capitalize on these cards in a riptide setting unless you're thinking outside of the box. After all, just because you can afford to put a powerful card into your cube doesn't mean you actually should.
Since Stoneforge Mystic's previewing in double masters and subsequent price drop, I've been thinking a lot about wether or not this is the type of card I want in my cube. I thought I would discuss some of the theory on equipments here just to give you all some ideas based on things I have worked out in my head one the last couple of weeks. You might be able to make use of some ideas I've discarded for various reasons.
Appeal to tradition.
In it's original application, Stoneforge Mystic usually functioned as a midrange or control finisher in conjunction with a Sword or Batterskull. Control decks can use the Mystic's tutor ability to grab what effectively amounts to a win condition and plop it into play at instant speed. Midrange uses the mystic to help cheat on mana and accelerate into bigger threats, also at instant speed. These decks were very powerful in constructed, to the point where Mystic had to be banned in standard and was banned in modern until very recently. While Stoneblade decks haven't made a huge impact in Modern, Legacy Death and Taxes uses a Stoneforge Mystic/Batterskull package as one of it's finishers.
The problem here is that a Sword/Batterskull package is usually too good for a Riptide style cube. Batterskull acting as a huge Vigilant Lifelinker that dodges removal usually causes it to take over the game in environments where the opponent isn't able to effectively dispatch the equipment. Even if a player does have removal for the Skull, their opponent can still just pay 3 mana and bounce it back to hand. Meanwhile, the Swords all give the creature holding them protection from 2 colors, which can cause players to be unable to deal with the big threat now staring them down. While these cards are great for constructed formats, they are overwhelming for many cubes.
Getting Aggressive.
While Stoneforge Mystic's traditional allies are generally skewed more towards the slow side of the spectrum, that doesn't mean the card has to be used that way. Many premium equipments slot very well into aggro decks. I would argue that Grafted Wargear and Heirloom Blade are the two best non-sword non-skull equipments in cube baring maybe Bonesplitter. They come down fairly early in the game, have low equip costs, and add a lot of combined power and toughness to the board. They even act as wrath protection, since the +3 power they add doesn't get destroyed by most board wipes. Being able to consistently have the Wargear and the Blade on time is very powerful. Stoneforge Mystic is a great way to ensure this happens.
However, two single cards are not enough to justify the inclusion of a narrow tutor. Luckily, there are a host of other great aggro equipments the mystic is all too happy to tutor. Ancestral Blade is a Grizzly bears which doesn't fully die to removal. It can be flashed in with the mystic's tap ability and be ready to attack without having to risk being destroyed by sorcery-speed removal.
Bonesplitter is a great card for a number of reasons. First, giving an ago creature +2/+0 in the early game is very good, especially if it has First Strike. Second, the card is great for helping a player use their mana efficiently. It can be played on turn one and equipped later, or played and equipped on the same turn. It's arguably better than having a 2/1 haste creature in a deck.
I've also had some success playing Vulshok Morningstar. The card is a lot like a Sword that trades 1 initial mana investment for no protections or damage trigger. Like Grafted Wargear and Heirloom Blade, the card provides Wrath Protection, adds tons of combined stats to the board, and doesn't die to most removal. I think it's definitely better than it looks.
There are a number of other great equipments which can support a Stoneforge package. Some options include more Bonesplitter-type equipments like Trusty Machete and Bone Saw, while Living Weapon creatures like Flayer Husk help turn the mystic into a creature tutor. Perhaps an aggro Stoneforge Mystic is the best way to use the card in mid-powered environments...
...Or not.
The most annoying part of the Swords cycle is not the +2/+2 buff they provide or the "whenever this creature deals combat damage to a player" trigger. These abilities just make the cards fun and interesting to play with. Rather, the annoying parts of the swords are the protections they provide. If I'm playing a Golgari deck and my opponent plays a Sword of Feast and Famine, it's going to be almost impossible for me to win the game unless I can find a way to deal with the sword. If I'm playing mono red and my opponent slams a Sword of War and Peace it might as well be game over.
What I've come to realize is that the protections are all that make the cards polar. Sword of Dungeons & Dragons has proven to be powerful, but not broken, in testing. This is because "Protection from Rogues and Clerics" doesn't stop players from removing the equipped creature and doesn't stop the equipped creature from being blocked by most things. This made me consider testing Sword of Body and Mind.
While Sword of Body and Mind does still have those pesky protections, it's only protected from the two colors which don't use much targeted removal to deal with threats. Green/Blue usually is trying to ramp into some big creature and hit the opponent with it until they stop moving. By the time a player has both resolved and equipped their sword, a U/G opponent might already have 7 or 8 mana and have a 12/12 in play. In addition, the color combination is likely to have some counterspells, artifact destruction, or colorless blockers. For these reasons, I think Sword of Body and Mind is not unfair in mid-power cubes.
Running the "fair" swords allows Stoneforge Mystic to be a playable midrange card again. While the protections these swords provide usually aren't relevant enough to effect the opponent's gameplan, they still effect combat by providing the equipped creature a powerful ability whenever it deals damage to the opponent. Stoneforge Mystic would still be better as an aggro card in this sort of environment, but now it becomes a reasonable card for midrange once again.
Can equipment be a deck?
Not really. The problem with Equipment.deck is that many of the payoff cards are too narrow to be worth playing in most cubes over other similar options. For example, Weapons Trainer is good at signaling "draft equipment," but it usually just ends up being a bad Honored Crop-Captain in practice. Sigarda's Aid is a literal do nothing unless a player has a lot of equipment in their deck. Many of the other equipment payoffs are far too expensive or have too low of a floor to be worth playing.
Despite the general weakness of most equipment payoffs, I think Stone Haven Outfitter might be worth playing. If a player can get between 3 and 5 (including living weapons and Ancestral Blades), the card could be good. After all, it effectively makes every equipment in a deck a mini skullclamp. There's a reason that card was banned, folks.
I wanted to talk about Acclaimed Contender here too, since it can be used to dig through the deck in search of an equipment. However, that card only works if it's controller also has another Knight in play. If one is doing a Knight tribal deck in their cube, play contender with any attempted equipment theme.
Some other cool stuff.
Although the "equipment matters" cards in red and white are not good enough to facilitate the formation of an entire archetype, it is absolutely possible to design the color pair in a manner so that a Stoneforge Mystic//Stone Haven Outfitter package is playable.
Flamewake Phoenix is one of my favorite cards to play in equipment decks. While the card is often at it's best in Discard/Madness strategies, it retains much of it's recursive value here. A Grafted Wargear can turn any random 1/1 into a creature big enough to bring back Flamewake Phoenix. While the red 3-drop slot is fairly tight competition wise, I think Flamewake Phoenix should be edging out other discard cards like Anje's Ravager and Magus of the Wheel if an equipment theme is present in the cube. I'd actually put it in over those cards anyway, but that's neither here nor there.
Like the Phoenix, these cards are improved by having an equipment around to get a small creature to 4 power. I don't think either of these cards see enough cube play, so I thought I'd mention them here.
Goblin Banneret, Legion Warboss, and Sunhome Stalwart are all greatly improved by having equipment around. Most cube's aggro sections have a lot of 2-powered creatures running around, meaning that it's sometimes hard for these cards to mentor anything when they attack. Even increasing their power by 1 with an equipment makes them much more effective at spreading the mentorship love around the board.
It goes without saying that cards with the word "artifact" on them get better when there's a deck which cares about a type of artifact in the format, right? These two cards can reap the size benefits of both their own abilities and any equipments they may be wearing very early in the game, leading to some scary damage output.
I mentioned this earlier, but First Strike creatures love equipment being around. A big creature with first strike is unlikely to die in combat to anything that isn't another large first striker or something with a huge but. Bonesplitter can basically turn a 2/1 into a 4/4 first strike, even though it doesn't actually increase toughness.
I was going to roll Akiri in with the first strike creatures, but I thought she deserved her own little blurb. Akiri, Line-Slinger is a cool card, but she's only good in decks with a lot of artifacts. However, if a player's deck has lots of equipments, she doesn't even need to be equipped to reap benefits. I'm not saying this card is worthwhile in cubes only attempting an equipment theme, but if Artifact are a wider part of your format as a whole and you want to try equipments, she's probably very good.
Conclusion.
I had no intention of writing a blurb this long when I set out to make a post today, but here we are. Stoneforge Mystic Equipment Packages should probably have a larger seat at our design tables now that it's more affordable. While running any of the Swords might be too good for some of the formats around here, an aggro Stoneforge Mystic is good in many mid-powered environments. A Boros Equipment subtheme is easy to support, and helps boost a lot of other fun cards and decks without requiring too much of a slot investment.
What are your thoughts on Equipment?
Thanks,
-GT
Revision 12/19/20 I removed a portion where I called Sword of Body and Mind's combat damage trigger the worst in the sword cycle. While I believe it is much lower impact than many people are giving it credit for, I think it's probably closer to the middle of the pack. Both Sword of Truth and Justice and Sword of Light and Shadow have weaker triggers, and there are a couple of others that have arguably lower impact. I still think the rest of the cycle is generally going to be better than Sword of Body and Mind in an average game as the protections they provide are more relevant. However, I should not have equated this to the power of the combat damage trigger.
